In a new Cornell study, researchers found that what people think about us on Facebook isn’t always what we think about ourselves.

People use social media like Facebook to share stuff and connect with others. But this study shows that when others see our Facebook posts, they get a different idea about us compared to what we think about ourselves. Previous research found that when people check out personal websites, like blogs, they usually get a pretty accurate picture of the person behind it. But Facebook updates are often short and lack context. Not many studies looked at how our self-image matches up with how others see us on these platforms.

To dig into this, 158 college students answered questions about their own personality traits, like how outgoing they are or how much they share. They also shared their last 20 Facebook status updates. Then, two groups of other people checked out these updates and answered questions about the users’ traits. One group saw updates with text, images, and links, while the other group only saw text.

Different perceptions

Turns out, what viewers thought about the Facebook users didn’t match up with how the users saw themselves. Viewers tended to think users were more open, had lower self-esteem, and were less independent than what users thought about themselves. But both viewers and users agreed on one thing – the sense of connection. It seems like the main goal of social media posts is to connect with others.

Comparing the two groups, those who saw updates with text and multimedia were closer to users’ self-perceptions. But the multimedia group had more varied opinions, while the text-only group mostly agreed. Also, both groups’ opinions changed based on the users’ gender and ethnicity, similar to what happens offline.

These findings tell us more about how we present ourselves online and how others form opinions about us. The researchers say it’s crucial for good communication and relationships. In the future, more studies could look at a longer timeline of updates or check out other platforms like TikTok.

“Can people form accurate impressions about us from our social media posts?,” the researchers conclude. “Our study finds that there are substantial discrepancies between how people view Facebook users based on their status updates and how the users view themselves. Multimedia channels make the impressions more accurate, and user characteristics related to relationship-building, gender and ethnicity are more accurately perceived.”