3-16-12: Social Media and Gender
March 16, 2012 at 8:00 am 2 comments
Does this website look feminine to you?
Here to look into it are Nathan Jurgenson and P.J. Rey, our monthly social media analysts. Nathan and P.J. are Ph.D. candidates in sociology at the University of Maryland, and they blog at Cyborgology.
Entry filed under: Media, On Air, Technology. Tags: Cyborgology, feminism, gender, Pinterest.
1.
Susan | March 16, 2012 at 12:02 pm
I was wondering if Mr. Jurgenson or Mr. Rey have Pinterest accounts. While their insight about it being a women’s site were interesting, their explanation of the site as a shopping site with a nod to fashion and cooking seems to only tell half of the story. I hardly considered myself a Pinterest expert, but I know there is more to it than that. Fitness, Inspiration, How-To, Organziation, Parenting Advice, Health, Nostalgia, etc are some of the other pins that show Pinterest is more than just to link to shopping sites. Also they missed a key point of Pinterest. It is not just to be shared with family and friends, but gives the use the ability to view others’ pinboards, share pins, repin them, like them, comment, etc. — ultimately another online network that brings like-minded people from all over the world together through similar interests.
2.
PJ Rey | March 16, 2012 at 9:19 pm
Susan,
We do both use Pintrest. I agree that users are attracted to Pintrest because it allows them to share and collaborate on many interests in a visually-rich environment. Nevertheless, all the they various topics you mentioned can be and are highly commercialized on the site. And, importantly, Pintrest benefits from commercialized versions of these things because its profit model is largely dependent on its ability to direct traffic to online retailers.
Best,
~PJ