Module 2: Individualism in the Digital Age, Part 1

A Hypothetical Experiment that relates the article’s topic

This hypothetical experiment supports the thesis from the article Gender Differences in “Social Portraits” Reflected in MySpace Profiles by Melissa Joy Magnuson and Lauren Dundes. They conclude that the differences between MySpace profile pages of males and females give a good indication to the vast differences that exist between the two genders, even today. Magnuson and Dundes conclude that women “learn to balance their own needs with defining themselves in relation to others,” whereas men do not. For this reason, women mention their significant other in their profiles far more often then men do. The authors furthermore say that “females’ career goals and family goals are seen as connected and affecting one another, contrasting with males’ tendency to see them separately.”

The following experiment would further shed light on this issue:

Who: This experiment will be conducted with 20 working women in a relationship and 20 working men in a relationship who do not already have a MySpace account.

What: The experiment will ask the women and men to separately create a MySpace account and fill in as much as they care to reveal about themselves, including uploading photographs. In the subsequent weeks as the new users add friends and get more acclimated with their accounts, they will be asked to write down every time they log on.

Where: This study will have the 20 men and 20 women sitting in different rooms and provide them with access to computers and the Internet and assist them in the basics of creating a MySpace account.

When: The study will begin in separate computer labs where the men and women will create their accounts. However, it will be continued over a period of 4 weeks, where the participants will be asked to document every time they log on and will be encouraged to add friends and remain active on MySpace, if they so desire.

Why: The MySpace accounts created will be assessed according to the guidelines and conclusions that have been laid out by Dudes and Magnuson. Researchers will evaluate how many times women mention their significant others or post pictures with them. Not only that, but since the authors conclude that women are less apt to differentiate between various aspects of their life, researchers will assess how often women include other information, such as friends and work, as compared to men. Furthermore, the number of friends and the times logged on for men and women will be noted by the researcher to see if women do in fact define themselves “in relation to others” and add more friends and log on more often then men do.