Conference article

Taking the Girls’ Room Online: Similarities and Differences Between Traditional Girls’ Rooms and Computer-Mediated Ones

Malin Svenningsson Elm
Department of Media and Communication Studies, Karlstad University, Sweden

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Published in: Inter: A European Cultural Studies : Conference in Sweden 11-13 June 2007

Linköping Electronic Conference Proceedings 25:61, p. 601-613

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Published: 2007-11-27

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ISSN: 1650-3686 (print), 1650-3740 (online)

Abstract

Previous studies have pointed at the girls’ room’s importance for girls identity work. The “internet generation” is no different in this aspect. Girls still stage performances; where they experiment with roles and styles. The difference is rather that where it used to be done in the girl’s room at home; the identity work is now often found online. The question proposed in this paper is whether Internet communities can be seen as extensions or online versions of the girls’ room. By using results from quantitative content analysis of 250 personal profile sites of female users aged 15-20; this paper discusses the similarities and differences between traditional girls’ rooms and the computer-mediated ones at Lunarstorm.

Even though the activities performed resemble each other; the computer-mediated girls’ room distinguishes itself from the traditional one in at least one important respect: what used to be done in privacy now takes place in public. Here; Erving Goffman’s concepts ‘front stage’ and ‘back stage’ are used to make sense of the nature of the two forms of girls’ rooms; to show that while the traditional girls’ room correspond to the backstage region; the computer-mediated one rather represents a front stage setting; where performances are made

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