Self-Presentation and Gender on Social Networking Sites - Research Paper Example

? Self-Presentation and Gender on Social Networking Sites Department, Details of the student] [Correspondence details of the student] Abstract Social networking has gained importance in the last few years. The social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace are popular online venues for interactions and expressions. The extensive use of internet by the people of different genders, race and community, has brought a completely new method of self presentation on these social network sites. These sites allow the users’ to create a profile that reflects their identity. A study by Magnuson and Dundes (2008) about the MySpace Profiles for 51 females and 49 males revealed that women had a better self presentation profiles on MySpace than men. Also they were more active that the males. The studies also revealed that although females dominate the social network sites, they have to depend on others for their sense of self as they do traditionally depend on the male in their families. A similar study by Manago et.al. (2008) revealed that social networking sites were a means to explore one’s own identity, engage into social comparison and express idealised aspects of selves they had dreamt to be. This paper tries to identify the ways in which males and females present themselves online in the social networking environment. The paper also intends to check if culture influences self presentation of genders in social networking. Keywords: Social Networking Sites, Gender Difference, Self-Presentation Self-Presentation and Gender on Social Networking Sites Self-presentation is a very important aspect of today’s globalised world. According to Leary (1996) “Self-presentation is kind of impression management, which is the management of other’s impressions of a social unit such as people or organisation” (p. 17). Studies have revealed that self-presentation is done either consciously or unconsciously. It’s important for smooth functioning of social interactions (Leary, 1996). Self-presentation is an extremely important factor of human psychology and differs according to gender (Leary, 1996, p.3). However the increasing popularity of social networking sites (SNSs) like Facebook and MySpace has given new dimensions to self-presentation of oneself on these sites. Thus this subject has also attracted researchers to the study the gender differences in self-presentation on these sites. A study by Kornblum (2006) revealed the exploded popularity of these SNSs with users numbering to hundreds of millions in the recent years. However self-presentation on SNSs differs from face-to-face self-presentation. Self-presentation on SNSs differs because one can “inspect, edit and revise” one’s self presentation before it is available to others (Walther, Slovacek & Tidwell, 2001, p.110). These sites proclaim to help people get connected and share with the people in their lives. Thus SNSs create a real-life social network for people online. Although the SNSs are a replica of a real-life social network but the environment provided by the SNSs differs greatly from real life (cited in Hinduja and Patchin, 2008, p. 127). The studies have revealed that several people have 1000 other people on their friend list which is nearly impossible in the real life. These SNSs provide people with unique opportunities to stay connected to more people than they might otherwise have and to be able to know in their real lives. Also people can construct any kind of image about themselves that they would like to portrait to the people on their friend list. The self-presentation on these SNSs allows the users to construct an audience as they can add or remove friends from their social network in just seconds, with no more efforts but just a click on the mouse. Past research suggests that these SNSs are most popular among adolescents as it allows them to experiment with their identity. Research also suggests that adolescent girls use SNSs more than the adolescent boys as it gives them a way to create a comfort zone for themselves and see how others view them (Blais et al., 2008). Culture, Gender and SNSs Identity of an individual forms over time by interactions with other individuals (Lerner, 2002 as cited in Manago et.al, 2008). Culture plays a vital role in influencing an individual’s style of interaction (Adams and Marshall, 1996). Past literature about gender differences suggest that culture influences an individual’s identity based on gender (Eagly, 1987). According to Rosen et al. (2010) “gender refers to the way the society constructs discourses and behaviours around biological differences of sex.” Culture influences an individual the most in adolescents which is the right age to start activities related to gender self presentation. Cultural norms of future family planning as well as career roles may help the formation of self presentation in adolescence. This process of identity formation largely differs in men and women. As discussed earlier the past researches have shown that the SNSs are most popular among the young men and women, their self presentation on these sites is thus culturally influenced to some extent. For example, language is a medium of communication. Use of language is the main criteria to differentiate between the genders under the cultural context. A study by Lenhart and Madden (2004) as cited in Rosen et al. (2010) revealed that gender communication can be well differentiated on the basis of language choice on these SNSs. Thus the studies revealed that the use of language by men and women segregates them into altogether different cultures. However Hecht, Warren, Jung and Krieger (2004) (cited in Rosen et.al., 2010) argue that regardless of the medium of communication, culture influences an individual’s self identity and presentation. Social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace are the online environments which build relationship networks for their users (Carstensen, 2009). Users on these SNSs present themselves through a profile which gives the users the basic information about the user’s gender, date of birth, geographical location, education, interests etc. The gender information on the profile provides a strong platform for the study of gender presentation and gender difference in the use of these SNSs. Self-presentation is an integral part of one’s identity, “a complex social construction created and sustained by a subject’s location within a culture and society” (Thiel, 2005). Identity is achieved by the social status and the positive vibes that one gets from his/her audience. This identity is especially important for adolescents, has they frequently try to impress others and establish social norms. According to the communication theory of identity (as cited in Rosen et al., 2010), identity of an individual is not only projected through his/her communication, but the way he/she communicates is the part of self. Thus as discussed earlier communication reveals the cultural characteristics regardless of the medium of communication. Identity formation however differs for men and women as they negotiate different kinds of social roles for interpersonal behaviour. Gender is an important element of one’s personality and cultural as well as the society influences it differently. “Affection, childlike, gentle and shy” are the attributes associated with females whereas men are defined to be “ambitious, leading and decision makers” (Bem, 1974). Although these are expectable gender norms in the society, these are changing however for adolescent college going girls (Kimmel, 2008 as cited in Vrabel , 2010). As discussed earlier, the SNSs are most widely used by adolescent men and women. The SNSs are a sort of gray area between the public and the private spheres for these adolescents (William and Merten, 2008). The SNSs allow these adolescent men and women to portrait themselves online as they would like to image themselves but however are not the same offline. Discussion Erving Goffman (1959), social psychologist, theorises self-presentation as an act of individuals to impress others around them. However after reviewing the literature of self presentation, it is evident that self presentation is gender based and demonstrates masculine and feminine traits. The literature has also made it evident that cultural plays a role in presenting oneself on the SNS communities. Most of the literature reviewed was in context to MySpace, a social networking web site founded in 1993 by Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe. MySpace offers its users a network of friends that is user-submitted and interactive, as well as space to upload personal information, blogs, groups, photos, videos and music. A study by Magnuson and Dundes (2008) about the MySpace profiles revealed the unique differences in identity and networking habits of men and women. The studies showed that men are much likely to mention their significant achievements or goals in “About Me” or “Interest” section than women would. It was established through the study that gender role construction on MySpace corresponded to gender construction in real life. Thus whether it is a real life scenario or an environment provided by the SNSs, women are always subordinate to men. Identity formation is an integral process which is influenced with relationships with family members, peers and personal ambitions. However men do not feel the need to emphasise on these to describe themselves. On the other hand, women may still feel the need to associate these relations to describe themselves. This proves the cultural aspect which governs not only the offline environments which are gender bias but influence the online environments as well. The study of the MySpace profiles by Magnuson and Dundes (2008) also revealed the individualist and being unique quality of men inspite being in relations. Whereas women were seen to be connected to both: personal as well as professional lives at the same time through their profiles (Etaugh and Bridges, 2003). Men do not establish their identity on SNSs based on one aspect however women learn to balance satisfaction their needs with defining themselves in relations to others. Another study by Vrabel (2010) regarding the gender roles on Facebook illustrated the following differences in male and female self-presentation online. The study by Vrabel (2010) indicated the women were more interested in creation of audiences for themselves than men. The studies revealed that women were more interested in making friends than men. Culture plays a role in this behaviour of men as they are expected to be aggressive and assertive socially (cited in Vrabel, 2010). Also women deleted people from their friend list upon a negative experience more than their counterpart. Photographs are an important element in presenting oneself. Studies by Vrabel (2010) suggested that gender behaviour differed the most in the occurrence of sexual references and the type of profiles photos selected by the Facebook users. Adolescent girls were the least likely to hide their inappropriate sexual pleasures on their Facebook profile. The numbers was more than that of men as well as senior women in the sample of study. These results pointed to the fact that women do not include serious information on their profile but use the words which give an impression of being casual and unemotional which interested young men (Bem, 1974). This was against the traditionally and culturally framework expected from females. Studies by Manago et al. (2008) showed similar finding on MySpace where young women very at a lead to exposure sexual photographs on their profiles to draw comments and attention from the MySpace public. Studies have revealed that female dominate the SNSs like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and Flickr where male dominate the sites like LinkedIn and YouTube. A Wall Street Journal reported that men use the SNSs to find and share information however the women use it mainly as a communication tool (Norris). All the reviewed literature thus suggested that though women are independent of the traditional customs, they are still governed by culture. 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