[Air-L] facebook, twitter and annoyances

[Sam Ladner]

I have done some writing on digital self management. I believe we're
actually dealing with a new form of social interaction and also a new form
of self-governance.

If we were to be systematic about this Facebook inquiry, I imagine we might
find:

* Selves "post" on Facebook as a way of managing identity. Impression
management is complicated by the multiplicity of "fronts" (in Goffman's
sens) on Facebook

* Gender mediates not the topic but the nuance of the post

* (Hypothesis): women post in accordance with expectations of managing
household responsibilities, "taking care" or nurturing those in the
household, showing an interest or mastery of household members' preferences
or medical needs

* (Hypothesis) men post in accordance with expectations of dominance over a
field of knowledge, showing a mastery of masculinized food activities such
as "gourmet" pursuits or barbequeing

* Both genders engage in impression management while at the same time
participating in similar topics (e.g., food)

* The projection of self through text, photo and other media, is a new skill
that will increasingly be required as more and more of our lives become
mediated by "posting" and more and more confused, multi-front virtual
locations emerge



On Sun, Nov 1, 2009 at 10:06 AM, Edward M. Corrado <ecorrado at ecorrado.us>wrote:

> I am not a gender expert nor female but without a doubt photos that I post
> on Facebook of whatever it is I made for dinner get more comments than
> anything else. Although I never analyzed it, on the surface comments appear
> to contain the same type of content and are in similar numbers regaurdless
> of gender.  I think it might be as simple as people like food.
>
> Edward
>
>