Why do women often include someone else in their profile pic on Facebook?

It’s a security thing! They want you to see that they have friends and have fun with said friends. I don’t really understand, and I’m a woman….I would give up now if I were you!

Why does it annoy you? It’s just a picture with two people in it Guys do it too. We’re just showing off our beautiful friends, or using a picture from a good time we had.

Never thought it was just a woman thing
many show their friends, children, boyfriends
but so do guys
maybe guys that are scared to be seen as gay don’t show pictures of themselves and their guy friends
but that’s our heteronormative society for ya

I’ve never done that, but I don’t see the problem with it.

This is like asking why women go to the bathroom together…..You just need to learn to live with it.

hmm, my facebook picture is of me and a friend of mine. unless you don’t know me, i guess you wouldn’t know which one i was…but, i wouldn’t befriend someone if i didn’t know them.
It’s just a picture.

@critter1982
not that i care to identify as a woman or anything
and not that i think all women go to the bathroom together
but, geez, who knew it was something one ‘needs to learn to live with’
:)

I think the women that do that are insecure about themselves and want to make sure everyone knows there liked and that they have friends. They think it makes look more appealing and that they are liked.

Maybe they think they look good in that photo.
Most people smile bigger or make funnier faces when photographed with other people.

It’s to ward off unwanted attention.

surprised that didn’t come up sooner

lol @jessicar you really think that?

I personally rarely have photos taken of just me. So, it’s easier to find a recent photo of me with someone than without. And my photos are almost always of me with my son. My FB photo is of me and a friend of mine, at her welcome home party, she just did 15 months in Afghanistan.

@kevbo Good point. It can be a good way of stating they’re in a relationship before someone even tries hitting on her.

@casheroo Some of the girls I know, yeah thats true. I guess it depends on whos in the photo with u also.

@jessicar then you shouldn’t make such a blanket statement about women.

Well, I think people try and use pictures that represent them at their best and when they’re having the most fun, which most often, includes other people. Also, it feels weird to put up pictures of just yourself. It feels a little too much like a marketing tactic. Which brings me to my next question – why does it bother you?

Do you treat Facebook like a dating tool or do you generally think its purpose is for people to update their friends with what they’re doing?

I just did a little informal survey of 150 friends’ Facebook profiles to see if I could get some hard data on this. I found 21 women with pictures of them with someone else, and only 2 men. Of those, several were with their partners/spouses, several with their kids, and a few were with their mother, their sister, their friend, and groups of friends.

I don’t use Facebook as a dating tool. Why is it annoying to me? I’m seeing that my annoyance may not be very rational. I guess when I’m looking at my friends’ profile, I want to see my friend – not her friends. If I want to see her friend, I’ll look at her other photos.

It makes sense that a woman wants to look her best, and sometimes that happens to be when she’s with her friends. That’s fine. This just seems to be like the bathroom thing. I’ll just have to shake my head and let it be, as critter said.

What makes sense to me is that women experience themselves as more relational beings. That who they are is largely a product of their friendships and relationships, much more than men. Could that be true? Still open to other reasons and explanations.

My facebook picture is my daughter and I put it on there not because I don’t like my own pictures, but I just love looking at her cute face all the time.

I do think you are on to something with women being relational, we identify ourselves with others.

I don’t understand @Trustinglife, why you think there are two people in the picture. It’s a well known fact that women are born as Siamese twins about fifty percent of the time, while men, for some inexplicable reason, are usually born solo.

@daloon And sometimes there are quadruplets. It’s more common than I thought!

@miasmom, Isn’t a profile picture meant more as a public representation than a private enjoyment? I see my assumption was wrong, huh?

Because they want to look better by comparison duh, ugly chicks do this all the time by getting fat ugly girls to stand next to them.

My profile picture usually has me and my boyfriend in it. One time he saw me changing my picture to one without him, and he got his feelings hurt, and asked me if I didn’t want people to know that we were together, so he’s in about half of all my profile pictures, but I rotate them, and he doesn’t happen to be in it right now.

I can’t speak for all women. I would definitely say that different people make their choices for different reasons.

Mine are kind of an amalgamation of what I just said + what casheroo said: I just have more pictures with other people in them + what several people mentioned: you want to show a picture where you’re having fun or a picture of a time that was special to you, and usually this involves more people than just ourselves, so other people are in the picture too.

I like it, I think it gives a little glimpse into your life, better than just a headshot of you, close up with a white background. That reminds me of a modeling card, where the person viewing it is just evaluating you on how thin you are, how shiny your hair is, how clear your skin is, the curve or your nose, and how well you fit some kind of profile of what they’re looking for. No thanks. Not for my personal life.

That helps. That makes sense.

Stalkers?

For me, it’s just a matter of whatever picture I like. I have had FB profile pics with just me in them or me and a group of friends or some random picture that has nothing to do with me. It’s as simple as that – I like that picture. I think there’s some overanalyzing going on on this thread. Especially those that feel the girl has insecurity problems because she doesn’t want a picture of just her. eyeroll

because their friend is in the picture!
my biggest pet peeve is when people cut their friends out of pictures. like ‘oh yeah, i was with my friend but like, they’re not really important…’

i love my friends, and if i look good in a picture and they’re in it, it’s even more of a reason to put it up. (: