A study on adolescent self-presentation online through friendster

The Internet is a widely used tool of communication, and has been injected into mainstream human activity. More often than not, the internet has been used as a tool for communication and interaction, producing individuals who link together to internet, forming a social networks have also entered the realm of the Internet. Friendster, considered one of the many popular social network services available, has been a hit for many adolescents. Interaction is very much present in this service, and so is self-presentation refers to the process by which people try to control the impressions other people form of them. (Goffman, 1959) This study aimed at describing the process by which adolescents of both genders manifest self-presentational behavior online using the social network service of Friendster. The method employed was a focus group discussion, having eight participants for males, and nine for females. Data was recorded, and was later on transcribed and content analyzed. Results yielded the construction of different themes and sub themes supported by data strands explaining self-presentation per avenue of interaction in Friendster. Present in both groups was the reason that Friendster is used for communication and extension of social connections. The content of their profiles differ, as males contain more textual and basic information than female profiles which carry current emotions, and feelings. Males claim to project a more closer to real image based on truthful information, than females who project an image based on being liked by other people. Males appeared to be more simplistic in the design of their pages than females who spend time on editing pages, by adding videos and color