Why do some women post a lot of photos of themselves on Facebook? A new study shows that it's because they are "more likely to base their self-worth on appearance and use social networking to compete for attention."
Overall, the results suggest that, compared with men, females identify more strongly with their image and appearance and use Facebook to compete for attention, said the lead author of the study, Michael A. Stefanone, an assistant professor of communications at the University of Buffalo.
The women who had the largest social networks and posted more photos of themselves were more highly vested in their appearance.
“The results suggest persistent differences in the behavior of men and women that result from a cultural focus on female image and appearance,” Stefanone said in a news release. “[I]t is disappointing to me that in the year 2011 so many young women continue to assert their self worth via their physical appearance — in this case, by posting photos of themselves on Facebook as a form of advertisement. Perhaps this reflects the distorted value pegged to women’s looks throughout the popular culture and in reality programming from ‘The Bachelor’ to ‘Keeping Up with the Kardashians.’ ”
The authors also speculated that posting a lot of photos of oneself in the company of other people “may serve to communicate the importance of particular relationships because these bonds may provide security regarding ones appearance and self worth.”
Shari Loam of The Los Angeles Times explains: Link | Photo: Shutterstock
When scrolling the news feed on facebook I find it hard not to roll my eyes at all the braging and posts of picture after picture of girls in their slight side profile and duck-lip poses. Girls aren't the only guilty ones, however.
The same thing for stuff like "iPad", "iPhone" etc. You get the drift. It goes so far that instead of saying: tablet computer, they try to figure out ways to use the word "iPad".
It's a snowball effect that gets bigger and bigger as time goes on until eventually it dies out, but it can go on for a very long time (at least that's how it seems to me).
This Neotorama blog post is actually guilty of the exact same thing. If it wouldn't have been about Facebook I doubt they would have (re)published it.
It's called 'Facebook' because the darn thing is chock full of face pics, no?
And what is up with the duck lips? bleckh.
Next!
Despite the First, Second and Third waves of feminism, in which the problem was well-defined. It continues. It wasn't just feminism but the men's movement as well. They both recognized that the culture was being defined largely by marketters.
The documentary film The Century of the Self portrays what Public Relations are like in the modern world. Sigmund Freud's nephew Edward Bernays is considered the father of Public Relations.
On behalf of many Tobacco companies Bernays took insights from his uncle Sigmund and the behaviorists Ivan Pavlov, B.F. Skinner and psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich. Without completely outlining it all - you can look up the full history and psychology yourself. Bernays developed tactics for persuading the sub-conscious minds of women. Like Pavlov did with his Dog, he used associations to program women into feeling liberated while smoking. He made cigar-ettes the effeminate version of the Cigar. Now women could have all the fun men have, but in their own style. Tobacco giant Pall Mall derived its name from a study in which it was found that statistically women are attracted to slender, and so the name has mostly l's in it, and the package had vertical lines running down it. They went to all lengths to persuade the sub-conscious. This research and development has been going on ever since with profound effects. They stopped advertising the actual products and began reinforcing associations. A Tide commercial airing in Canada says "Canadians don't fear the cold"..."So why should our clothes? Wash in Tide Coldwater".
Rationally, none of us think we are going to buy Tide Coldwater just because they repeatedly beat us over the head with the association, but the effect is sub-conscious, not conscious. It is emotional, not intellectual. If it didn't work at all, they wouldn't do it and go back to telling us what the product actually does. They know that it is better to persuade us emotionally and sub-consciously than to tell us rationally what the product does. They know it better than we do.
So, despite the efforts of Feminism, and the Men's Movement, and all this kind of research. The incidence of Bolemia, Anarexia, Anxiety, Teen Suicide, and sense of self-worth derived from one's appearance is still on the rise. As adults we may learn better, but as kids we are highly susceptible, which is why marketters are primarily concerned with Brand Loyalty amongst children. They want kids to nag and nag parents to buy, and they do. The parents, naively plop their kids in-front of the tube. The problem is actually getting worse. As Twenge points out in The Narcissism Epidemic, television programming like "My Super Sweet 16" is iconic of the trend.
Pavlov's Bar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEDxRCa_wfc
Social studies are interesting, though often times they're non-sensical (or darned obvious) on the surface.
In this particular study, I think there has always been people who crave attention. Facebook is an (easy) outlet for that. Had there been no Facebook, they'd still be clamoring for attention.
Dunno how that conversation got turned to brand loyalty though.
Because marketting is the foremost influence on a child's development, and the "sexy" is the primary association with which marketters do their dasterdly deeds. DeWalt can sell more tools if it puts them in the hands of bikini clad supermodels than if it tells you what the specifications are. Girls naturally want to be seen as attractive and that is primarily physical, whereas men also want to be seen as attractive through their dominance (ability to control the environment).
In-fact, Pick-Up theory, like that of Neil Strauss hooks into these very same psychological undertones. The egotism. Like Lucifer, we all want to shine brightest, or at least be recognized for being the darkest. We want to stand out, be noticed, get attention. If a commercial says "Do this and you will get attention!" a lot of us will do it. I don't know who exactly, all I know is that when Maybeline says "Maybe she's born with it, maybe it's Maybeline" this was a major shift in marketting beauty products to women. The hook here is that a woman can look pretty, even if she isn't naturally pretty, and no one will know that underneath that whale fat and bile extract there is a natural woman with a natural face which by today's sensibilities would probably be called "hideous". Why? Because we are used to seeing a thick layer of plaster. We have adapted to the stimuli.