Here’s the thing about Facebook bios. I just don’t know what to do with it.
Well, I do know how it works. I just don’t know what to do with it.
I wrote many articles about Facebook and my mental health regarding it. And a lot of it had to do with this “bio” thing that comes up. Here’s the thing about Facebook bios. When you go on a person’s Facebook page, what’s the first thing you see? Their profile picture, their bio. And what does their bio say? Well, it used to be a simple thing but now its just… a lot.
There’s this thing called featured tagline where you can write up a short paragraph about who you are. I didn’t know what to write for shit but I just went with something abstract and acceptably cool. So it tells asks me about my work and education, places I’ve lived, contact and basic info, family and relationships, details about you (these include simple things from hobbies to more complicated things like religions and political affiliations). And then there’s also this “About Me” thing that I don’t really understand so I left it blank. Wasn’t there already a featured tagline on my profile asking me to talk about myself? Why would I write another essay about who I am in another passage?
So basically, it’s a lot.
This concerns me in three ways.
- Social Media Presence
This bio — this thing — is the thing that defines your social media presence. Your identity. There isn’t any other social media outlet out there that collects this much private information about you, especially for it to be put on display. Well, maybe except LinkedIn but LinkedIn doesn’t collect your relationship status or your religion or your party affiliation to put out there for view. And it is a professional environment, not to mention the fact that not a lot of people go find people on LinkedIn to stalk them. They stalk them on Facebook.
Posts are things that also defines your social media presence, but this is different because you have the control over what you post and what you don’t post. But the bio is something that is set. You can’t choose where you work and you can’t choose where you go to school. And even if you take the decision to not put anything on your bio (as in education or workplace), it leaves people to assume things. Are they umemployed? Are they not in a happy place where they can plaster their credentials and workplaces and education status on Facebook? Oh, this person’s relationship status was single and now it’s gone. Are they in a relationship? Are they no longer looking? Etc, etc…
So yeah. I personally distance myself from Facebook and it’s because of this “presentation nature” that Facebook has. I still use instagram on a daily basis because I’m not trying to impress anyone by sharing pictures of some moments of my daily life or foodporn or some book that I dig. It’s a legitimate social network where I just want to connect with other people. But Facebook is so much more formal, so much more intentional. If I were to post something on Facebook, I have to think a lot harder about it than I would if I were to post something on instagram or tumblr or anything else.
2. Credentials
And there’s also a lot of people that use Facebook to flaunt their credentials. I used to be one of them, so I know. I’ve literally seen Facebook bios with like 17 jobs. SEVENTEEN. How the fuck do you run seventeen jobs? I mean, if this was LinkedIn and you were trying to impress an employer, I get it, because that’s the place to write as many job experiences you’ve had in order to put food on your table. But I thought Facebook was a social network. Do I have to put on my Facebook bio that I work at the school library as a part-time volunteer? I’ve literally seen some people do that. Most common being: Works at “Student” in “Whatever School.” Even when economics tells you that a student is not a profession in the marketplace, with it being classified as an economically inactive population.
Then again, who’s to say what’s work and what’s not? Tons of housewives get their unpaid labor neglected and that seems to suit fine with everyone. So I mostly don’t have a problem with people putting literally EVERYTHING they do on their “work” section but here’s another problem.
Most people use this “putting everything on there” tactic as a way to build up this persona. And this not only takes a toll on people around you watching you flaunt those credentials, it also takes a toll on yourself. I wrote about this before, but keeping up a professional persona can be incredibly taxing on your mental health.
3. Privacy
The point above brings to this point. I’ve heard stories about employers looking into the applicant’s Facebook profile. You know, to see what kind of person they are. If you don’t have one, well, you’re kind of amish. Apparently. I personally don’t think so. But still, I don’t think it’s fair that we have to take into consideration that prospective employers might be watching our Facebook page. Unless you choose that decision to make your profile & your posts public for everyone, I don’t think your employers should have the right to connect to your Facebook unless you want to. I don’t want to have to think that Big Brother is watching me every time I post something on Facebook. Do I have to consider what political opinion I’m posting on Facebook if I’m applying for a certain company that might disagree with my opinions? Am I committing thoughtcrime? (A tribute to Orwell of course. that seems to be happening too much lately.)
But there’s also real life.
If I were an employer, I would want to know if my employees are overtly racist or sexist or something bad like that. And I would also want to, you know, just see if this person is motivated and outgoing and right for our company. I don’t know what kind of stupid people would choose to share racist jokes on the internet (Oh look I wrote an article about potential Harvard students getting rejected because of racist memes nevermind then) but if there were those kind of people and they were applying for my company, I would want to vet that procedure.
And this dilemma kind of opens up this pandora box of privacy in the modern day and how we are no longer truly private. Since the invention of the social network, simply not having one causes social and professional consequences and we are bound to this everlasting social contract. The NSA looking into our webcams is a big deal but this — this is a much, much bigger deal that people don’t really think about. The chances of your privacy being endangered by the NSA versus your own Facebook profile: what do you think is more likely? I don’t want to minimize what Edward Snowden did because that is such an important conversation that we ought to be having but the factors in our daily life that continues to endanger our privacy are being constantly neglected. It’s not enough to have slightly difficult passwords anymore.
So yeah, that’s the thing about Facebook bios. And Facebook in general. I really don’t like that place. I don’t care about what other people might think about me anymore, but I just don’t like the fact that it’s so difficult to get rid of it. It’s different you know — I do have the choice and the options to delete Facebook, to deactivate it, but I do not have the personal liberty to do so. It’s a taxing procedure. And I’ve somehow become enslaved to the Facebook nation. The Zuck said Facebook has more power than a regular nation-state. I think so too.
If my employers are watching, I don’t think I’ll be able to score a job at Facebook anytime soon. That’s a shame, I actually quite liked their corporate environment. They might not have Google Bicycles but hey it’s pretty close.
