Gender, Communication, and Self-Presentation in Teen Chatrooms Revisited: Have Patterns Changed?

Abstract

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...

Gender roles on social networking sites: investigating reciprocal relationships between Dutch adolescents’ hypermasculinity and hyperfemininity and sexy online self-presentations

“…Initial evidence suggests that young people take over stereotypical gender role messages from traditional media and society (Manago, Graham, Greenfield, & Salimkhan, 2008;Stokes, 2007;Tortajada, Araüna, & Martinez, 2013) and play out typical masculine or feminine gender roles when they post sexy pictures of themselves on SNSs (Kapidzic & Herring, 2011;Manago et al, 2008;Renold & Ringrose, 2011;Ringrose, 2011;Siibak, 2010). However, longitudinal research on the relationship between hypergender orientation and adolescents' sexy self-presentations on SNSs is still lacking.…”

Online Communication and Everyday Life: Female Social Audience and Tv Fiction

“…The respect for taking turns to speak or the frequent attempts to mitigate disagreements (Bury, 2005) similarly represent strategies much more frequent to female fandoms than male fandoms (Kapidzic & Herring, 2011).…”

Exploring Intrinsic Gender Identity Using Second Life

“…In SL, the participants can customize the appearance of their avatar in terms of body shape and clothing (amongst others) and there has been debate about whether the stereotypes that exist in the offline world do, or do not, continue in the online world (Kapidzic and Herring, 2011). SL provides tools which conform to offline stereotypes.…”