Edit or erase? Do relentlessly positive postings on social media disrupt targeted advertising?

There has been a frenzy of postings on social media over the past week as people wish in the New Year with updates and photos.

How you portray yourself and your family is of course an edited version.

But is it a truthful one, or do people inevitably put a positive spin on their lives?

A study just published has shown that mothers especially refrain from putting pictures of their children having a tantrum on Facebook, opting instead for cute pictures, as they are under pressure to be validated as good mothers.

But what about other aspects of our lives? Are we always editing in the good bits and erasing our so so, or frankly rubbish days, and what effect could this have on targeted advertising?

Lisa Pollack is an avid social media user and journalist at the Financial Times - she told us it wasn't surprising that mothers wanted to airbrush family life.