مای اسپیس فضای شماست: بررسی خودارائه گری از کاربران شبکه اجتماعی مای اسپیس

Abstract The study examined the role of self-presentation on MySpace pages through the information users post on their sites. MySpace users were more comfortable with posting the broad pieces of information, like gender, race, zodiac sign, and hometown. They were not as willing to present personal information like income, whether they smoke or drank or groups they belonged to. Age and motivations for creating a page were major predictors of how much information people revealed about themselves.

Introduction Social network Web sites are quickly becoming one of the more popular destinations on the Internet, particularly among teenagers and young adults (Global faces, 2009, Lenhart, 2009 and Lenhart and Madden, 2007). Researchers have offered several reasons why these sites have become popular. In short, individuals use social network sites to present themselves, to articulate their social networks, and to develop and maintain relationships (boyd & Ellison, 2007; Ellison et al., 2007, Hargittai, 2007 and Stern and Taylor, 2007). The increased popularity of social network sites has led to increased attention from researchers, who have studied them from a wide range of perspectives, from the role of the sites in society to the nature and characteristics of their users. Of particular interest for researchers has been the way individuals use social network sites to share information about themselves with others. There have been studies looking at the role of self-presentation with Facebook (Ellison et al., 2007 and Stern and Taylor, 2007) but few have looked at its role within the context of MySpace (Nyland, Marvez, & Beck, 2007). Researchers also have not focused much attention on the relationship between users’ motivation for using a social network site and their self-presentation. Recent studies have shown that nearly all (approximately 90%) of social network site participants created a profile to stay in touch with friends, while half of them use their profiles to meet new friends (Lenhart, 2009). Additionally, some have suggested that the connection users establish with friends via social network sites may serve to validate the identity a user has presented on his or her page. In other words, certain motivations, such as the desire to connect with friends online, may influence the user’s efforts in self-presentation (Banczyk et al., 2008 and boyd and Ellison, 2007). There have been some studies examining this relationship on different social network sites, such as Friendster and Livejournal (boyd & Ellison, 2007). However, not much has been done in regards to MySpace. While a lot of attention has recently shifted toward studying Facebook, MySpace is still worth examining because it still has a strong following of users. For instance, MySpace is the most popular social network site among adult users (Lenhart, 2009). Additionally, MySpace offers users a wide range of self-presentation tools, which is another reason why the authors chose to study its users. This study will examine self-presentation on MySpace, including the amount and type of information users are providing on their MySpace profiles. This study also examines how interactive and vivid users’ MySpace pages are and what are their motives for having a MySpace page. Finally, this study will examine the extent to which age and gender of the MySpace user as well as motives for using MySpace influence how much information individuals disclose about themselves as well as the level of interactivity and vividness of their pages. Self-disclosure has long been an important tool in relationship development in offline settings (Ellison, Heino, & Gibbs, 2006). Individuals have also used self-disclosure practices in developing online friendships, mainly because users can exercise more control in the amount of information they provide about themselves (Ellison et al., 2006, Ellison et al., 2007 and Walther et al., 2008). Because many users participate in social network sites as a means to create and connect with friends, it would seem that they would be more willing to reveal information about themselves. This study will aim to determine if this is indeed the case. Additionally, understanding self-presentation practices on MySpace can be helpful for researchers who have been concerned with privacy issues related to social network sites (Lenhart and Madden, 2007, Stern and Taylor, 2007 and Tufekci, 2008). Nearly two-thirds of users have taken some steps to privatize their online profiles as some level – making them visible only to friends for instance – but many users, especially younger users, admit they do not fully understand how privacy settings on these sites work or how to use them (boyd, 2009 and Lenhart, 2009). One possible explanation for the confusion could be that the level of privacy available to users varies between the different sites (boyd, 2009 and Papacharissi, 2009). MySpace users will likely deal with more privacy issues than Facebook users because MySpace is more open than Facebook. In other words, Facebook offers more privacy options than MySpace.

Results 4.1. Profile While an equal number of males and females created MySpace pages (52.2% male, 47.8% female), pronounced differences were clearer for race and education as 61.4% were white and 58% of those who listed their education had at least some college education. This trend differs from previous research, which found that only 44% of MySpace users were white (Hargittai, 2007). Respondents were almost equally divided between being single (42.8%) and being married or in a relationship (47.4%). Of the 83.5% who revealed their sexual orientation, 78.7% said they were straight and less than 2% said they were either bisexual or gay/lesbian. The plurality (45%) did not reveal their occupation or religion. Of those who listed their occupation, 15.9% were professionals and 12.2% were worker/laborers and 7.8% were students. Of those who listed their religion, 26.5% said they were Christian and 11.6% identified themselves specifically as Catholic.2 More than 80% (80.9%) refused to answer the income question. Of those who did answer, respondents were almost equally divided between earning $30,000 or less (4%), 30,000–45,000 (5.2%) and $45,001–$60,000 (3.2%). However, just fewer than 4% said they earned $250,000 or more. These results shared some similarities and some differences with those in previous analyses. For instance, Thelwall (2008) examined more than 20,000 MySpace member profiles and found that the majority of users were female (54%). There was also a larger gap between the percentage of single users (66%) and those who were married or in a relationship (30%). However, similar to our results, Thelwall found that more users were white, were Christian, and were straight. 4.2. Self-presentation measures Of the two self-presentation measures, people were much more likely to display themselves in their biographical photo (75.7%) than list their actual name of the page (59.7%). While a solid majority listed a motto (74.7%) had a details list (99.2%), listed personal interests (79.9%), and had a contact box (99.6%), they were less likely to have created a blog (33.3%), posted videos (35.7%) or have slideshows (23.9%). Only about 5% of the videos posted featured the individual or the individual with friends and family. MySpace users were more likely to post slide shows of their friends and family (11.6%) or themselves with friends (4.8%). Scores differed dramatically on the measures of how much they would reveal about themselves. Almost all respondents listed their relationship status (99.2%), hometown (97%) and zodiac sign (99.2%). The large majority revealed their race (83.3%), sexual orientation (82.5%), whether they plan to have children (79.9%), education (79.9%) and even body type (72.3%). While 79.9% listed personal interests, fewer took time to reveal their favorite music (69.1%), movies (60.2%), television shows (59.4%) books (53.0%), or heroes (57.8%). MySpace users were more reticent to list whether they smoke (52.4%) and drink (52.2%), their religion (53%) or their occupation (54.6%). Only a small percentage were willing to list their income (19.1%) or groups they belong to (19%). MySpace pages were moderately interactive (60.4% scoring four or five on the seven-point scale) and scored lower on vividness of their page (40.2% four or five on the seven-point scale). Overwhelmingly, people said they were motivated to have a MySpace page to stay connected to friends (73.1%), with the second highest score being networking (30.5%). Few people said they used MySpace to seek out dates (14.9%) or serious relationships (10.4%). 4.3. Factors influencing self-presentation The first hypothesis suggested that users who list friendship as a reason for hosting a page will include more personal information on that page than users who list other reasons. Several linear regressions were run to test this relationship and the variance explained by these models ranged from 2.8% to 36.3%. Users who listed friends as a motivation posted more personal items on their page (β = .270, p < .01). They also included more detail items on their page (β = .531, p < .01). Additionally, users who listed friends as a motivation included more personal interests items on their page (β = .107, p < .05) and revealed more about themselves (β = .324, p < .01). However, the friends motivation was not a significant predictor of whether users chose to identify themselves. In terms of the other motivations, networking was the only significant predictor of self-presentation measures. Specifically, those who listed networking as a motivation included more personal items (β = .100, p < .05), more detail items (β = .119, p < .01), and revealed more about themselves (β = .123, p < .01). However, networking was not a significant predictor of the number of personal interests or whether users chose to identify themselves. The relationship between the networking motivation and self-presentation measures was not as strong as their relationship with the friends motivation, so Hypotheses 1b through 1e were supported, while Hypothesis 1a was not (see Table 1). Table 1. MySpace users motivations and self-presentation measures. DV Identity Personal items Detail items Personal interests Reveal IV β Adj. R2 F β Adj. R2 F β Adj. R2 F β Adj. R2 F β Adj. R2 F Friends .004 .003 1.37 .270⁎⁎ .085 12.59 .531⁎⁎ .358 70.77 .107⁎ .021 3.62 .324⁎⁎ .158 24.39 Serious relationships −.033 .027 .091 .042 .104 Dating .095 −.045 .014 −.011 −.007 Networking −.093 .100⁎ .119⁎⁎ .093 .123⁎⁎ ⁎ p < .05. ⁎⁎ p < .01. Table options Age was a factor in the amount of information users’ provided on their pages. Younger users provided personal items (β = −.159, p < .01), revealed more personal information (β = −.166, p < .01), provided more detail items (β = −.192, p < .01), and more personal interest items (β = −.011, p < .05). However, age was not a significant predictor of whether users identified themselves on their page. So Hypotheses 2b through 2e were supported, while Hypothesis 2a was not supported (see Table 2). Table 2. MySpace users’ age, gender and self-presentation measures. DV Identity Personal items Detail items Personal interests Reveal IV β Adj. R2 F β Adj. R2 F β Adj. R2 F β Adj. R2 F β Adj. R2 F Age .027 −.003 .317 −.159⁎⁎ .029 8.51 −.192⁎⁎ .033 9.60 −.101⁎ .007 2.64 −.166⁎⁎ .023 6.98 Gender −.025 −.074 −.001 −.011 .014 ⁎ p < .05. ⁎⁎ p < .01. Table options Age is also influential in terms of the interactivity and vividness of MySpace pages. Younger users had more interactive pages than older users (β = −.143, p < .01) and more vivid pages than older users (β = −.202, p < .01). The variance explained by these models ranged from 2.4% to 9%. Thus, Hypothesis 3, which suggests that younger users would create more interactive and vivid pages, is supported (see Table 3). Table 3. MySpace users’ age, gender and the interactiveness and vividness of their pages. DV Interactivity Vividness IV β Adj. R2 F β Adj. R2 F Age −.204⁎ .086 24.64 −.143⁎ .020 6.14 Gender −.202⁎ −.049 ⁎ p < .01. Table options Gender did not prove to be a significant predictor in any of the seven measures of self-presentation. However, it was a significant predictor of the vividness of a user’s page (β = −.204, p < .05). The nature of the relationship suggests that women had more vivid pages than men.