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The Psychology of Facebook Examined

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the what-goes-on-in-a-websites-head dept.

jg21 writes "In this analysis of the psychology of Facebook, a British FB user makes some telling points about how simple the reasons behind its success are. Among them, fear of 'online social failure' features prominently. From the article: 'Facebook also digs away at the insecurities in people...your peers can see your profile on Facebook, and while they may have 50, 100, 200 friends they will mockingly see that you have a pathetically small number, confirming your worst fears about the low opinion they have probably held of you over all those years etc.'"

6 of 189 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Executive Summary by Dancindan84 · · Score: 5, Funny

    See, that's why you should be like everyone else and not RTFA.

    --
    "Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much." - Oscar Wilde
  2. Re:The real reason by wallyhall · · Score: 5, Funny

    http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comici d=877

    I see this every day. For real.

    --
    I think therefore I am... a Linux geek.
  3. Friends by dunezone · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Facebook also digs away at the insecurities in people. "I have one friend" probably makes some people feel a bit insecure and Billy no-mates. In the deeply insecure, this may be amplified by the lie-awake-at-night worry that your peers can see your profile on Facebook, and while they may have 50, 100, 200 friends they will mockingly see that you have a pathetically small number, confirming your worst fears about the low opinion they have probably held of you over all those years etc. The individual who has less friends is more likely to be secure with themselves, since you know they actually try to create some sort of friendship bond. Ive had facebook since 2005 when my university was added to the system. So far Ive realized that the individual who adds everyone as a friend, even when the two people have only said "Hi" once to each other, is usually the person who is insecure and just fucking crazy.
  4. I don't have hundreds of friends... by TubeSteak · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Mostly because I don't friend every casual acquaintance.

    Because I know I can't keep up with >100 people, I don't bother to try.
    Not to mention that the feed would run for pages.

    Soo, it seems I don't fit into TFA's first three, or last two categories.
    For those of you who aren't going to read it, that leaves one category.

    And not to attack the author, but this is a reprint of something he wrote for his blog.

    --
    [Fuck Beta]
    o0t!
  5. Re:50 friends by MillionthMonkey · · Score: 5, Funny

    You already have fifty friends. To add more friends, please first select one or more of your existing friends and drag them to the Dead To Me folder.

    NOTE: Subscribers can have up to 500 friends!
    [x] Tell me more

  6. Re:Executive Summary by Xeirxes · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The interesting difference between Facebook and MySpace, for me, is that most of my friends on MySpace aren't really friends... just kind of a collection. On Facebook, my friends are the people I really care about and like to talk to a lot. I see many of them more than once a week. I guess there are different friend strategies for everyone, but I don't feel that the friend collection is the norm.