Home / News / Facebook profanity : Why you should care.

Facebook profanity : Why you should care.

By on May 26, 2011 1:12 am

Facebook is probably the only place where you can talk to a wall without other people thinking that you are mentally deranged. However, according to Reppler, a social media monitoring service, Facebook users should pay much more attention on what they are talking to a wall about; especially theirs.

Reppler is merely a two month old service. It has just analyzed 30.000 profiles and has made some disturbing observations:

  • 47 percent of our users have profanity on their Facebook Wall. 
  • 80 percent of our users who have profanity on their Facebook Wall have at least one post/comment with profanity from a friend. 
  • 56 percent of the posts/comments with profanity on a user’s Facebook Wall come from friends. 
  • Users are twice as likely to use profanity in a post on their Facebook Wall, versus a comment. Whereas friends are twice as likely to use profanity in a comment on a user’s Facebook Wall, versus a post. 
  • The most common profane word is a derivation of f*ck, the second most common profane word is sh*t, and b*tch is a distant third. 

The company claims that too much profanity could be bad for you and we agree; people have learned to use Facebook as a tool to do research and even spy on other people. Sometimes their motives might be good but it is not always so – it is known that employers, colleges and practically everyone who wants to take a quick peek into your past (and personal life) might use Facebook to do so. If (when) that happens, you really do not need too much profanity all over your profile. If you are posting profanity yourself it makes you unprofessional, if others are posting profanity on your wall you appear as if you have no control over other people and therefore no charisma/leadership skills, and the list goes on endlessly.

But that is only half of the story. Reppler published this data for the simplest of reasons : They are a company and they selling their product. Their product is a service which will keep your Facebook image clean and professional by contacting you about inappropriate content and showing you how other could perceive you. It does sound like a good product and we are sure it will help several people – on the other hand and since Reppler themselves published the data, most people would be more concerned about the validity of the study itself since it is coming from the same company which is selling the service. 

 

Related Items