Analyzing Facebook statuses
By Tatiana Sánchez
A couple of months ago, I shared with the world news of my unrelenting addiction to Facebook. And while I continue to wither away countless hours on the social networking site, I have found due purpose in my addiction. I am back to share my insights on one of Facebook's most interesting components: the Facebook status.
The psychology of the Facebook status is difficult to comprehend, but during the long hours I have spent on Facebook, I have come up with certain styles that always seem to make it to my news feed.
1. The "attention-seeker" status. Chances are we all have Facebook friends who seem to update their statuses for the sole purpose of seeking attention. Some are less subtle than others in their quest to take center stage, to say the least. I woke up one morning to find the following status on my mini-feed: "I'm not feeling special anymore :( And I hate not feeling special." How old are we, five?
2. The "tell-all" status. I'm all for providing entertaining and descriptive details in statuses -- after all, it's what makes Facebook so fun -- but there are some individuals who provide just a tad too much 411. While I may want to know what's on your mind, I don't need to know what you had for breakfast, what you did last night and what you plan to do for every waking hour of the day.
3. The "artfully ambiguous" status. Though hard to come by, these are my favorite type of status. They are the statuses that say so much without saying anything at all, the statuses that keep you guessing about the person's life. When done right they are simply golden; you are left wondering what exactly the individual is saying, while wanting to know more at the same time. Statuses like, "Don't bite the apple Eve ;)," make my day a little interesting and make Facebook a little more fun, without overdoing it.
4. The "non-existent" status. There are those who's statuses are -- literally -- a blank slate. We all have friends who, for one reason or another, never update their status. It's almost as if they have pressed the mute button in their lives. I respect the Facebooker with enough self-will to resist status updating but at the same time, I feel that everyone should update their status at least once in their life. It's fun, it's entertaining and most of all, liberating. It adds color, happiness and spontaneity into a person's life, so, live a little.
While it may seem that a Facebook status is simply a sentence or two describing what someone is doing or feeling at the moment, it is in actuality a window into a person's life. So the next time you go to update your status, think a little harder, because your Facebook statuses say a lot about who you are.