Impression management is a term describing efforts made by individual in order to influence or control how other people perceive him. It often occurs in response to face threats defined as unfavourable incidents undercutting an individual’s ability to maintain a certain self-image on SNSs (social networking sites). Studies have shown that people are rather vulnerable to face threats on Facebook and other SNSs with freely shared and persistent content. This results as a reaction to the things posted by others.
Associate professor at NJIT’s College of Computer Sciences, D.Yevette Wohn, Ph.D, and her colleague from Portland State University assistance professor Erin Spottswood, Ph.D., explore human-computer interactions from the psychological perspective. In particular, their latest study, to be published in April 2016, explores how people react to other-generated face threats that take place in the context of SNSs and examines what the relational consequences are.
Wohn and Spottswood surveyed 150 adult Facebook users with the aim to find out what sort of strategies they engage in to manage face-threatening content on Facebook. Wohn explains that social networking sites are pervasive in that they serve a platform for other people to judge posted content. Face threats occur as people are unable to control what others post about them.
People’s use of face management with the aim to deal with face threats may significantly affect the relationship with an individual who caused the uncomfortable situation. In particular, the authors have found that those Facebook users in the study who tried to remove or somehow justify the content they were embarrassed with saw their relationship with the offender decline. In this way, Wohn and Spottswood have come to a conclusion that impression management can come at the expense of relationship with the offender.
The researchers compare face threats happening in person with those that occur on SNSs, such as Facebook, and come to a conclusion that the latter are much more destructive, since “social media content is easily shareable with a large number of people and much more likely to go viral” (New Jersey Institute of Technology par.10). This can explain why people who have realized the severity of face threat and try to remove offensive content still fail to maintain closeness with their victims. One possible remedy for this, as Wohn and Spottswood assume, may be frequent communication between the victim and the offender. In this case, reduction in closeness does not occur. In summary, the authors of the study recommend that the people think twice before they post things containing information about others because this may mean putting others in a difficult, embarrassing situation.
The article relates to the material learned at the course in more than one way. First, it discusses the ways posted content influences people’s attitudes and relationships, which is also a subject of business communication, marketing, and advertising. Recently, Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites have been viewed as powerful engines of generating loyal customer bases and influencing their choices about certain products or services. In business, a so-called Tipping Point theory is popular which assumes that to influence other people’s choices and behaviour regarding certain products or services one simply needs to find mediators – people who push products credibly, cheaply, and effectively.
Whereas the extent of influence that stems from posts or retweets may be exaggerated, since sharing and liking, does not necessarily means purchasing, the marketers are busy developing their SNSs strategies. In this, consumer relationships play a vital role, as the companies make efforts to establish good relationships with their followers, whom they view as existing or potential customers. Oftentimes, they face the need to use impression management strategies or beware that their content does not offend anyone. In this way, consumer behaviour issues studied at the course relate to face-threats and impression management discussed in the article. Secondly, the article relates to the content of the course in that it offers a research-based perspective on modelling people relationships on SNSs, which are widely used and studied in business. Whereas it is car from providing the reader with a certain framework of behaviour with regard to face threats, it certainly does a lot to convince marketers to refine their posts.
I strongly agree with the point that the article advances: on Facebook, people should be even more attentive to what they post, since they affect concerned individuals to a car greater extent than they would in face-to-face interactions. In its turn, things that they post about themselves expose them to a sea of face-threats. These may include less harmful acts, such as remindings or advice, as well as acts that may lead to serious adverse outcomes, such as strong expressions of disapproval, including accusations or insults, disrespect, posting feedbacks that contain offensive or humiliating information, or information that is politically or socially sensitive (such as race or religion, for example). Not only will these face threats produce negative psychological outcomes in victims, but they will also harm offenders as their employers or other important persons see how they treat others.
Self-face-threatening, it seems, can also occur. This happens when people post content on Facebook that characterizes them from a negative side or undermines their reputation or creates a wrong impression. As a result, employers or prospective business partners may refuse from their initial plans of collaboration or employment. For example, one of my friends barely avoided losing an important contract due to his Facebook photo, where he was half naked and consuming alcohol.
Overall, the article relates to the course material on the issue of consumer behaviour patterns and use of research to back business interactions. I strongly agree with the point it makes: people should be careful posting things because they threat faces of others.
