'Only one in five people tell the truth on Facebook'

Less than 20 per cent of people portray themselves truthfully on social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter, a new UK-based study has found.

According to the survey of 2,000 Britons, just 18 per cent represent themselves accurately, while the huge majority only post content which makes their lives look more interesting to their friends and family.

The results also showed that men are more likely to lie through their social networking profiles than women.

Nearly half (43 per cent) of men admitted that their social media profile is not an accurate representation of their real lives.

Almost one third of participants said their profile pages on Facebook and Twitter are “pretty accurate, just with all the boring bits removed.”

Nearly 14 per cent admitted that their profiles make it look like they have a “much more active social life” than they actually do, ‘ibtimes.co.uk’ reported.

Conducted by Custard, a digital marketing agency, the survey also showed that the largest annoyance to British social network users was other people posting attention-seeking statuses.

Around 42 per cent of respondents felt that content like “gushing about babies or partners” and handing out cryptic complaints about other people was the most annoying.

Uploading too many selfies was the second-highest ranking annoyance, voted for by 40 per cent.

Around a quarter of Britons admitted to getting into trouble after posting something on social media, as well as getting into an argument with someone over something they had posted on social media, with politics, religion and sexism being the most popular topics of confrontation.