Project 2 Paper

MySpace Users

The way men and women portray themselves on MySpace may be completely different from how they come across in reality. Some people may be more open about their personal lives on MySpace and may seem like they want everyone to know what is going on in their life, whereas, other profiles may be very simple. There are various reasons about why people present themselves differently on online social networking sites them in real life. Some believe it is because it isn’t “real”, and others believe people may be afraid to portray themselves in real life as they do on MySpace.
The way people act on MySpace compared to real life may be a controversial issue. There isn’t a specific statement that can be made of why this is done but there are many assumptions. The reason some people may feel it’s easier to be more open on MySpace is because it’s not a face to face thing where one can see how people are going to react to the comments, pictures or information posted. There is also no guarantee that the way people present themselves on MySpace is how they act is real life. People may be shy in real life and find it easier to tell people about their lives online, whereas, there may be people who do not put a lot of information on their MySpace page but may be very active and open about their lives in real life. On yahoo answers I found an answer to the question posted by 2sweet, “Why do people act different on MySpace then they normally are?” The answer I found to be very well thought out was posted by Lafemelle, “Some people are just like that, though...they let their guard down more on the internet. And sometimes, they act different because they feel less afraid to be "themselves" on MySpace. If it really bothers you, talk to her. If not, just know she has her own reasons for being that way.” I feel this response is true in many cases/for many people that use social networking cites.
Men and women seem to have a trend of a variety of differences in their MySpace pages. Statistics from the article show that women are more expressive about their personal lives compared to men. In percentages 43% of males did not mention their significant other at all in their “about me” section of their page; whereas only 16% of females did not mention their significant other. The article states that males tend to feel more complete and secure about themselves where as females find the need to take the interpersonal approach and be cautious about what others may think of them. Women are usually looking for validation when putting up information on their MySpace pages. Putting themselves out there and getting comments on their posts give them a rush, and may be addictive.
People seem to stereotype women as being more open about everything about their lives on MySpace and related social networking sites, compared to men. This is not true from browsing MySpace and comparing a number of random male and female profiles with one another. People need to understand that there is still a certain number of males that to present themselves openly on MySpace as well. This means that not only women are open about their personal lives, but there are men out there that like to share their lives with others too.
It still is not clear why there is such a difference in the way men and women act online. From reading different articles about social networking it seems there is variation in MySpace pages according to how one feels about sharing their personal lives. Some people find it easier to write and post stuff about them online and others find that to be inappropriate and believe in expressing themselves in real life. But from assumptions made and research collected it may be because of the confidence that a man or women has in his/herself.