Virginia Heffernan (New York Times)

I think that choose the pictures we put on your profil is staging of oneself because you choose the best of yourself and you want the other people see just the luminous way of yourself.

Kédem Ferré wrote:What about public image?

Public images ? Pictures on social media are put on by somebody, and this "somebody" chose these pictures. So sorry, but I don't understand what you mean by "public images".

marine descamps wrote:But in the 'true life', you can also lie about what you want, so it's the same thing.

I agree with you. It's not only on the internet that you lie. In the rel life you can too.

I think that Facebook is a way to have a virtual life, fake friends.. but it's also a tool for companies to found employee. So people creates profiles more professional where they can show a better image of themselves. We have to choose to invent a character or to use this means as we want.

I agree with Marine, social media are not so different than the real life. And even if you lie on some subjects, is it a real problem ? Does it prevent you from creating social links ? I don't think so.

Kédem Ferré wrote:What about public image?

The public image must be selected in order to protect himself (some people who are published some pictures on facebook have been sack). We have to think that all the picture posted on Internet remains on Internet even if we suppress them. That’s why, we must look out for the public images posted on Internet

With Facebook, it's not very possible to speak with person like pedophiles. Indeed, when you create your account, you have the possibility to chose who can see your informations. And if you want, you can let your informations be seen by everybody. But in this case, I think that it's just your problem, just your fault if you meet "bad" people. This social network is done with security and you can write your very personal informations with no problems if you supervise your profile correctly.

What about public image?

Solveig wrote: and I think distorting the reality to advantage yourself is already a kind of lie

I disagree with Solveig because even if the picture is distorted , it stays the same person.

laurène wrote:I think that choose the pictures we put on your profil is staging of oneself because you choose the best of yourself and you want the other people see just the luminous way of yourself.

But I think people don't choose the pictures they share only to show how they can be "beautiful", but because these pictures represented themselves

Solveig wrote:Public images ? Pictures on social media are put on by somebody, and this "somebody" chose these pictures. So sorry, but I don't understand what you mean by "public images".

No, I meant public image, the person you want people to think you are ...

Doriane wrote:I agree with Elise because lot of people write real informations about there real life , put a real picture and express there real hobbies.

It is true that most of the time you don't lie about your age, your hobbies and things like that, but on the other hand people often try to show the positives aspects of their personalities ; they don't necessarily lie, but they hide things of their personalities that they might not hidden in the real life, so it is not an as good means as a real contact to really know people.

Doriane wrote:I disagree with Solveig because even if the picture is distorted , it stays the same person.

Yes but nobody is supposed to know. Even if the picture is distorted and the person stays the same, we aren't supposed to know.

Doriane wrote:

Solveig wrote: and I think distorting the reality to advantage yourself is already a kind of lie

I disagree with Solveig because even if the picture is distorted , it stays the same person.

Distorting the reality to your own advantage doesn't change your inner personnality, but it does change your public image ...

I don't really understand what do you mean saying "public image", but an image can also lie. There's a lot of softwares that can make you prettier or what you want. But the image that you give to the other people isn't really important, I still think that you can create social links, cheating or not.

I have the impression that for Virginia Heffernan, Facebook is a game. I think that because she saids in her interview "it's an experience of fantasy, of character creation." She uses the word "characters". This word represents more the idea of a game, she don't use the word "people' or "person" which represents the real. When people go to the internet, they creates themself, not a characters who isn't real. So, here, I'm not agree with Virginia Heffernan's opinion, even if, I think that somes people who are on facebook, perhaps, can create characters just for the game. But my first idea is that Facebook is used for communicate and create social links with people, friends...

Kédem Ferré wrote:

The experience of Facebook to me is not another experience of social life, it's an experience of fantasy, of character creation, a kind of novel writing where you cast the characters, you choose a face for yourself, you curate photographs that tell stories about yourself. I bring to it the same enthusiasm that I would bring to reading or writing a novel, as opposed to whatever I bring to social life.

Do you share Virginia Heffernan's views on Facebook?

According to Virginia Heffernan, Facebook can be compared to the process of writing a novel. I understand her point of view and I kind of share it considering the fact that on Facebook, and on the Internet more generally speaking, we are able to do what we want without being seen or judged and so it seems totally possible for us to create a new life and create a new character thanks to the fact that we are anonymous. I think that people need this "experience of fantasy" in life. Indeed, people can feel the need to escape from the real life for a while and they can find a way to do it on this social media. They can have even more because they can make their life appear better. Facebook users decide to show different aspects of their personality by choosing to which pictures of themselves they are going to post on the social media or not. And we can understand why Virginia Heffernan compares this to writing a novel. As a writer, the user is able to tell a story, either his real life or not, and illustrates it with photographs. He can give his opinion about a subject or another and write things about his own feelings. We can compare Facebook users to writers through the idea that the man behind the screen, is like someone else from the character which embodies himself on the social media. Indeed, before posting anything, he can think about the consequences of his future posts. So I guess this is the link between a writer and a Facebook user.
But I also think that, for a lot of people, Facebook is a good way to stay in touch with friends.

Doriane wrote: I disagree with Solveig because even if the picture is distorted , it stays the same person.

It stays the same person, but she is not seen the same way if her public image is a beautiful and luminous picture or a failed photo, for example. It doesn't carry the same image of the person.

Kédem Ferré wrote:What about public image?

I think that your public image is created by yourself on the Internet, with photos and infirmations posted about yourself.

Kédem Ferré wrote:What about public image?

On Facebook many people wants to show their social importance and sometimes they put on the web site shocking pictures but most of the time it's just pictures that we don't mind.

I wasn't speaking of doctored pictures. But the moment you make a choice, there is subjectivity at work, and it necessarily modifies your public image, the image people will have from you.

You talk about lying on Facebook, but the social media can be used for working. Most of journalist talking about people who are fired because of their Facebook account. People might protect their personal informations but most of them don’t know or don’t undestand how to do that. In this case, lie about you’re life or just hide an other pesonnal account it’s better.

I partly agree with Virginia in the way that, even if they are only certain person who lies, even if you're not obliged lying, even if this sheep attitude is a good thing for some people, it's not really social experiences, because, hidden by a computer, you are not the same person, you will answer "yeah but you are obliged to lie in order to protect you, you make a choice and you might have reasons" etc... and i will answer, sure but take a look at the meeting network like meetic, i doesn't works a lot, because there are too much differences between people behind a computer and people face to face...

Kédem Ferré wrote:I wasn't speaking of doctored pictures. But the moment you make a choice, there is subjectivity at work, and it necessarily modifies your public image, the image people will have from you.

It changes the others' point of view about you and it's your goal. Many people want to show an image almost perfect of them so they cheat, they only published the photographs where they're beautiful, surrounded with friends or with famous people. They try to have a magazine life, gold, laminated and brilliant but they know that this dream is impossible to realized. So, they use Facebook in order to make someone else believe in their virtual life, and to make them believe in it.
In fact it's certainly pleasant to have a little bit of control about your appearance but it have to stay yours.