A study by Nina Haferkamp, Ph.D., M.Sc., Sabrina C. Eimler, M.Sc., M.A., Anna-Margarita Papdakis, B.A., and Jana Vanessa Kruck, B.A. Presentation by Melissa Elliott

 Are there are gender-specific differences between how men and woman use social networking sites (SNS) to present themselves in their online profiles?  What are the motives for the online personalities they create?  Hypotheses 1- “Female users put a higher priority on communicative exchange via SNS than male users”.  Hypotheses 2- “Male users put a higher priority on task and information oriented behavior on SNS than female users”.  Three additional questions asked-  1)“Do men and women have different self-presentation strategies when using profile features on SNS?”  2)“What are the motives of men and women in joining groups on SNS?”  3)“Are there different motivations for female SNS users to look at other people’s online profiles?”

 Two methodologies used- Survey Questionnaire Research (in the form of an online survey) and Content Analysis (of online user profiles).  500 random members selected of the German SNS site StudiVZ  An invitation was messaged to them that included a description of the study as well as an access code to use if they choose to participate.  359 people completed their questionnaire. The profiles of 54 men and 52 women were selected to be analyzed.  Four coders used plus an additional fifth coder was used in order to improve reliability.  Coder agreement ranged from 0.73 to 1.0 which exceeds the desired minimum.  In online profiles, coders paid specific attention to the subject’s friends, groups they belong to, photos, total completed fields, type of photo used, political orientation, relationship status and use of their real name.  The questionnaire served to determine subjects’ motives regarding their online profile, choice of group membership, and perceptions of others’ profiles and offered the subjects a 5-point Likert scale to rate their responses ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree” to answer these questions.

 Overall- Women use social networking sites to compare themselves to others and to search for information.  Overall- Men use social networking sites to seek out new friends by looking at member profiles.  Hypothesis 1- data shows that the opposite is true of their original assumption and men tend to use SNS to create new relationships more than women.  Hypothesis 2 - rejected as the researchers found no significant results.  Question 1- found to be true in that women do employ different ways of presenting themselves online than men do in that they use a profile picture of themselves as opposed to a full-body shot.  Question 2- no significant differences here, however, it was found that women use group membership as a tool to improve their online self-image.  Question 3- found that men use personal profiles to find new relationships while women use them as a means for personal comparison.

 Initially the researchers thought that face-to-face communication and typical online behavior including SNS use and profile creation would be similar.  Women would tend to focus more on the creation of relationships.  Men would use SNS in a more task-oriented manner. Through their results, they found that the opposite is true.  Men is to use SNS to gather information, via the online profiles of others, in order to create new relationships.  Women use this site as a tool for personal display and entertainment purposes.

 Researchers felt that the categories chosen in their content analysis section did not display any major differences between men and women.  They believe an additional category should have been included that asked whether or not the photo depicts the person in an “extraordinarily positive manner” which would help to determine if the genders preferred to present themselves in a realistic or idealized way.  Further limitations of this study include the small sample size used that focused mainly on university students using only the StudiVZ site.  Low reliability values that were derived. For future research they suggest the inclusion of a category based on profile picture use between genders as well as broadening the sample to include Facebook and MySpace users and that encompasses a greater subject pool than one mainly comprised of university students.

 The researchers clearly stating the questions they intended to answer as well as the hypotheses they looked to either prove or disprove.  The researchers mentioned that this and future studies should help to bridge the gender gap, a topic that is continuously studied by communication scholars and the like.  There was no specific theoretical perspective mentioned in the study, however, the researchers discussed a quote from political science professor, Bruce Bimber, who feels that the a large part of the “digital divide” on the internet is gender-related.  One might assume that the researchers were inspired by this and their research, in part, stemmed from this quote.  Previous findings and thoughts regarding gender-specific uses for the internet were discussed in detail.  No previous studies were mentioned regarding their topic of interest although it is assumed that due to their unanswered question, no relevant studies were available to be mentioned.

 Hypotheses were relevant and appropriate for given topic.  Both made a single prediction.  Study should be considered exploratory research.  Researchers were not specific as to why they chose StudiVZ as opposed to Facebook or how and for what reasons they chose 500 people at random belonging to only one SNS site.  The sample size was not large enough to be a proper population representation.  Their combined use of methodologies seemed appropriate for their research  They explained their procedures in a detailed way so that another researcher should be able to replicate this study.  Exactly how the sample was derived from the SNS was left out so another researcher would have to familiarize themselves on StudiVZ if they are unfamiliar with the layout.  The procedures appear valid.  Reliability is somewhat a concern where they limit themselves to a German SNS that is comprised of mainly university students and would potentially change over time- though graduation

 The results section was organized clearly and concisely and offered an explanation of the data collected.  Presented quantitatively, the data was appropriate to the study and was useful in answering both hypotheses and the questions posed.  The researchers openly discussed that the findings of their research.  They make note of potential limitations of their work that included a mention of their small sample size that focused on a singular SNS and population that accessed it.  They suggest for future research that a larger sample be utilized that incorporates other social network sites such as Facebook or MySpace that has a much larger and diverse member population.  Use of a larger sample offers a greater amount of usable profiles.  The references section appeared to be complete and offered a wide array of current primary and secondary sources.  Specific to survey questionnaire research- their choice of online survey was a good option to garner the information necessary for their study.  There did not appear to be any unique respondent attributes.  The closed questions posed on the survey appeared to be worded clearly, neutrally and thorough in an effort to offer enough choices for the respondent to make a valid response without being led by the researcher.  It is unclear if the instructions were brief and unambiguous as they were not listed in the study.  The questionnaires were administered individually but the respondents were not guaranteed anonymity as the researcher is able to connect the user profile to the questionnaire.  No mention of any follow-up calls made to those who did not answer their request for participation.

 Specific to the rules of content analysis, the researchers gathered 106 usable public profiles from their sample of subjects.  This unit was appropriate for answering their gender-specific questions on the content and set-up of online profiles.  For this study, it does not appear that any additional units were necessary.  The units were classified into exhaustive content categories that asserted semantic validity.  It is not mentioned if the coding was done by persons not invested in the research.  Intercoder reliability was sufficient and ranged from

Haferkamp, N., Eimler, S. C., Papadakis, A., & Kruck, J. (2012). Men are from Mars, Women Are from Venus? Examining Gender Differences in Self-Presentation on Social Networking Sites. Cyberpsychology, Behavior & Social Networking, 15(2), doi: /cyber