We all lie. At some point in our lives, we all are doomed to fib even just a little bit. But lying is nothing new to us. What’s more surprising is how honest we actually tend to be online.
Hiding behind the veil of the internet is a normalcy for trolls and hackers, and this naturally makes the average user trepidatious towards being too open online. However, the overwhelming number of social media users almost trumps the fear of hacks while it also makes people feel less vulnerable to criticism or bullying.
We’ve stereotyped dating sites and Facebook profiles to be hot beds for lying about ourselves, but recent studies show that more people are honest about who they are and what they do. We still fib about superficial things like salary and our age because social hierarchies and stigmas will always exist, yet it seems we as humans are starting to be more transparent through our technology.
The digital world is overflowing with content and we are constantly adding to it. There’s almost 35,000 petabytes of video alone shared online in a year; not to mention, the billion plus sites that exist on the internet make it seem impossible to quantify all the data. At the early stages of the internet, some would abuse the virtual veil and be dishonest within their communication. Now, we are more likely to lie in person while using digital communication to be brutally honest. Are you more honest in person or online?
With the plethora of social media platforms, our attention spans are dwindling shorter and Drake hits like “Trust Issues” has left people fed up with fake people. Nothing is truly deleted, but it seems that we no longer care about our virtual “permanent record”. The half-life of social statuses is drastically low, with the reach of a post beginning to fall within minutes of updating. It takes more work to be consistent than to be fake, so “putting on heirs” on a lame Myspace page are a thing of the past.
Are you and your friends honest with your digital communication? What platform allows you to be yourself and which ones do you leave more to the imagination? Social media is not just a marketing strategy; there’s psychology and sociology to consider. Understanding how we communicate to one another on social media and real life will help you market your business. How honest are with your own digital marketing?