An investigation into gender role conformity in an online social networking environment

Social networking sites (SNS) offer a relatively novel arena in which to display and investigate social behavior. The study investigated consistency between social behaviors typical of traditional (offline) social interactions and those online by examining conformity to gender stereotypes in an online social networking environment. Findings from gender role conformity research based on traditional approaches provided a framework for analyzing online social interactions. Three predictions were derived: 1) females will display higher expression in status updates than males; 2) there will be a relationship between status update frequency and the amount of friends in an individual’s network; and 3) there will be an effect of gender on concentration of emotional expression within status updates. All three predictions were at least partially supported with significant differences apparent between males’ and females’ online behavior. The findings are discussed with respect to theories on gender differences.