Girls with Photos Get More Attention
October 16th, 2007 by jeff
No! This is shocking!!!
Another study about online social networks has discovered the obvious: people with photos are more likely to be contacted by strangers, and girls get more unwarranted attention than guys. Perhaps the next study could address the “hottness” factor?
A survey conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project shows that those users that have photos will get contacted more often by strangers. Could it be because they look more like a real person with an interesting life and a vested interest in their online account? This is something spammers figured out long ago, tricking many boys into becoming their friends, only to get a barrage of porn content they probably wouldn’t mind seeing, but can get rather annoying when it takes over your computer.
Which leads us to Pew’s next point: guys are more visual than girls. And by this statement I mean that a girl is more likely to be “approached” by a male, when all guys have to go on are user photos. Really, it’s all guys need. They don’t care about a girl’s favorite books and TV shows, unless they prove to be a potential conflict with Monday night football.
At any rate, the result of Pew’s study indicates that the presence of strangers online is, in the end, considered a minor drawback for those socializing through web-based networks. Strangers are there, and sometimes they make you uncomfortable. But most people know what they’re doing online, and know the motives behind contact from strangers, whether it be a spam friend, an actual friend of a friend, or a blatant attempt to “hook up” online.
I demand an investigation!!!
But, seriously, did they need a whole study to figure out that girls draw more attention online than boys and that profiles on social networking sites with photos are more likely to draw attention from strangers than profiles without photos?
Perhaps next they can determine that emails containing messages from African princes and companies who have accepted loans you didn’t apply for are actually spam emails because nobody knows that.
Well, I’ll be! This is monumental news. I’ll have to take a moment to digest it.