Over the weekend, I read Gary Marshall’s article “Status Anxiety” in .net magazine suggesting how most people are liars when updating their online status, a feature usually found in social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter. He claims that most updates on said social networks are either made up or an exaggeration of what is actually happening and, if people were honest, their status would succumb to one of two options:

1. “is dicking around on the Internet“
2. “is drunk as a lord”

How often have you found yourself fitting into one of the above options?

Now, anyone who knows me personally also knows I am a bit of a fanatic with updating my status. Thankfully, it doesn’t take much effort for me to do so. I update my Twitter stream using the IM bot in Adium (which also keeps track of all my friends statuses) and I have “installed” one of the only useful Facebook applications, TwitterSync, which automatically updates my Facebook profile when there is a change on Twitter. Minimum effort for maximum effect!

The reason I say it is for maximum effect is because I find myself, like many “professionals” (those with a profession which they are particularly proud of), make the most of this social feature for promotional purposes. They pick and choose what they put in their status. Rather than enlighten all their friends and contacts with the fact “Dave is feeling better after a nice poo”, they make sure they pick status updates which put them in a good light, suggesting their life is beyond the humdrum persona of mere mortals. Am I abusing the system, indicating the marketing success of MySpace is now moving towards other social networks such as Facebook and Bebo? The introduction of FB’s Fan Pages surely point towards this shift and how society are changing with it.

There is no hard fast decision on this debate but it’s interesting that Gary bought it up. I have thought about this fascination of following friend’s statuses on many occasions, wondering what it is that has the nation constantly logging into their FB homepage to see exactly what their nextdoor neighbour’s parents were eating last night.

What are your thoughts on this? Do you find yourself being selective about your status update or are you quite open, happy to divulge your private happenings? Should your Twitter status really be used as a promotional tool? Why are so many people obsessed with the lives of others? Are we moving our Big Brother obsessions away from the television and towards the Internet instead?