# These people do not exist: the psychology of social media profiles

**URL:** <https://community.humanetech.com/t/these-people-do-not-exist-the-psychology-of-social-media-profiles/3473>\
**Category:** Harms to society\
**Created:** [February 22, 2019, 12:50pm UTC](https://community.humanetech.com/t/these-people-do-not-exist-the-psychology-of-social-media-profiles/3473 "2019-02-22T12:50:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cjamcmahon](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/community.humanetech.com/cjamcmahon/32/1366_2.png) [@cjamcmahon](https://community.humanetech.com/u/cjamcmahon)\
**Post date:** [February 22, 2019, 12:50pm UTC](https://community.humanetech.com/t/these-people-do-not-exist-the-psychology-of-social-media-profiles/3473/1 "2019-02-22T12:50:46Z")

</div>

![PNG](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/uploads/humanetech/original/2X/3/3b979a03a64af8207566e79a2ee2e6544322ff99.jpeg)

Have you guys come across [thispersondoesnotexist.com](http://thispersondoesnotexist.com) yet? if so, you should really try it out - very spooky!

I’ve posted some thoughts about it over on Facebook about how artificially generated profile photographs can affect how we see each other online.

[These people do not exist: the psychology of social media profiles](https://www.facebook.com/notes/social-media-psychology/these-people-do-not-exist-the-psychology-of-social-media-profiles/2197838647197581/)

> If you haven’t seen [thispersondoesnotexist.com](http://thispersondoesnotexist.com) yet - do it now. It is the creepiest thing I’ve seen online in about a week. That’s where I got the header images from - they have been randomly generated by a new type of artificial intelligence.  
> However, this reminds me of an incredible episode in the history of social media.  
> Does anyone remember back in 2011 when A Gay Girl in Damascus became a heroine of the Syrian revolt?

```auto

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![greg](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/community.humanetech.com/greg/32/18_2.png) [@greg](https://community.humanetech.com/u/greg)\
**Post date:** [February 25, 2019, 6:22pm UTC](https://community.humanetech.com/t/these-people-do-not-exist-the-psychology-of-social-media-profiles/3473/2 "2019-02-25T18:22:00Z")

</div>

I’m not really spooked by it any more than, say, deepfakes. Or anymore than [ThisAirBnBDoesNotExist](https://thisairbnbdoesnotexist.com/).

It’s a cute novelty, but I don’t see a practical point to it beyond that. Once you’ve proven you can do something, I don’t need to see it again.

Perhaps kind of like when Netflix tried heavy signaling when they first released an entire season of House of Cards at once. As if to say, “This is no longer TV”. And then for years afterwards we are all scrambling how to navigate talking about TV programs with other people because nobody is watching the same serial at the same time or pace anymore - preventing conversations and, quite honestly, denying the show’s producers from learning about whether a character or plotline is working or not and allowing them to change it before season’s end.