My Facebook Profile Photo Survey
Tuesday, July 28, 2009 by DGreen
Following this week’s lecture - Gender in the Digital Age, I have surveyed my Facebook friend’s profile photos and have come up with these statistics:
Females
26% Normal profile photo
22% Friends profile photo
14% Child profile photo
12% Posing profile photo
12% Artsy profile photo
10% Joke profile photo
4% Activity profile photo
Males
23% Joke profile photo
17% Activity profile photo
16% Normal profile photo
15% Posing profile photo
10% Friends profile photo
10% Child profile photo
9% Artsy profile photo
Activity profile photo: A photo taken while the subject is engaged in an activity.
Artsy profile photo: An abstract; a painting; an image intended as art.
Child profile photo: A photo taken with or of the subject’s child.
Friends profile photo: A photo taken of the subject with a friend or friends.
Joke profile photo: A photo or image intended as a joke.
Normal profile photo: An incidental photo; not stylised; often taken by someone else; often taken at parties etc.
Posing profile photo: A heavily stylised photo that represents the subject in a highly favourable light.
NOTE:
I am a male and have more male Facebook friends than female Facebook friends. At 32, I’m older than what I imagine the class’ average age to be and I presume the average age of my Facebook friends is similar to mine. My age could also account for the surprisingly high number of Child profile photos.
Females
26% Normal profile photo
22% Friends profile photo
14% Child profile photo
12% Posing profile photo
12% Artsy profile photo
10% Joke profile photo
4% Activity profile photo
Males
23% Joke profile photo
17% Activity profile photo
16% Normal profile photo
15% Posing profile photo
10% Friends profile photo
10% Child profile photo
9% Artsy profile photo
Activity profile photo: A photo taken while the subject is engaged in an activity.
Artsy profile photo: An abstract; a painting; an image intended as art.
Child profile photo: A photo taken with or of the subject’s child.
Friends profile photo: A photo taken of the subject with a friend or friends.
Joke profile photo: A photo or image intended as a joke.
Normal profile photo: An incidental photo; not stylised; often taken by someone else; often taken at parties etc.
Posing profile photo: A heavily stylised photo that represents the subject in a highly favourable light.
NOTE:
I am a male and have more male Facebook friends than female Facebook friends. At 32, I’m older than what I imagine the class’ average age to be and I presume the average age of my Facebook friends is similar to mine. My age could also account for the surprisingly high number of Child profile photos.
Great stuff - thanks for sharing this. So the major differences were that your male friends were several times as likely to be pictured in 'active' mode whilst your female friends were twice as likely to be pictured with friends. But some of the similarities are also interesting, right? For example, the similar preponderance of 'posed' photos (in fact, slightly higher on the male side). I wonder if others will find different variations...