What evidence do you have that social networking users have or do not have meta-insight?
For those who don't know meta-insight is the ability to understand that everyone looks at the world in a different way. It is, plainly speaking the ability to know that even if you think of yourself one way there is no guarantee that someone that you meet will see you the same way you see yourself. They wear a different set of world view glasses. In the following argument I will show that most people do have this ability.
When creating a profile for yourself on any social media site you project an image of yourself to the world that inhabits this site. One of the things that you can be assured of is that if the person who is viewing your profile does not know you personally, they will develop a perception of you based solely on the information that you are providing them. This can be very good for instances such as using networking websites (such as LinkedIn) to gain potential employment. In cases such as this it is not only important to build a positive self image, but also to stay as true to yourself as possible; http://proxygsu-geo1.galileo.usg.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=85825647&site=eds-live&scope=site, if you were to fail to do so the repercussions could be disastrous. Consider for a moment what would happen if you placed a false positive image of yourself only to be called out on it later. Most people understand that not everyone will think that they are a great person, and so instead of trying to tailor their image to any one person they instead use their own mental view of themselves as the base. By knowingly admitting that people who may know you will see you in whatever light they have already cast you in when creating profiles and such, this shows that people have at least some type of meta-insight.
On another vein people who come across as narcissistic whether on social media sites or in actual day to day life have a surprising amount of meta-insight. While many may find these people arrogant and overbearing, the same number of people believe that the person in question has no idea that this is how people think of them. I would say that the main thoughts that come to mind when thinking of narcissistic people are that they are so full of themselves they don't know that they irritate everyone. In this article: http://proxygsu-geo1.galileo.usg.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=pdh&AN=2011-10561-001&site=eds-live&scope=site, I have found that not only do narcissistic people know how others view them, they actually share the general populations view. This interesting fact begs the question why then would they act in such a way if they knew and understood that people viewed them in a less than positive light. This apparently has something to do with the fact that their meta-perceptions are less biased than their self-perceptions, but to them the self-perception is all that matters.
While I believe that most people are aware of the way that other's view them there are certain characteristics that people are not aware of. Everyone has a unique identifier that most people attribute to them. This identifier is not always known by the person. I think this would be the only case where someone would be unaware of someones view of them. On Facebook this identifier could be that people describe them as "teeth girl" because of their tendency to post pictures of them with all of their teeth and gums showing. (If you don't believe me think of someone you and a friend know and describe them in an abstract manner using only the thing about them that stands out the most to you. You'll be surprised.) http://proxygsu-geo1.galileo.usg.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edselp&AN=S0092656613000536&site=eds-live&scope=site
References
Carlson, E. N., Vazire, S., & Furr, R. M. (2011). Meta-insight: Do people really know how others see them? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101(4), 831-846. doi:10.1037/a0024297
Damnianović, V., Matović, V., Kostić, S., & Okanović, M. (2012). The Role of the LinkedIn Social Media in Building the Personal Image. Management (1820-0222), (65), 15-23. doi:10.7595/management.fon.2012.0036
Carlson, E. N., Vazire, S., & Oltmanns, T. F. (2011). You probably think this paper's about you: Narcissists' perceptions of their personality and reputation. Journal Of Personality And Social Psychology, 101(1), 185-201. doi:10.1037/a0023781
Anne-Marie B., G., Erika N., C., Martin, H., & Daniel, L. (n.d). You spy with your little eye: People are “blind” to some of the ways in which they are consensually seen by others. Journal Of Research In Personality, 47464-471. doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2013.04.001
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