Women who post lots of photos of themselves on Facebook value appearance, need attention, study finds???? Just to share...

March 10, 2011|By Shari Roan, Los Angeles Times


Author of the study, Michael A. Stefanone, an assistant professor of communications at the University of Buffalo.

A study on how people use social networking websites such as Facebook confirms what many of us suspected. Women who post loads of photos of themselves on their sites are conveying some strong personal characteristics, according to new research. These women are more likely to base their self-worth on appearance and use social networking to compete for attention.

A study involved 311 men and women with an average age of 23 have been conducted. In order to better understand aspects of social networking behavior, the researchers looked at:

•  the amount of time subjects spent managing profile\
•  the number of photos they share
•  the size of their online networks
•  how promiscuous they were in terms of “friendly” behavior

Later, the participants completed a questionnaire designed to measure self worth and were asked about their social behaviors on Facebook.

There were differences between women and men. Overall, the results suggest that:

• females identify more strongly with their image and appearance and use Facebook to compete for   attention
• women who had the largest social networks and posted more photos of themselves were more highly vested in their appearance.

My comments: I think that the result  which conducted in US is due to a cultural focus on female image and appearance rather than men. No doubt that many young women continue to assert their self worth via their physical appearance by posting photos of themselves on Facebook.However, it is not necessarily as a form of advertisement. We, "Malaysian"  posting photos in FB as similar as to own collection of photo albums. So that, we don’t have to buy and keep high racks of photo albums at home. Save costs!!!Save money..!!! Not to compete for attention....

I do believe that most of us posting a lot of photos of oneself (including me) in the company of other people (family and friends) “may serve to communicate the importance of particular relationships” ," loves" & "cares". Furthermore, we do not have to carry photo albums everywhere & every time. Now, photo albums are at our finger tips. Click!! And beloved ones are with us!!