Does Facebook depress you?
Does it compare you, day after day, to friends who have the gall to make more money? Has it convinced you that you take subpar and unphotogenic vacations and lack an adorably above-average baby?
Stop beating your head against the wall. You’ll be relieved to know that nearly everybody’s lying on social media.
That’s the finding of a survey released on Wednesday by Custard, a British digital marketing company.
In a survey of 2000 Brits, more than 75% admitted to lying about themselves on social profiles.
Only 18% said that their Twitter and Facebook profiles accurately represent them.
Some 31% said that their Facebook profiles are “pretty much my life but without the boring bits.” And 14% said that Facebook makes them look much more socially active than they are.
Men are more prone than women when it comes to dressing up the shop window. Nearly half – 43% – of men polled admitted to fabricating facts.
The survey also delved into what social media faux pas are the most annoying. The full list of social media behavior that’s likely to irk Brits:
- 42.65% Attention-seeking statuses
- 41.40% Just boring status updates
- 40.15% Constant selfies
- 30.20% Gushing about their babies/children
- 28.55% Cryptic digs at people
- 27.80% Pictures of food
- 26.70% Over-sharing/over-posting
- 21.5% Shares of offensive pictures/jokes
- 15% Pregnancy updates
- 14.5% Statuses urging to give to charity
- 13.05% Holiday bragging
- 8.75% Photos of pets
People fibbing on social media is hardly surprising news.
But it does remind us all that we should be careful about what we believe online, whether it’s an unexpected email from a friend that contains an interesting looking link, or a honey bunny online romancer who needs money URGENTLY.
Be careful out there!
Image of Liar courtesy of Shutterstock.com
MrGutts
Wish this survey results was posted on the logon screens of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages.
PS: Sophos, I still hate your newish terrible blog layout.
Laurence Marks
Mr Gutts wrote “PS: Sophos, I still hate your newish terrible blog layout.”
Especially the quotes in pale blue on white. Totally undreadable on an LCD screen that has the old-style CCFL backlight.
Not to mention that the “Previous” and “Next” tags are backward with respect to the daily email–unless of course you’re from Australia and read the email from the bottom up.
Steve
+1
Paul Ducklin
In left-to-right languages, having “Previous” or “Back” on the left and “Next” or “Forward” on the right is completely usual. That’s because you turn over the left-hand page of a book to reach the previous page, and the right-hand page to go forwards.
Indeed, having Previous and Next the other way round would not merely be confusing, it would be plain wrong, like numbering the pages backwards, or spelling words in reverse. So that definitely isn’t going to change.
FWIW, I really don’t think the layout is likely to change much, either, and if it does you probably won’t like the new look, anyway. That’s because the vast majority of readers who have commented since the new layout was introduced have said that they prefer the new look, and indeed that they greatly prefer it. I suggest, if you really find the blue colour tricky, that you simply use the “reader view” that most modern browsers support to provide simplicity, clarity and legibility for those who prefer it that way.
Lydia Morris
I preferred the older layout too, it had more character. The new one is fine – very smart if a little clinical – it just lacks character. I miss the little Sophos robot too. She was cool :¬(
I wonder if the layout has been updated to better accommodate mobile devices. I’ve only ever read the blog on a PC so I can’t judge in that respect. Anyway, the content is still spiffing and I guess that’s the main thing!
Paul Ducklin
The big problem with the old layout was that it was designed when screens were generally lower-resolution in the “across” dimension (1024×768 was normal, compared to 1366×768 these days) and so was rather cramped. Now we have wider columns, more white space, and room for wider, clearer images for our more technical articles. In the old days, we had a maximum pixel width of 500 – you try fitting a malware screenshot into that sort of size.
We can only have one layout at a time, and most people seem to find the new one more legibile…
…and the content just as readable :-)
Mike
How many of them are lying about information useful to cybercriminals? That one I’d call good sense.
Kurt Schilling
Why am I not surprised? Well, mebbe a little bit…would have thought that the number of liars would have been higher.
Mahhn
Silly brits ;) in the US we rant about politicians and building 7, 24/7, at least until it’s illegal. lol
Mark Scott
I just showed this article to my wife, Morgan Fairchild, who I have seen naked. And said, “See? I predicted this in 1997, while on vacation in Honolulu, racing one of our 27 Ferraris. Just goes to show, you can’t trust anybody!”
And she smiled and went back to her work as a spy for the NSA.
GS
Over 75% of people lie on social media
Well, obviously! The whole point of social Media is to get noticed and I’m sorry but people in general just happen to lead a boring life…Get up, go to work, eat, go home, sleep.
This may seem like a brutal generalisation but it’s also very true. Very few people are really creative these days and spend their time constructively, the rest end up on BookFace and Twatter telling everyone about a lovely sandwich they just ate.
Leigh Harwood
This is precisely why I ditched social media within the first year. It soon became apparent to me that the whole social media circus is nothing more than attention-seeking dimwits constantly craving the validation of others.
In reality, most people lead boring lives filled with very little excitement. But this ugly truth doesn’t come across well in the fake world of social media – where people carefully craft an image of themselves to impress others.
Why people delude themselves in this fashion – boggles the mind.