I always try to bring my camera on a night out. You never know what crazy pictures you’ll take.

After snapping a particularly good photo, I showed a friend my work on the preview screen on my camera. The next thing I heard:

Great pic! That’s profile-picture-worthy!

I’d heard this before, but never gave it much thought. However, since I was the DD last night, I had the opportunity to take a step back and think about what that meant.

Profile pictures and the ideal self
Your ideal self is who you you want to be. It’s the way you want to be remembered, the way you would want to be described if your name was going to be passed on in legend. Contrast this with the real self, which is the way you actually are. Imagine describing yourself without hiding or embellishing anything, and then having an accounting firm objectively verify your description.

Profile pictures — and your profile pages, for that matter — are a reflection of your ideal self. The details you choose to fill out your interests, favorite artists list, your “about me” section …these are manifestations of the way you want people to perceive you.

So a profile pic is “Facebook worthy” when it aligns with the way you want to be viewed. Your picture is much more than a photo to identify you; if this were the case, we’d scan our driver’s license pics and never change it. That would be broadcasting your real self, and nobody wants to do that.

Profile pictures are vital pieces of our online identities since they can influence others’ perceptions of who we are. It’s one of the many ways we Gen Y-ers manage our reputations.

…bar nights are so much more intellectual when you’re a DD.