Much of Facebook’s genius revolves around the Wall: a public space that we curate but that other people can add to. Within the universe of the site, where everyone is a “friend,” you feel a special compulsion to respond to Wall posts—to comment on others’ posts to yours and to reciprocate by writing on theirs.
We want our Walls to reflect ourselves. It’s analogous to the way we curate our belongings, which itself is a window into our personalities. (The psychologist Sam Gosling has shown you can learn more about people from their possessions than from spending time with them. Walls are basically the same—a storefront window to the self.) Users want to display a self that is somewhere between their real self and how they would like to be perceived, which creates a substantial motivation for constant monitoring and upkeep of the Wall.
