User Descriptions and Interpretations of Self-Presentation through Facebook Profile Images

Abstract

This article reports the findings of an open-ended qualitative survey about the choices people make when choosing profile images on Facebook. The results demonstrate that women tend to change their profile image more often and to emphasize friendship in the images they choose to display. Although both men and women are equally likely to display images of family and romantic relationships, the interpretations of such images may vary by gender. In addition, as one of the first Facebook studies to include users over 22 years old, this study provides comparative data demonstrating that older users are less likely to change their profile images frequently and more likely to display images of themselves alone. This study corroborates previous findings about the nature of self-presentation in online networking sites and offers new insights into how such impression management might vary according to age and gender.

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