Thursday, 08 April 2010
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What Do Your Status Updates Say About You?
By Justin at BeDeviantJesus said, “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.” I wonder if we can tweak that a bit to say, “Out of the abundance of the heart, the status is updated.”
You can learn a lot about a person from their Facebook updates. Because of the succinct nature of the “update culture,” people get to the point much quicker. They reveal their soul without even realizing it.
If someone incessantly updates their status throughout the day, they desperately want someone to pay attention to them.
If someone constantly shares about all the cool things they’re doing and how much fun they’re having, they’re most likely miserable.
If someone repeatedly mentions a significant other (or God/Jesus) in their updates, they are insecure about that relationship.
I know because I’ve been in all of these camps at one point or another.
What do your status updates say about you?
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About the Author
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- From: bedeviant
- Name: Justin
- About Me: A religious deviant who enjoys coffee, reading theology, graphic design, and spending time with his wife while creatively exploring the riches of the Spirit of Christ.
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Comments (27)
I think that's jumping to conclusions WAY to quickly. Maybe someone genuinely is having a good time or enjoying their relationship. Yes, the things you described may happen sometimes, but they don't necessarily mean those things. (except maybe the first one)
I pretty much agree with most of these, even though they're pretty big generalizations. However, my status updates about God/Jesus are usually verses or quotes or song lyrics that I have to share, especially when God just did something big in my life. A lot of my Facebook friends I worked at a Christian summer camp or went to youth group with.
That I can't tell the difference between VA and West VA. Kidding, I had a friend think I did not know the difference when all I did was mention the VA's governor's stupid comment about the civil war and wishing the miners and their family some positive energy. She did not know I knew the difference between the two states. So this post might reveal my insecurity.
p
So you're basically saying...
"Don't write anything on your status update at all, or risk being judged?"
... i think that people who spend so much time analyzing status updates that they feel the need to write a blog about it want WAAAAAY more attention than any of the people they overgeneralized.
My most recent status update (written a week ago) said something about being scared of drivers who slow down and follow me when I'm walking to and from the bus. My updates are really just that: quick updates on my life, or something I'm thinking about at that moment.
They say that I'm a writer, that I'm in love, that I like music of all genres, that certain movies make me cry, that I love good food, that I love politics, that I have an interest in quotes, that I believe in Jesus, that I love scripture, and that I need prayer. :) That's what they say about me.
yeah, these are just silly generalizations.
single.. so you've said that God/Jesus is insecure.. :)
This is kinda dumb, I'm not gonna lie. I was expecting a post about how the statuses you post are tiny insights to the person you are, and what I got was: "Choose A, B or C. Oh, and by the way, no matter which answer you circle, you're screwed because now we all know how insecure you really are."
I think my statuses ARE little insights to the person I am. It's like a stream of what's important to me. Little snippets of songs, a new band I discovered, something good that happened, a book I'm reading, all these things + more are tiny little clues to the enigma that is me.
Or maybe I'm just a super fun person and want people to come hang out with me while I'm doing fun things!!
I don't ever update my status, I think it's a bit annoying, I mean people don't need to know what's going on ever second of your life, like if you're on the toilet or not.
I'm guilty of all of those things...facebook in general is an addiction that I need to break. And so do about 200 of my friends. My problem is spending too much idle time on there procrastinating. I really need to quit that.
I disagree. Posting lyrics from a worship song or something that you learned that morning during your devotional does not say that you're insecure in your relationship with God. I could see how this might apply to boy/girl relationships, but not God ones.
I just want my "friends" to pay attention to me..thats the main goal. Some of the people I know really suck at being friends.
If someone repeatedly mentions a significant other (or God/Jesus) in their updates, they are insecure about that relationship.
^ I disagree with that one. If you care about someone a lot (God/Jesus/Significant Other), you'll probably talk about them regularly. Why should that be any different when it comes to status updates?
I've been posting a lot of scripture lately. I did it because it changed my heart and I posted it in hopes it might touch someone else as well.
agreed for the most part
hahaha so true!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I always try to post a "I'm doing cool stuff" status when I feel really lame. That being said, I don't put up a status more than about every other month. I gave facebook up for Lent a few years ago and how I only go on it to respond to messages and comments. Xanga, however, is a different story....
I don't update my fb at all, becuse im insecure about everything.
While yes SOMETIMES those things are true, I've updated my status mentioning something that I'm doing and I WAS having fun. I've mentioned a relationship/friend and I was totally secure about that relationship and well, I cant speak for the constant update thing because I try not to update my facebook account more than once a day. I feel like if you need to update your status several times a day then you should get a twitter account and do it there. I don't want your 50 status updates on my newsfeed. ;)
Mine usually talks about sleep and how much I need a vacation. They are pretty straightforward too. I did use to post allll the time and then I stopped that. Perhaps it was a little cry for attention, but sometimes I just wanted to tell everyone what I was doing. :0)
This is a gross overgeneralization.
If someone constantly shares about all the cool things they’re doing and how much fun they’re having, they’re most likely miserable. ---> Maybe they really are just having a lot of fun? I typically update about the fun things I am doing because those are the most exciting things for me to share and probably also the ones that people will care about. (i.e. when I spent the summer in the DR, I updated my friends/family via facebook what we were doing each weekend if we were doing something cool, for example: A. W. is excited about jumping off of waterfalls tomorrow!) I've never been miserable when sharing something fun I'm doing.
If someone repeatedly mentions a significant other (or God/Jesus) in their updates, they are insecure about that relationship. ---> I don't think this one is true most of the time either. I know a lot of people who are very secure in their relationship with our awesome God and they just can't stop talking about it! It's like that infatuation stage of the relationship, y'know? Where it's all you think about and all you talk about.
I will agree w/ the constantly updating one though. That is annoying and often a huge flag of "hey, pay attention to me!!". I usually update my status once a week if even that...I used to update it nearly everyday, but I've gotten over that. Although, I am currently fasting from facebook, so... haha. :P
I think Facebook status' can tell quite a bit about a person - what do they find important? is kind of what I get out of it... :P
i never posted more than once a day unless something AWESOME happened! lol but now i update every few days and it's usually nothing more than a few words...my last status update was "Glee is High School Musical on steroids!" and the one before that was a quote from a book i read...
I think this stuff is too general. You did hit some points though. I guess it's just not the same for everyone.
These sound like generalizations... They are probably true in some cases, but not always. I don't think everyone who talks about their SO a lot is insecure. Maybe they just really care about that person and constantly think about them. And maybe the person who shares all the cool things they do really does do fun things all the time and that's just what they have to update about.