self presentation and gender on myspace

UC Santa Cruz

Self-presentation and gender on MySpace

• Manago, Adriana M ;
• Graham, Michael B ;
• Greenfield, Patricia M ;
• Salimkhan, Goldie

Published Web Location

Within the cultural context of MySpace, this study explores the ways emerging adults experience social networking. Through focus group methodology, the role of virtual peer interaction in the development of personal, social, and gender identities was investigated. Findings suggest that college students utilize MySpace for identity exploration, engaging in social comparison and expressing idealized aspects of the selves they wish to become. The public nature of self and relationship displays introduce feedback mechanisms by which emerging adults can legitimize images as associated with the self. Also, male-female differences in self-presentation parallel, and possibly intensify, gender norms offline. Our study suggests that social networking sites provide valuable opportunities for emerging adults to realize possible selves; however, increased pressure for female sexual objectification and intensified social comparison may also negatively impact identity development. A balanced view, presenting both opportunities and drawbacks, should be encouraged in policies regarding youth participation in social networking sites.

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Self-presentation and gender on MySpace

2008, Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology

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• Volume 29, Issue 6

Self-Presentation and Gender on MySpace ARTICLE

Adriana m. manago , michael b. graham , patricia m. greenfield , goldie salimkhan.

Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology Volume 29 , Number 6 , 2008 ISSN 0193-3973

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Within the cultural context of MySpace, this study explores the ways emerging adults experience social networking. Through focus group methodology, the role of virtual peer interaction in the development of personal, social, and gender identities was investigated. Findings suggest that college students utilize MySpace for identity exploration, engaging in social comparison and expressing idealized aspects of the selves they wish to become. The public nature of self and relationship displays introduce feedback mechanisms by which emerging adults can legitimize images as associated with the self. Also, male-female differences in self-presentation parallel, and possibly intensify, gender norms offline. Our study suggests that social networking sites provide valuable opportunities for emerging adults to realize possible selves; however, increased pressure for female sexual objectification and intensified social comparison may also negatively impact identity development. A balanced view, presenting both opportunities and drawbacks, should be encouraged in policies regarding youth participation in social networking sites. (Contains 1 table.)

Manago, A.M., Graham, M.B., Greenfield, P.M. & Salimkhan, G. (2008). Self-Presentation and Gender on MySpace. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 29 (6), 446-458. Retrieved October 25, 2024 from https://www.learntechlib.org/p/101731/ .

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• College Students
• computer mediated communication
• Feedback (Response)
• focus groups
• gender differences
• Gender Issues
• Identification (Psychology)
• interaction
• Peer Relationship
• Social Influences
• social networks
• Young Adults

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PSYCH 424 blog

The presentation of online-self.

Hello everybody,

This week’s topic for Applied Social Psychology dove into how the media, the Internet, and technology in general impact our lives and society as a whole. The assigned article this week called “Self Presentation and Gender on MySpace”, by Manago, Graham, Greenfield, and Salimkhan (2008), explored the different ways that emerging adults interacted with social networking sites, specifically MySpace, to express and explore their social identities. They found that social networking sites “provided emerging adults with new cultural tools for identity exploration” (Manago et. al., 2008).

This article, along with its title, reminded me Erving Goffman’s work The Presentation of Self In Everyday Life (1959) where he introduces a perspective called the dramaturgical approach – which parallels social interactions with theatrical performances (Goffman, 1959). In Goffman’s perspective, we are all playing various roles in our every day lives, depending on the ‘stage’, or social situation, that we find ourselves on. The Internet, with its social networking sites, can be viewed as yet another stage where we can play a role in our everyday lives. The difference, however is that on Social Media, we can play many different types of roles within the same platform, depending on who we are engaging with through a particular post, comment, or photo. Goffman also coined the term impression management, which, as the term implies, is our want to control what others think about us on the ‘front stage’ (Goffman, 1959). The interesting aspect of social media is that we can pick and choose a target audience for any posts that we make – let’s supposed I posted a sexy picture of myself on Facebook, I wouldn’t necessarily want family members to view that post, but rather I would choose the audience to be friends except family members (that I would’ve grouped beforehand). If I post a picture of just my family let’s say, I would reverse the audience. I would have just presented two different aspects of my social identity within the same platform, played two different roles, and I would have chosen to manipulate other peoples’ impressions of me through my appearance and my manner. Goffman suggests that the only part of the stage where we can shed our fronts and be ourselves is the ‘back stage’. What is worrisome about this is that nowadays, with the growing number hours we spend on social media, this back stage where we can be ourselves and not worry about what other people think is getting smaller smaller – and soon, there may not be enough room on the backstage to step back and take a breath from the social world.

Social media definitely has many good aspects to it, and I for one rely on it time and time again due to my social anxiety issues. But I guess what I’m trying to say is that we should stop this ‘impression management’ that we find ourselves doing all the time, because at the end of the day it doesn’t matter what others say or think (which I know sounds unbelievably cliché). I for one have been trying to live through this motto, being a person who constantly, and unhealthily thought about what others thought about me.

I just shed a part of my front to write this post, in an attempt to expand my backstage. Let me know if you give that a try 🙂

References:

Goffman, E. (1959). Presentation of self in everyday life. Garden City, NY: Doubleday Anchor Books.

Manago, A., Graham, M., Greenfield, P., & Salimkhan, G. (2008). Self-presentation and gender on MySpace.  Journal Of Applied Developmental Psychology ,  29 (6), 446-458. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2008.07.001

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