How Do Facebook Users Believe They Come Across in Their Profiles?: A Meta-Perception Approach to Investigating Facebook Self-Presentation

The present study examines Facebook self-presentation from the perspective of the self-presenters themselves: How do Facebook users believe they come across in their profiles? A sample of undergraduate students (N = 212) rated their Facebook self-presentations as highly positive, although not so positive as to communicate an idealized version of self. Additionally, self-presenters believed that their profiles portrayed them as better than reality on certain dimensions of self (e.g., “funny,” “adventurous,” “outgoing”), accurately on other dimensions (e.g., “physically attractive,” “creative”), and worse than reality on yet other dimensions (“intelligent,” “polite,” “reliable”). Participants believed that their own profile postings made them come across more positively than reality, but Friends' postings made them come across more negatively than reality. The results are generally consistent with the Hyperpersonal model's notion of selective self-presentation.