The apocalyptic snow that led to class cancellations and crowded bars in the early afternoon may have surprised many residents in Charlottesville, but something else may have been just as shocking this weekend. Around the world, students logged on to Facebook, only to realize the need to acclimate to yet another reorganized layout. Fortunately, this restructuring did not remove any critical elements of our Facebook pages, the elements that illustrate our personalities.
I wholeheartedly believe you can gain personal insight by scrutinizing someone's profile. Some call it stalking; I call it an invaluable reference.
The crucial ingredient of a Facebook page is the profile picture, an underestimated source of information. There are people who crop their picture to only include themselves. These people are probably frequent users. A perfectly-cropped photo is larger and clearer than an unedited counterpart, or maybe these croppers are just vain, though admittedly less so than those who Photoshop their pictures to look like Vogue covers. But then there are those who opt for a less-prim picture, often depicting themselves surrounded by obscenely drunk friends against the backdrop of a beer pong table. These pictures usually indicate someone who likes to have fun - definitely someone not seeking employment in the near future.
The next revealing facet of a Facebook page is the "Info" section, which details a person's interests and activities. Some take this seriously. Listing "politics" or "the beach" as interests probably won't get you many friends; you are too generic. Another stigma is expressing interest in "kings" or any other variety of drinking game. Either you are trying to impress people or you need to get to an AA meeting pronto. Totally unacceptable. On the other hand, glib people who list obscure interests appear trendy. The same rule applies for the sections titled "favorite movies," "favorite books" and "favorite music." It's ludicrous when people list 56 favorite bands; I don't even have that many on my iPod. Additionally, it should be a red flag when someone lists a movie like "A Clockwork Orange" or "Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind." Clearly, this person is attempting to seem intelligent. Bonus points for not listing any interests or favorites at all. Those with sparse pages have better things to do, making them markedly mysteriously.
Then there is the whole "status" issue. There are people who update their statuses daily, sometimes even more frequently. To be perfectly honest, nobody cares that you are stressed about your statistics test tomorrow or are en route to the gym. If you feel the need to alert people about your every move, leave Facebook to the amateurs and join the ranks of Miley Cyrus on Twitter.\nThese elements constitute the core of Facebook, the most handy tool out there for gathering information into a user's true identity. Granted, some people constrict the free flow of information by using privacy settings. This choice in of itself, however, is a reflection of one's personality. In contrast to those who share too much - do you really need to publicize your religion or names of your siblings? - those with limited pages are probably reserved. Or paranoid. Or ambitious and in the process of applying for law school, wisely hiding pictures of debauchery from the stodgy men sitting on Harvard's admissions panel.
If a picture is worth 1,000 words, a Facebook page must worth 1 million - especially for people who post new albums weekly. Everyone knows that this social network affords an abundance of information on any given person; don't deny that you looked up many of your friends before truly getting to know them. Own up to that. After all, the site is possibly the best source of information available to college students around the globe. Maybe in the future we'll be able to cite Facebook in footnotes. Maybe Mark Zuckerberg will be hailed as the next Noah Webster or become more renowned than Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Use Facebook mechanisms wisely and you not only will be able to dissect a classmate's personality perfectly, but you also will be able to make yourself seem infinitely more awesome.
Abby's column runs biweekly Wednesdays. She can be reached at a.coster@cavalierdaily.com
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