In a study done by Huffaker and Calvert on teenage blogs their sampling found 121 female blogs and 64 male blogs.. that is a huge difference. Of course for the purposes of the study they had to randomize it to have a more equal selection for their analysis. What struck me about this study was the lack of gender differences found within their blogs. Both males and females disclosed quite a bit of personal information about themselves, they both used emoticons, both genders evenly discussed their relationship issues, and they each used aggressive and passive language roughly the same.The teenagers seemed to do the opposite of what I discussed in the previous post as text as a mask. "In some CMC contexts, such as multi-user domains, anonymity and flexibility are common experiences... This is not the case, however, with teenage blogs. Blogs provide a space for self-expression, usually in the form of long, personal, and thoughtful entries ... The online presentations of teenagers demonstrate that blogs are an extension of the real world, rather than a place where people like to pretend." (15-16).
Two things I wanted to mention was that they found so many female teenage bloggers. If that is the case, where are all the females that should be entering into the IT field? Do they not consider blogging a part of technological skills? Maybe it is just considered to be a leisure activity like a journal entry. Do they need female role models to push them into that field and assure they that they are just as skilled? The second thing was the similarities in their styles of blogs. There were not many gender differences at all. Does this show a good sign for the future? Will gender differences in regards to technology die down and become a more even playing field because everyone will have those skills? It will sure be interesting to see how that plays out in the future.
Huffaker, D. A., & Calvert, S. L. (2005). Gender, identity, and language use in teen blogs. Journal of Computer-mediated Communiation, 10(2). http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol10/issue2/huffaker.html
Image taken from http://www.canadianfamily.ca/articles/article/teens-and-blogging/
I think the internet and computers are becoming more and more an invisible element in the everyday lives of young people. A computer is a common appliance nowadays, like a TV or a blender, and being on the internet is hardly considered something that only nerds do. Which is great, but it also means these girls aren't changing their ideas about their own abilities with technology, even though they are obviously demonstrating a certain level of comfort with blogging.
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