How Old Is Your Profile Picture?

Tiffany Cruz

6 years ago

Profile Picture

Social media has shaped our society in so many ways. Even the smallest things, like our profile pictures, have some kind of an impact. Did you know, though, that the average social media profile picture is about 2 years old? Does that surprise you?

Image Source: Flickr

In a survey conducted by www.bidvine.com, 2,000 British social media users were asked about their profile pictures. Specifically, they were asked just how old their profile pictures actually were. Weirdly enough? People who used dating websites updated their profile picture less than people who used causal social media accounts. The people who changed their profile picture the most were people who used dating applications on their phone. Let’s take a look at the numbers that bidvine found.

The statistics that are listed below were found by asking the public to state when they last changed their profile pictures on various social media accounts, dating websites, and applications.

Grindr users changed their profile pictures every 2 weeks
Tinder users changed their’s every 3 weeks
People who used WhatsApp changed their picture every 2.5 months
Facebook users changed their picture every 5 months
Instagram users typically changed their picture every 6 months
SnapChat users changed their profile pictures about every 8 months
Twitter uses changed their profile pictures every 1.8 years
LinkedIn users waited about 2.1 years to change their picture
Plenty of Fish users only changed their profile images every 3.2 years
Match.com users only changed their profile pictures an average of every 4 years

Oddly enough, 11% of people who were polled said that the pictures they used for their online profiles had been taken more than a decade ago.

Why don’t users change their profile photo regularly? When asked, 62% of those polled said that they struggled to find pictures they were happy with. 49% of people said they wanted to look like they were younger to others, so they kept their old profile pictures.

Another fun fact? 1 in 4 people polled wouldn’t want their boss to see their current Facebook profile picture.

When asked about the results of the research, the CEO of bidvine.com, Sohrab Jahanbani, said: “Looking at the regularity with which people change their profile photos, it appears that older, more more conventional dating websites and the networks people use on a regular professional basis, such as LinkedIn and Twitter lag behind, while younger single people are more likely to want to use newer photos.

“It appears that people don’t change their photos because they struggle to find photos of themselves they like. So with this in mind, Bidvine is setting up pop up photo booths offering free professional photography for those who want to update their social media profile pictures. As we all know, whether it’s for a wedding, a company headshot or your online profiles, professional photos make a difference. We’ll be announcing cities and dates for the photo booths on our website shortly.”

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