Public comments showcase social skills and connections to valuable others:
Everybody looks at our MySpaces and like... says you guys are so close, I wish I could be like you guys…it just, maybe doing
that shows other people how close we are. (female)
Comments can also help deepen an association between individuals, thereby making the relationship feel more intimate:
I have this friend that's a girl and I don't even feel like she's that close to me but on MySpace she leaves me the sweetest
comments, like wow, she really likes me….I leave her messages back… [Interviewer: do you think you will become closer
friends?] yeah than if we didn't have MySpace. (female)
This outcome may result because, not only are individuals exerting effort toward each other, they are also committing to a public
display of their association.
3.2.2.2. Inside jokes and insider information. Inside jokes were often placed on the comment wall, as if to display the exclusivity of
social connection:
[Comments] are all normally inside jokes that no one will ever understand. If you read it it's such a random wall because
people are like ok, nothing makes sense except for the person leaving it and that's the kind of comments I leave on other
people's pages. (female)
The contrast of the insider's knowledge to the outsider's lack of knowledge heightens insiders' perceptions of intimacy:
I leave comments on my sister's page, it kind of brings us closer together, we can relate in this aspect of our own little
language, and you know what I'm saying but other people don't know what I'm saying to you. (female)
Inside jokes and insider information communicate to the audience that the individual is wanted by others and is a desirable
member of an exclusive group.
3.2.3. Gender identity
There was a consensus among both men and women in our focus groups that men tend to portray themselves on MySpace
according to stereotypical norms of masculinity in which playboys embody strength and power and that women portray
themselves as attractive and affiliative. The next two examples illustrate this gender contrast:
I have godfather, scarface, power figures and cool people that I want to be seen as. (male)
Girls tend to put a lot of pretty pictures of themselves and their best girlfriends. (female)
Participants perceived that women work harder on profiles to impress others, especially in terms of physical beauty. Increased
effort was associated with less accurate portrayals of self:
I feel like people kinda tend to put their best face forward. You know like they put up the best pictures. I think you see it a
lot more with girls, kind of putting like the deceptive, like low light shot from like a distance, showing off the boobs. (male)
I just think that whatever pictures a boy can get his hand on he puts up because I don't think boys bring cameras around
like “Oh my god we look so cute”. (female)
That men are less concerned about what others think about them and put less effort into their profiles, may be more a myth
than a reality. MySpace seems to be a context where men, like women, wish to put forth attractive images:
My brother's girlfriend is a photographer and she took some pictures of me and like, they look great so I put them up
there…so it's like everything of my best qualities. (male)
Like I was definitely going through my pictures like no I gotta get the perfect one, and like, if more than one person said
like, why d'you have that picture up then I'd be like, well what's wrong with it, and I'd take it down. (male)
One reason for a man to expend effort on a profile may be the reaction of women:
A lot of them [men's profiles] are really plain, like boring, and you don't want to look at it, and boys that really do go all out
it's really nice.” (female)
On the other hand, theway that male participants in our study talked aboutwomen's quest for social rewards based on physical
attractiveness suggest that they perceive this situation as disadvantageous; therefore, they may be motivated to distance
themselves from this quest:
Male 1: I'm a psychology major, but I mean, I think girls tend to be more self-conscious of presentation, they've been
getting judged their whole lives on how pretty they are and they probably think that their MySpace page is the same way