Facebook: Social Scrapbook or Emotional Hotline

In Jason McDonald’s “Social Media Marketing Workbook,” he brings up an interesting point about Facebook and “fake.” No, he is not referring to fake news, he is referring to fake people. He is not referring to the kind of fake people who have fake profiles either. He refers to fake as people who only share the positive information about their lives. He says, “in general, people put their best foot forward on Facebook: it’s a social scrapbook in many ways about how life ‘should’ be, rather than how life ‘is.’” I find this quote very interesting but through my experience, I would have to disagree.

McDonald explains people are not likely to share information about their life struggles or any other negative events.  I do agree most Facebook users post positive information but from time to time, people feel the need to share their struggles. I personally see this quite often on my Facebook news feed. Here are some recent examples:

·       A member of my family lost both her mother and father. Instead of personally grieving, she took to Facebook to share her experience. Every so often, she will post about how much she misses her parents and how hard it is for her to deal with their loss.

·       An old friend of mine proposed to his girlfriend. After some time, his fiancé called off the proposal. He then took to Facebook to share what had happened and discuss his grief.

·       A distant cousin of mine had a child with his girlfriend. After he learned his girlfriend has been cheating on him, he wrote a lengthy post on Facebook about what had happened and described how his girlfriend was an awful mother.

In all of these examples, the person had a negative experience in their life and chose to share it on Facebook. If Facebook is a social scrapbook, and people put their best foot forward, why do these people chose to share these negative events?

Yes, people generally want to look their best on any social media platform, but Facebook can be seen as an exception. Facebook could be seen as a social scrapbook, but it could also be seen as emotional hotline. Facebook users are generally close with their friends on Facebook, so they may feel more comfortable sharing struggles of their personal life. In my opinion, some people choose to share negative aspects of their lives for one, if not more, of these reasons:

·       Attention: They are looking for sympathy from others.

·       Support: They feel distressed and want help from others.

·       Relief: Their emotions are very strong, or they feel the emotional need to share with others.

Do others agree?