This study analyzes how teens represent themselves through their profile photographs on a popular nonymous chat site. Using visual content analysis methods, we analyzed 400 profile photographs, controlling for the self-reported gender and the apparent race of the photographic subject. The analysis finds significant differences in gaze, posture, dress, and distance from the camera according to gender and race, although racial differences are stronger for boys than for girls. To a surprising extent, the findings mirror previous findings of gender and race differences in face-to-face interaction, suggesting that the teens construe their profile images as invitations to interact with others online. At the same time, their photo choices reproduce culturally dominant ideologies of gender and race as reinforced by mass media images.

This study evaluates empirically the proposition implicit in much recent gender and CMC research that expressions of gender distinctness among teens in online environments are becoming less frequent and less traditional. Gender preferences were analyzed in linguistic features and communication styles in synchronous text messages, along with self-presentation in user profile pictures, drawing on data from popular English-language teen chat sites collected in 2010. Significant differences were found in speech acts, message tone, and in physical stance, dress, and social distance in profile pictures that generally conform to traditional gender stereotypes. These findings are interpreted in light of previous gender and teen CMC research, adolescent development and socialization patterns, mass media representations, and trends towards media convergence in chat platforms.Key words: adolescence, chat, gender, language use, self-presentation, profile pictures. doi:10.1111/j. 1083-6101.2011.01561.x During the teenage years, identity and sexuality start to play major roles in the lives of young people as they seek to define and explore who they are (Erickson, 1968). Subrahmanyam, Greenfield, and Tynes (2004) identified teenage chatrooms as a rich source of data for the study of adolescent development, in that they provide insight into the kind of unmonitored interaction to which researchers normally lack access. A study conducted in 2007 by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that of the estimated 93% of teens who used the Internet in America, nearly 20% visited chat sites, despite growing competition from instant messaging and social network sites. Multiparticipant text chat is also common in virtual worlds and online gaming environments (Paolillo & Zelenkauskaite, in press), some of which, such as World of Warcraft, are popular with teens. In this study, we examine teenage chat sites to identify possible gender preferences in the online communication and self-presentation strategies of young people.The study of gender differences in computer-mediated communication (CMC) has a long history, relative to the study of CMC as a whole. As early as 1991, Selfe and Meyer reported gendered power dynamics in an asynchronous academic discussion list, with men and high-profile members of the community dominating communication, even under conditions of pseudonymity. In the early 1990s, Herring (1992, 1993, 1994) identified gender preferences in discourse style among adults posting messages to academic discussion lists: Women tended to use more hedges and politeness markers 39and manifest a more supportive attitude towards their addressees in comparison with men, who tended to make more strong assertions, violate conventional politeness norms, and adopt a more adversarial stance towards their interlocutors. These observations were supported in later studies of asynchronous CMC (e.g., Guiller & Durndell, 2006; Thompson & Murachver, 2001). They also resemble previously reported findings of gender differences in spoken...

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The rising popularity of social networking sites raises the question of whether and how personality differences are manifested on them. The present study explores this topic through an analysis of the relationship between narcissism and motivations behind Facebook profile picture selection. A survey that assesses motivations emphasizing physical attractiveness, personality, and social ties was conducted with 288 undergraduate students. The study found narcissism to be a significant predictor of the motivation for selecting profile pictures that emphasize attractiveness and personality for both men and women. The findings are discussed in terms of the dynamic self-regulatory processing model of narcissism.

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