Facebook Autobiography Excerpts

All of this gave you the power to carefully create an image of yourself: a Facebookvpersona. I was hooked. Social networking became a way for me to attain what I had always wanted: a golden ticket to becoming part of the “in” crowd. Since everyone was constantly logged on, I knew they were watching me. I had to perform.

I posted notes with quotes from angst-y rock songs to show off the “blackness of my heart”, and status updates that reflected my teenage mood swings. I put up photos of underage drinking at bars that I had gotten into (with the ever so classy description: “Hell yeah, I didn’t get ID’ed”) along with other photos of me nonchalantly smoking cigarettes, because I was too “cool” for the law. (Apparently) There were dozens of photos I had taken of myself – different angles, different lighting, different locations – that revealed the amount of weight I had lost and my excitement at seeing my bones. Oh, and the infamous “status change” where I decided to announce my new found bisexuality to the world. I wanted so badly to present an image of badassery and rebellion: Facebook served as the perfect tool to reach my goal of projecting a “BAMF” image of myself. Although I still went to school with my too-short skirt, my heavily lined eyes, and a look of indifference on my face (I practiced in the mirror), I had to document and provide proof of the “cool” things that did.

Before I got my Facebook account I already had a RenRen account and a Kaixin account. They are both imitation of Facebook and are quite similar except Kaixin’s target users are office workers while RenRen’s are students. I got both accounts in 2008 after I got into high school. I found them randomly on the Internet and registered because I had nothing to do that day. I logged into my Kaixin account only once or twice since there was nobody I knew on it. I did not check RenRen 20 times a day at that time. In 2008, Social Networking Sites in China were still new to the majority and not many people used it.

So for a long time, the only thing I have in RenRen is a profile picture and some description about myself. I still use the same profile picture today, and my Facebook profile picture has also been the same one even though I started using them three years ago. It may be because what my mom and dad have been always telling me: do not put too much personal information about myself, but more importantly I think it’s because of the way I see the social networking sites and how I use them. Unlike some people writing posts about everything happening in their lives, I do not post actively much. I have seen some people’s entire homepages and just by the homepages I have an idea about their living habits, their relationship with family and friends, their life goals and plans. I do not want to show everything about my life to everyone on the internet, so I do not post much.

One interesting thing I noticed about my Facebook and RenRen is that although it is the same person, me, on Social Networking sites with similar function, what they show to other people about me can be remarkably different.

Facebook is more about posting photos and writing status of original contents while RenRen is more about sharing information. Of course, there are information about Starbucks and concerts on Facebook, but at least my Facebook explicitly reveals much more information about myself and my real life than my RenRen does. I have been more like an observer both in real life and on the internet. I read other people’s walls and learn what they are thinking and doing while I do not post much myself. Except my profile photo, I never uploaded a picture of myself. Through out these years, Facebook’s biggest meaning to me was helping me find my friends in other parts of the word who I haven’t spoken to in years. SNS made this kind of contact much less awkward than sending emails or making phone calls. That is the same for both Facebook and RenRen. However, on my Facebook, there are my photos of lantern night, mayday and some other random occasions. I did not upload myself, but I was tagged. It is the same for information like I worked in the Bryn Mawr Dining Service and became roommates with my roommate in August 2011. There is always someone around me reminding me to put even more information on Facebook. On the other hand, I feel safer in RenRen about my personal information. I do not have to provide information about where I work. Most of the time, the things on my wall are about the movie I just saw or photos took by someone else in a foreign country. This makes me feel more comfortable on RenRen than on Facebook, especially when RenRen is in my native language. Of course, people can still know a lot about me from RenRen if they collect information from every reply I wrote and everything I shared, but at least it takes a little more time than finding out about these on Facebook.

There is a psychological aspect to Facebook though. There is something thrilling and exhilarating about knowing that you have 500 friends or that ten people liked your status or you have two new friend requests and that three people commented on your profile picture. Yes these are all just random numbers but people live for this. Who doesn’t like logging in and seeing a little red bubble with some numbers in it? I know I do. People (including me) tweak status updates and pick profile pictures that they like in order to get a reaction. After all, Facebook is all about having this virtual personality. Sure I’ll delete the pictures I get tagged in and don’t like and yes I might delete a status that no one commented on or liked. I’m not necessarily changing who I am; I’m just trying to take away the parts of myself that I don’t like. 

Recently, Facebook has been updating and changing formats and layouts which I’m not in favor of. I personally am a creature of habit and am not very open to change. I didn’t update to the newest format of Facebook timeline until it automatically updated it for me on the last possible day. I also find it strange that as a user, I can choose who I want to see certain things and that I can group my friends into categories. I understand this may be a safety feature (especially for those who have lots and lots of friends) but I only accept friend requests from people I know personally as to avoid “creepers.” This being said, I have my profile set to what I believe to be the highest safety standards. When people try to find me they may find my page but they’ll only be able to see my current profile picture, my cover photo, and that I am a female. They also won’t have the option to add me as a friend. In order to add me as a friend, they must message me and then I’ll friend request them. My Facebook page doesn’t appear when you Google my name. I like having my personal information protected like this because it makes me feel safer/less likely to become a victim of internet scams or bullying. I’m also very reluctant to share personal information therefore I only have my sex, my education, and my birthday without the year. Again, this makes me feel safer and more apt to avoid being a victim of bullying. 

Facebook was definitely a part of my everyday life by 2008, and it stayed open on the computer as I finished homework, wrote articles for the school paper, and worked on my college applications. My wall was filled with funny posts from friends, questions about homework assignments, and pictures from regattas. Even back as a lowly sophomore, I was popular on the rowing team because I would post the gorgeous photos my dad would take at each of our races. I loved that upperclassmen would comment on the photos, and I bet that almost everyone on the team had one of my dad’s overhead shots of the boats coming down the river as their profile picture at some point. By fall 2008, I was a senior co-captain on the team, and we immediately set up a Facebook group as an easy way to send out information to all of our teammates. Facebook was also stressful during senior year, as people would excitedly post about all the schools they got in to, although I was guilty of that as well.

During the transition to college, having a Facebook was unbelievably helpful. I got to (virtually) meet my roommate before we moved in to Bryn Mawr, and plan out everything we would bring. Once I was settled in for the year, Facebook was definitely a great way to keep in touch with people and see what they’re up to, but I think it’s also a great way to figure out who your true friends are. I don’t really post on my closest friends’ timelines, or wish them “Happy birthday!” because I can do it in person, via Skype, or on the phone. With my closest friends, I can update them about my life and hear their stories by text or a real conversation, rather than posting short messages on their profile along with 50 “Happy birthday!” messages from people they won’t ever talk to again. 

I made my first Facebook on August 24^th 2008.  As I look back now it is weird to see all the old pictures and statuses I thought were “cool”.  With the new addition of Facebook timeline I can see my whole Facebook history, my first relationships and breakups, when I became friends with my best friends in high school, what parties I attended, things that I can not remember off of the top of my head Facebook has kindly archived for me and all my “friends” to see.

It was the beginning of my Sophomore year in high school and after attending an all girls catholic school my freshman year I switched to a smaller co-ed school.  As I remember it, my friends from my old girls school wanted me to “be social” as they put it. Make friends and maybe even meet boys for all of us.  My friends helped me get started and just like that I had my very own Facebook account with all of 5 friends. Quickly those five friends became 10, 50, 100, 200, 500!  It was amazing how many friends I had!  Some that I had not talked to for years and some that came over to my house each week and all were considered friends.  As my friend list grew so did my group of friends at my new school.  We focused on making the profile picture look perfect and all the other photo’s I was tagged in had to look just right or they were untagged.   It was much like creating the perfect version of myself online.  Not long after my immersion into the new Facebook world I started dating.  Now that I look back on my timeline I can see when we were “Facebook official” and when out relationship ended and the new began.  Facebook continued to be a part of my everyday life spending hours at night chatting with multiple friends.  My Junior year I began to realize a different role that Facebook could play in my life.  As a founder of a non-profit and a coordinator for a community service program at school I realized how I could use the reach of Facebook to communicate information about various passions of mine. Coat-A-Kid, my non profit, found new donors and was and still is able to spread our information and news to people we know from all over the country in just a second.  Facebook plays a huge part in my community service work. Facebook became less and less about me and more about how I could use it to make a difference.