Thankyou Tomy, Ruaru and Mian Javed, very insightful answers.

Facebook is definitely a non-serious (disneyland ;) kind of) platform so the assessments might not be that contributing.

But one thing is for sure, its has a wide variety of disney characters ;)

At first I would respond no... but when I start to analyse my facebook friends, their profiles and status updates and when I compare that with the personality of the profile owner, there is something in it - this could be true (that status updates define what kind of person you are). The question is, if "define" is a good world in this case. I would say that FCB status update shows what kind of person we are - it is a way to express oneself (like a conversation in digital world). But it must be considered that facebook can be misleading - it is a great tool to create image which can be not fully true. Of course in reality people can behave in contrary to their personality, but I think it is easier to recognize than in digital world. To sum up all depend how the person treat his/her facebook profile - seriously or not. After we can investigate if status update can reflect someone's personality.

In psychology, the authors of constructivism argue that there is no one but multiple reality. Same for facebook status, are the result of a mental construction of each person, arising from our individual hermeneutics based on what happens to us.

En psicología, los autores del constructivismo,sostienen que no hay una realidad única sino múltiple. Lo mismo para los estatus del facebook, son el resultado de una construcción mental de cada persona, surge de nuestra hermenéutica individual basada en aquello que nos ocurre.

Saludos desde Oaxaca, México.

I dont think so that status update depict the personality, infact we cant judge the humans on the basis of status updates. This is more towrads entertainment rather than reflection of thoughts.

Ayesha, yes I would agree, that we cannot judge the humans on the basis of status updates. It cannot be only one base for investigation, but if we treat it as additional factor, results could be interesting.

My opinion may be biased but majority of the FB statuses are put up by people who actually have nothing better to do. In practical life 24 hours seems to be such a short duration to complete all the tasks that putting up a new status for every mood, movie and food seems absurd. For teenagers its ok but even they are not really telling their real opinions. Its mostly fake or exaggerated. The ones who are actually living the life do not bother putting up statuses

an interesting area to work upon, the Facebook status updates do not define what exactly some one is, but partially the major area of interest is apparent. you can also study the group making based upon the status updates by viewers, and further the group communication.

Very interesting and different answers by all of you, thanks for the opinion.

I agree that some people use facebook for entertainment but there are many who use it to connect with family and friends, then there are those who use it to vent out frustration, seek other gender's company etc.

I suggest u people watch the status updates in your facebook account for 2 or 3 days and see how people do these updates. Your analysis will result in 2 main things: Positive facebook status updates and Negative ones. This is where we start our exercise...

I agree with Qurratulain Malik. In my view point updating the face book status after every moment shows the idleness of the people rather.

i agree to some extant and i disagree to some extent..........

when someone is using his/her original profile, we can judge him by the posts...... he/she will post according to his/her moods, thoughts or behaviors.

BUT when some person is using a fake profile with fake info provided than it will be difficult to say that he/she is depicting his/her own thoughts

Define? Probably not. But contribute, certainly.

Regardless of whether a person's status is a true reflection of feelings/events, or not, it can certainly help to construct a view of that person. If posts are exaggerated, is the account holder insecure? Bored? etc. However, I think it is unfair/unwise to define a person solely on their status updates. In the digital world, especially, it is easy for the viewer to misunderstand the meaning behind a post and make the wrong assumption.

Generally, if you know the behaviors of the poster, then you are able to detect mood - sarcasm for example, in a post. If the poster is an unknown being, then it becomes much more difficult.

I think it's fair to say that that you can 'define' the viewer - just as much as the poster, by their reaction to post.

I agree with Daniel Willis. To some extent the updates could give clues about that certain person, or about the activities she engages in; but actually, that will bring about her own "digital personality" that could be fairly different to her actual (phisical) personality and behaviour. Quite tricky!

It is not so easy to develop different "digital personality". It is necessary to have substantial knowledge background and to remember what was told a few days ago. Otherwise it will leak sooner or later. If one is experienced enough then simple question on some minor detal is usually sufficient.

Daniel and Veronica I agree it could contribute, at least we are arguing that the phenomenon is there.

Sorry Tomy I didnt understand what you said.

Sorry Henna for not being clear. I just tried to cover issue, when somebody has false profile/identity created intentionally for some purpose (eg.for fun or for cheating). Such person usually publishes targeted updates with exact knowledge of impact on viewers. And in those cases it might be extremely difficult to figure out what is really behind the published update.

To a certain degree just behind a keyboard automatically alters your perceptions of your self image.

When people update their Facebook wall, yes a majority of the time it is done from the genuine desire to communicate something of importance, but it has also been proven just how powerful a tool social networks can be when it comes to self projection and personality alteration.

The internet is a perfect realm for trying out new personalities and getting feedback. Say for example you upload an image of yourself in a context where your drunk beyond belief and people start to like your photo and make comments such as "you look really good and fun", or you make an update thats darogerative towards woman which receives plenty of likes and constructive comments from your male peers. subconsciously you will alter your behaviour, praise and reward its that simple.

The internet is a dangerous environment with non constructive views being dropped without thought or concern for other peoples emotions. but for the large majority we use the internet a lot of the time as a platform for trying out new personalities and testing new perspectives before we bring it forth into the real world whether we realise it or not.

Ive forgotten what sociologist said this but basically Facebook is like a happy go lucky disney land. people are aware that what ever they write they will be judged upon, people also believe negative emotions are unattractive (i disagree entirely might i add) so this happy smile land begins to appear. people don't want to be associated with negativity so they shy aware from putting negative views on Facebook, they will add photos of their children, family, body parts, intimate moments and monumental moments, so almost every aspect of their lives, but the depressed views never really make it though. which is good and bad in its own way. ever wondered why their isn't a dislike button? social networks want to encourage people to always be happy,

i rarely make any Facebook updates. part of this is because of my natural personality type is that of a introvert. so to concluded and to make an attempt to answer your question ive first got to expand your question.

i suppose its not just the updates we update that are define who we are but its also the medium. so if we are using a medium to communicate where we share almost all of our intimate details (a large majority of us do anyways) to the world apart from our negative emotions then i believe we are setting ourselves up for a fall. negative emotions take a hell of a lot more effort and understanding to comprehend then that of positive ones and i feel that in our current society we are all being forced to hide are depressions.

i hope that rant helps in some form or another henna.

Facebook updates are reflections of self projection approach whether conscious or unconscious effort.It is true that we re connect with our old fellows ,a positive look but some people are addicted to use Facebook excessively and creating problems.

Update are not with any confirmation mode rather with causal approach.

Thankyou Tomy, Ruaru and Mian Javed, very insightful answers.

Facebook is definitely a non-serious (disneyland ;) kind of) platform so the assessments might not be that contributing.

But one thing is for sure, its has a wide variety of disney characters ;)

If useful, it's already demonstrated that status update is connected with mood states, and there are differences due to gender (Thesis: "To Post or Not to Post:

An Examination of Gender Differences in Undergraduates’ Self-Disclosure on Facebook"). As regard to the personality of the uploader some authors found a connection with introversion or extroversion and narcissism (Thesis: Associations Between Self-Reported Narcissism, Self-Esteem, and Social-Emotional

Functions of Facebook). So only for traits of personality, or specific mood states... Much is still undiscovered :)

Basically these are moods that you reflect on your status and there are unlimited shades of moods so i don't think it is a kind of serious depiction of what you actually are

Besides, if you use smartphone to connect to FB, the first thing which FB will do will be offering to connect you with all your stored contacts, probably based on e-mails, phone numbers etc., which have their FB pages. For instance with travel agencies or hotels as it happened in my case. And I really dont think that the would be interested in my status update, had I bothered to publish it at all.

But Tomy and Anam, is there are a way we can modify the available data perceived or observed from Facebook and use it to personality studies.

Henna, initial question was only on FB status updates. Evaluation based on all available data might tell much more, of course. I have some experience with personality evaluation ranging from chatrooms to virtual world, but final evaluation allways depends on interaction, which usually means the exchange of at least a few sentences.

Dear Henna

Facebook is the ideal medium for people to share thoughts and interactive way to contact friends or relatives who live far away . What many people do not take into consideration is the way in which the use of social networking is conducted may help or hinder the achievement friendships, jobs etc..

Despite the damage that social networking can bring to the career, when used consciously and strategically, it becomes an important tool.

By facebook is very difficult to define what kind of human being is the person because the information is prepared, often aiming to please others, omitting deliberately personal aspects that could negatively influence the social network

Amongst many other traits, the following comes to mind...

Reveals levels of susceptibility to addictions

Reveals preference on privacy

Reveals preference for mediation instead of direct contact

http://www.ijbssnet.com/journals/Vol._2_No._14%3B_July_2011/25.pdf.

This link may help: 

http://m.mic.com/articles/96588/what-your-facebook-status-updates-say-about-your-personality