Textual primacy online: Impression formation based on textual and visual cues in Facebook profiles

Reading through this article there has been a number of things I have realised that I do when I see someone has changed their profile picture. I make those subconscious impressions and judgements about that person without thinking of the behind the scenes decisions they have made to choose that specific picture. Detailed within the article is an analysis of what values more to an onlooker, the visual content of the image or the text that works in conjunction with the image and how those impact our thoughts.

In everyday face to face interactions visual cues are valued higher when it comes to making initial impressions and judgements about a person. This seems to be the regular standard across people however when the visual cues are lacking, then you will revert to verbal cues to shape your thoughts about that person. This attitude changes when we move to an online setting where as the studies provided by the research indicates that people rely more on the textual content to make those final decisions. Facebook is a unique social networking site that allows the user to control what others see, this self-regulated content can make the user feel like they belong, and they can present themselves the way they want.

When looking at a profile picture of someone out with a group of friends, people automatically assume that person is an extrovert. While when the image is just of a single person in the frame people need to look at the text to make a choice about what could be happening in the photo. The initial conclusions are solely based on the visual cue but without the text people can gather the wrong ideas about what is really happening in the photo. Over the past few years as social networking sites have become more graphic and imaged based (liking or giving an emoji response) peoples processing and interpreting skills have risen. Individuals with a higher need for understanding will see the image and also consider the textual cues, while others who have a lower need to understand will just take the image for what it is (Pelled et al., 2017, p.682).

I found this article interesting as it made me look back on the posts I uploaded after my last holiday and evaluated what I wanted the people to see and the message I wanted to convey. Even though the photos I chose were thought out and generally not the first photo I had taken, it was the text I had with the images that took more time. I wanted people to see the statement I had made and make the connections that I had a great time. This really was a thought-provoking article as it highlighted the way I interact with Facebook and how people on the other end could perceive me.

References 

Pelled, A., Zilberstein, T., Tsirulnikov, A., Pick, E., Patkin, Y., & Tal-Or, N. (2017). Textual primary online: Impression formation based on textual and visual cues in facebook profiles. American Behavioral Scientist, 61 (7), 672-687. doi: 10.1177/0002764217717563