Intention

When I was analyzing more than 60 profile pictures for the last creative assignment, I noticed that people seldom use group pictures with their family members. And when I say "people", the majority is our generation, millennium who is attending college. The phenomenon provokes my curiosity in learning why often times we don't put our family pictures as our profile pictures as well as the response my audience might have towards a very family-oriented profile picture. I have a twin brother and it always surprises others when they get to learn the fact, which makes me feel special and proud. By putting up a picture with my twin brother, I intend to emphasize that I have always been a big sister, caring, responsible and decisive and that I am very special and lucky to always have someone grow with together. These won't contradict the image I have already established on Facebook, but it will give my audience a very different perspective to view the personality I have.

Process

Static profile picture and dynamic interaction are two aspects that are largely considered in my design. First of all, I would like to select pictures that convey a strong message of "twins" - this can be wearing the same clothes, doing the same stuff, and just matching poses. I also filtered out pictures where we are not interacting with each other or are with a group of some other people. In terms of the dynamic interaction, I was imagining that my twin brother would have some early responses to my change of profile picture since I seldom put up photos with him on the social media. The online interaction between my brother and I would likely stimulate some conversations among my friends and I. He doesn't check FB that much so I emphasized to him on checking the updates without specifying the reason. Besides, I also planned to add a brief description to the picture - just to give my audience a general idea of what this is coming from and more importantly, to confess that my relationship with my twin brother has been "loving and fighting". I have also learned that timing is very important so I make sure that it is not published on a Friday morning.

Product

I took pictures of some old photos and chose the one where we were wearing the same shirts, holding some gifts simultaneously and looking satisfied. I also had similar hairstyle as my twin brother and looked boyish, which is a lot different from my current personal front. Along with the photos, I added the following description: "introducing….my twin brother Yifan. Long long time since we last wore matching clothes. More fightings and lovings to go!"

Effect

Audience Response: Surprisingly, not many people responded to my change of the profile picture. Compared to my previous profile pictures, the number of "likes" and "comments" are much smaller. Most people seem to be indifferent about my first ever childhood profile picture with my twin brother on Facebook. The following image shows online interactions around my new profile picture after almost three days. The second image shows my previous profile picture and the online responses to it.