ARTICLE:This article came to me from a dear friend of mine, which I'm very glad for because it's a very compelling read. Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania compared language on Facebook statuses to personality questionnaires to see if a computer analysis of statuses could tell you the age, gender, and personality traits of the user. Not only did it do that, it showed that male and female stereotypes are alive and well on Facebook; the most common words for girls included "mommy," "shopping," "boyfriend" and emoticons, while boys topped at "call of duty," "basketball" and every variation of the F word you can think of. Oh, and "Chuck Norris." These word clouds are interesting because our Facebook personality is not who we are, but the person we want the world to see us as; in this case, we're striving to be the ideal women or man by traditional standards. And while maybe it isn't a reflection of who we really are (how many guys are cuddling with their kitten or watching Vampire Diaries but not posting it?), the posturing does have the potential to shape who we actually are, where we say the lie enough we believe it.
It should be noted that the data's going to be skewed a bit by Facebook users, so the tweens out there are screwing things up again as usual.
SITE:
http://ideas.time.com/2013/10/02/the-facebook-effect-everybody-is-so-cliche/?xid=newsletter-daily
