First Impressions

In the first few seconds of a human being’s first encounter with another human, both people develop thoughts and perceptions of the other that will influence the rest of their relationship. A man once said “Never hire anyone who is going to report directly to you who you do not intuitively just plain like from first impressions. If your instincts tell you you're going to have a hard time working with someone, pass” (Fred Charette). This is evident in not only job interviews, but also at first dates, casual introductions at school…everywhere.


A rarely visited consequence of controlling features shown on Facebook is that a profile gives a user the ability to manipulate others’ first impressions of the person.

Nowadays, before setting job interviews, recruiters are very, very likely to search for the person on Facebook to get a sense of whether the candidate would fit in nicely with the company’s culture. Also nowadays, before a first date, both people involved are very likely to go onto Facebook to find out more about the other to get a hint on whether the other would be compatible. In fact, before any meeting in which person A is about to meet person B, person A is likely to search up person B because of the relatively low cost of finding out more before entering a social interaction.

Before such a vastly used social network, control of first impressions didn’t exist. You could try to look your best as you walked out the door, but after that it’s pretty much up to other people to make judgments on you. With Facebook, others make judgments on you as well, but you have the power to greatly influence those judgments by choosing the perfect profile picture, revealing interests that seem sophisticated and displaying quotes that sound intelligent.

This concept is so prevalent in the job sphere that it deserves its own focus.