The second article ever posted on Difference Blog was about Hargittai and Shafer's (2006) study of men and women's self-reported computer skills compared to their tested skills (men overestimate their skill, women demur). Eszter Hargittai is making the news again with a Northwestern University study about sharing creative content online (press release, 2008). Hargittai and Walejko (2008), published in March, found that women and men (mean age=18.4) are equally likely (f=60%, m=62.3%) to produce creative content , but that men are more likely to post such content to the internet (f=50.6%, m=63.3%).
The differences really stand out in the fields of creating music and video. The differences in posting creative writing or artistic photography do not reach the threshold of significance (note: photography posting was limited to social networking sites). Controlling for self-reported internet skills, a man and woman creating a particular type of content were equally likely to post it. Interestingly, age was an even bigger influence than gender on likelihood of posting creative content, with older students being far less likely to post. This is notable because only 3% of the sample was 20 or older.
Mostly, I'm reminded of the XKCD where the protagonist says: "This will make for a great LiveJournal entry." I think that the purpose of creating the content was not adequately explored in this study, but treated as independent of an imagined audience. I create a lot of content. My boyfriend calls me a "little content-creating Dynamo". But I only do it because I have a certain level of confidence in getting it seen. I create content specifically for the internet, and that influences what I'm creating, and how often I post it.
I love this study, and this post has run longer than I like already. I spend so much time talking about women in the sciences that I have really been looking for something about men in the arts. Many thanks are due to Ukelele on LJ for pointing this out.
edit: Also, check out Eszter Hargittai's blog post about the study, which has lots of comments and responses to questions from the author.
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4 comments:
It's interesting that you post content because you are reasonably confident that it will be seen. I'm the opposite, I post mostly because I don't think many people are paying attention. I think that if my readership spiked, I might not post as much.
Do you think that, if no one read your blog(s), that you'd still do them?
I almost certainly wouldn't post. Until I built a reader base at LJ, my posting habits were once, maybe twice a week.
Most of the time when I take a photo (and you've seen my Flickr stream), I'm taking it because I think it could be useful in a blog post or website.
Most of the time when I draw a picture, it's because I plan to use it in a blog post or website.
I don't do music or video, so I guess that means I'm a girl, huh? ;) I'm actually really resistant to new music (mine or other people's) and I don't watch much video online. Embedded sound files (such as on myspace) and embedded youtube videos in blogs bug the living shit out of me. I'm crotchedy that way.
Here's a question for you: if you don't think many/any people are reading your posts, why put them on a Google-searchable website? Why not just write an email or keep a paper diary?
I write a blog for two reasons:
1. To keep in touch with friends and family. When I first started, there were about three people that I had in mind (also bloggers). Since that time, I moved 256 miles away from my partner...and also decided to make my family aware of the blog...so now they are also primary audiences
2. To have a place to deposit thoughts that I think are clever or interesting (or memorialize some event or topic)
So, it was my expectation at the start that a couple of people would read, but it wasn't my goal to cultivate readers. These days, I'm happy to add readers, but I prefer that they are people that I don't see on a regular basis. If it is ever brought up in conversation, I staunchly refuse to discuss the blog in person.
The other reason for posting publicly instead of writing privately is that, even when I wrote a private journal, I sort of had a fantasy that someone was listening. Blogging publicly makes that fantasy reality.
I write because I find it hard to stop. I try to self-edit so that things aren't TOO terribly banal, boring, and lame...and I try not to hurt anyone's feelings in my writing or blather on about my own emotional issues...but other than that, I'm not really trying to write something that builds a fan base. Blogging has just become a way that I express myself and process my thoughts.
I've started writing a weekly column on a local collaborative blog...http://www.dane101.com/user/998/track ...and that is entirely meant to build an audience...but it is topic based and isn't nearly as fun as the regular blog. I'm not writing that for me...I'm doing it for "the cause."
I rarely worry about the purpose of a photo before I take it...usually I'm just documenting life or taking pictures of the dog. I'm not a fan of music or video files that open automatically...but I like them otherwise. I particularly enjoy embedded video...and sharing music online via sites like MySpace has been a revolution that I welcome as a musician and as a music lover.
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