Outcome

The purpose of a profile picture on facebook is to attach an image to an account. Should someone search for a person's name, they will see whatever image that person has chosen next to the name. Ideally, that image would be a clear, close up picture of the account holder's face. This would allow other users to identify the account holder more quickly or to differentiate between other users with the same name.

However, not all users do this. Some, if not most, profile pictures on facebook are not simple closeups of the user's face. What, then, are my facebook friends trying to share if not their face?

Twenty four of the fifty pictures I found featured the user with at least one other person (twenty seven if you count animals). This would clearly make it difficult for other users to identify the account, making it undeniably impractical. So this use of group photos must have some benefit outside of what is practical. 

People may value their relationships or friendships over ensuring easy identification. Either that, or they value showing off those relationships to others. 

"Here's me with my friends!" they're saying.

"Here's me with my girlfriend/boyfriend!"

"Here's me with my horse!"

One could draw a number of conclusions from this. A more extreme example would be that even presenting one's own image is not a solitary activity, but one that must involve others. It is a social media platform, after all. Of course, it may be the case that the users simply liked how they looked in those group photos. 

Below is an example of one of these photos. Whose profile picture it is is anyone's guess. Although, we now know they like wrestling. 

Alternatively, I noticed several photos that included no faces at all. Six of the fifty profile pictures did not clearly feature the user's face and one of those six didn't even feature a person but a crude marker drawing of one. Omitting one's own face from the profile picture defeats the purpose of the profile picture. It is meant to show others what you look like. What else, then, could people be doing with these pictures?

I can find no logical reason behind this, so I must assume they do this to look cool or mysterious. They want to use the profile picture to create a feeling or figurative "image" for themselves at the cost of an actual image. 

Below is the drawing one of my friends uses in lieu of a profile picture. He looks nothing like this. I'm fairly certain he does not have a city on his head. 

Below here is another faceless photo. This guy is in a band, so he may very well be going for that mysterious image I mentioned earlier. I think it's working. 

Here, we see a man and his horse. Rather, we see the horse and half of the man. I can only assume that the horse is so important to this person that it eclipses even his own identity. 

Many users of facebook do not, in fact, share their face in their profile pictures. They instead opt to share their friends, partners, and hobbies next to their names on their page. They care little about the practicality of their avatars and use the profile picture system as yet another way to share recent events. We may see profile pictures change from cute couples to group shots with friends as breakups occur. Likewise, vacationing users will likely change their picture to include some beautiful landscape they saw in their travels. 

As I look through more and more profile pictures, I find that the "face" is probably one of the least important aspects of the profile picture.