FOTOLOGS AND THE SOCIALISATION OF LOVE: TRADITIONAL OR ALTERNATIVE

DEPICTIONS?

ABSTRACT

This article[1] presents the results of a study of depictions and texts displayed by Spanish
youngsters on Fotolog, a social networking site (SNS) popular among teenagers in Spain. The
study includes an analysis of the depictions teenagers expose and construct about attraction,
love and relationships. Starting from a quantitative content analysis of a sample of 400 Fotolog
entries, we did a systematical registration of the kind of gestures, postures and representations
displayed by teenagers in their self-portayals, the nicknames they choose to define and
introduce themselves towards peers, the texts and captions they write, and the comments they
exchange with visitors/friends. This ways, we intended to determine the degree to which
technology is a resource for the transformation of gender identities, or on the contrary, its use
reproduces the inequalities of the non-virtual world. Additionally, we wanted to examine whether
these self-representations of teenagers in Fotolog respond to a traditional or an alternative
model of attraction, sexuality and relationships. Results show that although both boys and girls
constantly support each other with positive and solidary comments, traditional attitudes towards
love are hardly questioned by teenagers and respond to a conservative pattern of relationships.
What they choose to show from themselves is based on a reproduction of images of women
(focused on beauty) and of men (focused on power), which entail a concept of love based on
dependence, irrationality and sometimes suffering.

PHOTOBLOGS AS A TOOL FOR RESEARCHING IDEAS ABOUT LOVE

AND SEX

The relevance of Social Networking Sites (SNS) in socialisation, and specifically in

gender identity construction, has already been largely analysed (García Gómez, 2010; Huffaker
& Calvert, 2005; Sevick Bortree, 2005; Sveningsson, 2008; Thelwall, 2008).

SNS are primarily organised around people - not interests - with the individual at the
centre of their own community (Boyd & Ellison, 2007). Striking similarities in the ways in which
teenagers build their profiles and structure their interactions suggest the presence of already
well-established home-page conventions (Stern, 2002) and a mutual influence (Sevick Bortree,
2005). As to teenage communities, the combination of the technical affordances provided by an
SNS and an existing peer culture determine the identities and relationships between peers
online (Livingstone, 2009). The principal motive for young people to engage in internet-based
identity is self-exploration (Valkenburg, Schouten & Peter, 2005). Teenagers seek to share their
experiences and create spaces of intimacy that allows them to be ‘themselves’ among and
through connections with their friends (Livingstone, 2009). But adolescents who use blogs and
online tools for constructing and maintaining social relationships also face the conflict of having
to represent themselves simultaneously to ‘real’ and ‘virtual’ friends, as well as to ‘strangers’
and ‘acquaintances’ (Sevick Bortree, 2005). They create their home-pages with strategic
intentions, take decisions about what they want their page exactly to be like, and what they want
it to transmit to their audience in terms of what they want visitors to learn about them (Stern,
2002). The connections established and the time spent on updating and uploading contents and
comments to acquaintances provide the SNS with meaning, and at the same time redefine the
concept of privacy: it is no longer tied to disclosing certain types of information, but, instead, to
having control over who knows what about you (Livingstone, 2009).

Teenagers generally display themselves in order for peers to like them, so that they
become ‘desirable for relationships’ (Sevick Bortree, 2005). Early adolescents experiment with
their identities more frequently than older ones, although both age groups have similar self-
representational strategies. On the contrary, boys and girls do not differ in the degree to which
they experiment with identities, but they do in their self-representational strategies. For example,
girls pretend to be older and more beautiful more often than boys, whereas boys pretend to be
tough and macho more often (Valkenburg, Schouten & Peter, 2005). Relationships with their
girl- or boyfriends frequently appear in teenagers’ personal profile section as an element of self-
definition. Girls generally tend to disclose their dating situation and make their romantic
preferences explicit. Similarly, in their online journals they often talk about how their
relationships are progressing and about issues regarding sex. Their apparent willingness to
design the very windows from which we can look inside their foreheads and hear their stories of
sexuality suggests girls are eager for an audience to see what they have to say about being
female, adolescent and sexual (Stern, 2002).

Despite these contributions to the field, there is no work specifically addressing the
conceptions of love and relationships that teenagers express, re-create, discuss and construct
collectively as produsers (Bruns, 2004) and interpreters in online environments like SNS. This
study intends to closely examine teenagers’ media practices in Fotolog. This space allows them
to create a means of expression through images, which adolescents are using to represent
themselves and share their experiences about love and relationships. As produsers, they take
decisions with implications for how they will be looked at (Berger, 2004; Mulvey, 1999), what
image they will project (Goffman, 1979), what kind of interactions will be established with their
peers (Livingstone, 2009), and which underlying conceptions about love and relationships
(Gómez, 2004) their messages will have.

Our main question, therefore, is which underlying models teenagers use to base these
decisions, discourses and self-representations on. And to which degree new media - as
multiple-access spaces - can provide for playing with new identities (Turkle, 1995) and
potentially blow gender borders (Haraway, 1991) or contribute to reproducing the inequalities of
the non-virtual world (Herring, 1996 & 2000).

GAZE AND DISPLAY

As we have seen, teenagers generally represent themselves with the aim of being
attractive and desirable for peers. Historically, different attractiveness values have been
assigned to women and men. According to Gómez (2004), the patriarchal society favours a
model of affective and sexual relationships which encourages attraction to power (when
assessing men's attractiveness) and to beauty (when assessing women's). Berger (2004) has
pointed out that social presence of a man is related to his potential to gather power to exert over
others, whereas social presence of a woman expresses an attitude towards herself and defines
what is acceptable and what is not. Both for Berger (2004) and for Mulvey (1999), a woman’s
body is displayed in front of a camera - or a canvas - addressing a ‘male gaze’ that needs to be
satisfied. Even more, according to Mulvey (1999), women interiorise this male gaze and use it in
their self-representations and valorisations, which the author calls a condition of ‘to-be-loooked-
at-ness’. She coincides with Berger (2004) when he says that woman’s sense of self for her own
sake is replaced by a sense of self through being appreciated by others.

Our research questions are:

RQ1: What kind of self-representations do teenagers choose in their fotologs when they intend
to be attractive to others?
RQ2: Are there any gender differences in the conceptions behind teenagers’ self-
representations? jo no sé si posaria ‘which kind of gender differences, if present...’

Goffman applies Frame Analysis to gender studies (see Lemert & Branaman, 1997;
Manning, 1992), which brings him to what he calls gender displays, conventionalised portrayals
of gender and sex (Goffman, 1979). Displays tend to be conveyed and received as ‘natural’ but
they need a historical understanding. Individuals must style themselves in order for others to
understand the social identity of whom they are treating with, and, in this sense, social situations
are defined as arenas of mutual monitoring. As individuals (not only as females or males) we
are capable of learning how to provide - and interpret - representations of femininity and
masculinity. With our behaviour, through rituals, we create collective portrayals of relationships,
rather than gender identities. What is a ritual can also be ritualised and, for Goffman (1979), this
hyper-ritualisation is produced, for example, when advertisers use poses and attributes in their
advertisements in order to display extreme normalisation, exaggeration and simplification: “If
anything, advertisers conventionalize our conventions, stylize what is already a stylization, make
frivolous use of what is already something considerably cut off from contextual controls. Their
hype is hyper-ritualization” (Goffman, 1979: 84).

Starting from this interest in expressions of femininity and masculinity and their ‘hyper-
ritualisations’, Goffman deduces several categories: Relative Size, Feminine Touch, Function
Ranking, The Family, The Ritualisation of Subordination and Licensed Withdrawal, the
importance of which have been emphasised later in studies by Kang (1997) and Döring &
Pöschl (2006), and which will also be relevant to this study.

Our third research question, therefore, is:

RQ3: What kind of ritualisation underlie the self-representations constructed by teenagers and
shared in their fotologs?
WHO DO WE FALL IN LOVE WITH AND WHY?

In this paper we also depart from what Jesús Gómez has called ‘love socialisation
processes’ (Gómez, 2004). According to Oliver & Valls (2004), ‘falling in love’ is not as
spontaneous as we tend to think. Love is a historical concept, a human invention (Gómez,
2004), and our feelings and preferences are the result of a learning process that starts from
early age and carries on through life (de Botton & Oliver, 2009), in which multiple socialisation
factors are involved such as the family, formal and informal education institutions, the media
and, - very strongly during adolescence - the peer group (Oliver & Valls, 2004). These
socialisation processes generally involve feelings, wishes, desires and interactions framed
within two different models of sexual-affective attraction and partner choice defined by Gómez:
a traditional model and an alternative one.

The traditional model of attraction and choice, according to the author, is a result of
patriarchal and hierarchical values stemming from discriminatory and individualistic societies.
With regards to sexual and affective relationships, this model links desire to violent attitudes,
despise and a lack of commitment, thus dissociating desire and affection, and encouraging
female attraction to power and male attraction to beauty. Furthermore, attraction is focused on
the ‘hard to get’: we are encouraged (and thus bound) “to look for someone who is out of our
reach, violence-prone and yet highly desirable” (Gómez, 2004: 73). According to the author, the
traditional behaviour is encarnated by ‘womanisers’ (men who conquer women only to abandon
them afterwards, since the ‘prey’ is not interesting anymore after being hunted), and by women
who imitate the masculine model (feminine imitation of the typical behaviour of the ‘womaniser’).
The only alternative for these men and women is to have establish? a stable relationship with no
passion, as in the traditional model stability is deemed to be uncompatible with desire.

However, Gómez (2004) found other elements that can be included in the traditional
model: love as a ‘bolt of lightning’, love as a chemical reaction (as opposed to an individual
choice), the association of passion and risk or danger, the conception of relationships based on
jealousy and dependence, the importance of ‘pick up’ strategies (as opposed to real dialogues),
competitiveness between men and insolidarity and betrayal between women, predominance of
‘intuition’ over reason, the link between passion and magic, and the association of attraction and
perversion and violence.

Gómez (2004) also proposes an alternative model of attraction and choice, which links
passion to tenderness and care. This model implies that sexual and affective relationships are
established in a frame of communicative negotiation on equal terms. The model is based on the
idea of a reflexive and democratic society which has amplified choice possibilities for all its
members. The reflexivity it implies (Beck & Beck-Gernsheim, 1998) is typical of modernity and
allows subjects to redefine intimacy and its rules. In this process, intersubjectivity is key to the
construction of meanings and to make sense of life (Gómez, 2004). Romantic ideals can be
sustained in this model, as long as they satisfy both members of the couple (de Botton & Oliver,
2009: 93). In any case, passion is not considered as opposed to stability, and therefore this
model is expressed in the combination of passion and stability within the same person. Other
characteristics of this model are constituted in opposition to the traditional model exposed
above.

Our final research question is:

RQ4: Which love socialisation model (traditional or alternative) can be revealed from teenagers’
practices and interactions on Fotolog?

[1] The reflections and results that are presented here are framed in the research project “Media and gender
violence: catalists or factors of prevention?’, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (2009-2011).

THE PRESENT STUDY: SAMPLE AND METHOD

THE NETWORK: FOTOLOG

Amongst the existing and popular SNS in Spain we have chosen Fotolog to develop our study.
Fotolog is based on daily photograph entries which are uploaded by users and usually
accompanied by a caption or text in blog mode. In contrast with Facebook and Tuenti, Fotolog is
an ‘open’ SNS and allows researchers to directly access the content. That is why it is a useful
tool for this kind of studies. ComScore World Metrix ranked Fotolog as the most used SNS in
Spain until december 2007 (amongst internet users aged 15+), still increasing its number of
unique users to 3.351.000 in 2008, but since then Fotolog has been outranked by Tuenti and
Facebook. Other studies based on online surveys support the tendency to migration from
Fotolog to Facebook and Tuenti, as reflected by data from Fotolog company itself. According to
this service provider, Fotolog is the fifth most used SNS in Spain. Overall, its users consist of
51% female and 49% male, 71% of them are aged 16 to 24, and .10% are aged 13 to 15.

SAMPLING
This study used a non-probability sampling method known as snowball sampling, due to the fact
that the service provider already selects and displays the sites requested by criteria such as the
country and the most recently updated logs. Notwithstanding this, we have chosen a
significative number of entries. Our sample is composed by 400 Fotolog entries of 400 different
teenager profiles stating to be aged between 13 and 18, and be a resident in Spain. They all
use Fotolog for self-representation: profiles that did not use the site for ‘biographical’ reasons,
such as photographers’ and travellers’ logs, were discarded from the sample.
From this sample, 45 accounts had been closed by the end of the data-gathering period No sé
si ho entenc bé: la idea és que s’han tancat aquests comptes des de la selecció de la mostra
fins a l’inici de l’anàlisi: since the selection of the sample and the realisation of the analysis 45
accounts had been closed, even if this lapse was lesser than one month. For each account, we
only analysed one entry - the most recent one - although individual Fotologs can contain
hundreds of entries. Entries are composed by the following elements: the picture of the day
(usually uploaded by the owner of the account), the caption or text that accompanies the
picture, and comments left by friends and visitors. Only the first three comments were used for
analysis. Each unique Fotolog entry was analysed in a quantitative way, but after the first
analysis round, when significant data emerged, other entries of the same user or responses
from other users to the entry were analysed in a more qualitative and critical way. We used
discourse analysis for these qualitative inquiries, departing from the same analysis categories.
These two perspectives were complementary and allowed to us to contrast and deepen the
quantitative data. Outcomes of this work are the specific examples that illustrate the results in
this article.

CONCEPTUAL DEFINITIONS AND CATEGORIES OPERATIONALISATION

Las categorías de análisis se han desarrollado principalmente a partir de los modelos de

atracción-elección afectiva y sexual de Gómez (2004) descritos en el marco teórico y,
concretamente para el estudio de las imágenes, se han incorporado algunas de las categorías que
Goffman elaboró en Gender Advertisements (Goffman 1979) y el concepto de mirada
desarrollado por Berger (2004) y Mulvey (1999). También se han incluido aspectos relativos a
los usos que posibilita el formato de Fotolog y las convenciones que se establecen entre los
usuarios. En total se han definido 4 categorías de análisis (To-be-look-at-ness, Hyper-
ritualisation, Modelo de relaciones afectivas y sexuales, y Fotolog Specific Interactions) que se
presentan a continuación:

CATEGORÍAS SUBCATEGORÍAS INDICADORES

To-be-at-look-at-ness - En imágenes:
Grado de desnudez, eventual escote, mostración de
piernas, uso de maquillaje, cuerpo fuerte, cuerpo
débil, mostración erotica con otros, tipo de objetos
presentes en la representación
En comentarios:
Género de la persona que comenta, comentarios
sobre aspecto físico
Hiperritualización1
Modelo de relaciones
afectivas y sexuales
Function Ranking En imágenes:
Tipo de acción, papel en la acción
Ritualisation of En imágenes:
Subordination Emoción expresada, postura, localización,
posición en relación al otro (I)
Licensed En la imagen:
Withdrawal Emoción expresada, Mirada, acción, rostro visible,
posición en relación al otro (II), Mirada en
relación al otro
Modelo Tradicional En los textos:
Repertorios discursivos acerca del amor, tipo de
texto en relación a la fase de la relación amorosa

En las imágenes:
A quién eligen los adolescents para representarse
con ellos en las fotografías, acción directiva,
acción asistencial, posiciones respecto a la pareja,
miradas respecto a la pareja, tipología de objetos
que los jóvenes incluyen en la representación
Modelo Alternativo En los textos:
Repertorios discursivos acerca del amor, tipo de
texto en relación a la fase de la relación amorosa
En las imágenes:
A quién eligen los adolescents para representarse
con ellos en las fotografías, acción directiva,
acción asistencial, posiciones respecto a la pareja,
miradas respecto a la pareja, tipología de objetos
que los jóvenes incluyen en la representación
Fotolog Specific Alias
Interaction Género de quien
comenta
Actividad del En activo, Número de Actualizaciones, Número de
Fotolog comentarios, Antigüedad del Fotolog
Tipo de comentario Comentarios positivos aspecto físico, comentarios
negativos aspecto físico, comentarios
positivos/apoyo, comentarios
negativos/resentimiento.

1
No se considera relevante para el estudio las subcategorías de la Hiperritualización siguientes: Relative size,
puesto que raramente se encuentra en las imágenes producidas por adolescentes situaciones laborales y de rango, el
Femenine Touch ni The family, porque no han tenido la incidencia mínima requerida (f2) durante la prueba piloto.
Tampoco en los estudios desarrollados por Kang (1997) y Döring & Pöschl (2006) las categorías de Relative Size y
Function Ranking fueron predominantes en las representaciones.
About inter-rater reliability… Para comprobar la fiabilidad de las categorías de análisis, las
cuatro investigadoras del proyecto aplicaron la plantilla de análisis al mismo individuo
(actualización de Fotolog nº0) consiguiendo un alto índice de coincidencia (76%).
Posteriormente se hizo una prueba piloto con un 10% de la muestra (40 Fotologs) después de la
cuál las investigadoras se reunieron para pulir las categorías de análisis, añadir algunas que se
consideraron necesarias y suprimir aquellos ítems de respuesta que no obtuvieron al menos una
frecuencia f = 2.

RESULTS

1. FOTOLOG SPECIFIC INTERACTION

Youngsters use Fotolog intensively:most accounts have daily entries, and 95% of users have
uploaded pictures in the last two months. The entries or posts are also referred to in this paper as
updates. Only one picture can be uploaded per update. 75% of the girls and 67% of the boys
have 50 or more updates since their first login on Fotolog. Each profile receives an average of 17
comments to their updates (boys receive an average of 20 and girls an average of 16). In some
cases updates received more than 200 comments.

Both boys and girls write a similar amount of positive comments in their friend’s Fotologs.
Around a 20% of both genders make positive assertions related to the physic aspect of the
friends, with a slightly superior amount of boys that make that kind of comments. When
referring to support and emotional comments, girls write them in a significantly upper
proporcion than boys, with a difference from 59% to 49%. Negative comments are scarce for
both genders wether they are critical about physical appearance or they express ressentment or
other bad feelings.

Among the 400 profiles[2] that we analysed, 25% of usernames had a direct relationship with the
user�s (presumed) real name, for example, nuuuuuriAa for �N�ria�. The �distortion� in
the spelling of names may be due to the fact that Fotolog is a public SNS and teenagers want to
avoid being identified by adults. Significantly 20% of usernames explicitly referred to sexual
connotations. The rest are name combinations of friends or couples, declarations of love
(you_are_my_life, i_need_your_love, or resentment (get_out_of_my_life,
you_are_all_the_same).

2. TO-BE-LOOKED-AT-NESS
The images

Many pictures uploaded by girls and boys are compositions or treated pictures.
En ellas, el 57,4% de las chicas y el 53,1% de los chicos se representan con ropa que no tiene
connotaciones eróticas. No son muchos menos los que se fotografían con poca ropa, ropa ajustada,
escotada o con transparencias; en resumen, con connotaciones eróticas: un 40,2% de las chicas y un
41,8% de los chicos. Además el 5,1% de los chicos y el 2,3% de las chicas restantes se muestran en ropa
interior. La frecuencia de chicos y chicas retratados totalmente desnudos es inexistente, f = 0.
Hay muy pocas imágenes en las que, de forma intencional, el cuerpo no tenga importancia, es decir, que
no exista una pose o una exhibición más o menos explícita (10,2% en el caso de las chicas y 8,2% en el
caso de los chicos). En las imágenes analizadas, un 14,8% de las chicas muestra un escote pronunciado y
un 5,9% muestran las piernas y, en el caso de los chicos un 27,6% se fotografían mostrando la
musculatura o exhibiendo signos de fortaleza. En relación a esta última subcategoría, el 14,8% de las
chicas se autorepresentan de forma lánguida a disposición del espectador frente al 8,2 % de los chicos.

La presencia de objetos en las fotografías es escasa excepto en el caso de los objetos de belleza y de poder. Los
objetos domésticos son inexistentes en las representaciones masculinas mientras que en las chicas suponen solo el
2%, y los objetos intelectuales o de ocio nocturno están entre el 2 y el 3% en ambos casos y para ambos géneros. La
diferencia más grande entre géneros está en los llamados 'objetos de poder', que hemos definido como aquellos
marcadores de estatus, riqueza, posición social o fuerza física. Para los hombres este tipo de objetos aparecen casi en
el doble de los casos que las mujeres (11,2 y 5,9% respectivamente). Los objetos de belleza, que hemos definido
como cosméticos, joyas, vestidos de gala o espejos son algo más usados en las representaciones de las chicas que de
los chicos (9,8 y 7,1%), pero la diferencia es menos remarcable. En gran medida esto es debido a que chicos y chicas
se fotografían delante del espejo.

En numerosas ocasiones, el rostro acapara el protagonismo de la imagen y, por ello, no se puede saber dónde se han
realizado las fotografías (34,8% en el caso de las chicas y 30,6% en el caso de los chicos). El resto de fotografías se
toman, habitualmente, en el hogar. En el caso de las chicas, 9,4% en el baño, 11,3% en el dormitorio y 12,5% en
otras partes del hogar y, en el caso de los chicos, 17,3% en el baño, 11,2% en el dormitorio y 13,3% en otras partes
del hogar. Así pues, muchas de estas imágenes se ubican en un entorno íntimo y la presencia de un espejo es clave.
También es significativa la presencia de imágenes en espacios públicos (que no son instituciones educativas ni
locales de ocio): 22,7% en el caso de las chicas y 14,3% en el caso de los chicos). Las chicas se fotografían
tumbadas o inclinadas de forma más habitual que los chicos (24,6% de ellas frente a un 14,3% de ellos).

3. HIPERRITUALIZACI�N

3. 1. FUNCTION RANKING

Las acciones más frecuentes con que se representan los jóvenes son sin hacer nada en concreto o bien posando para
la foto. En concreto, un 31,2% de las chicas y un 23,5% de los chicos se representan sin hacer nada, mientras que un
13,3% de las chicas y un 10,2% de los chicos se muestran posando para la foto. También es muy común que
aparezcan tomando la fotografía (7,8% para las chicas y 12,2% para los chicos). La acción “nada en concreto” es
especialmente relevante para las chicas, que se representan así en casi un tercio de los casos; mientras que los chicos
casi en una cuarta parte. Las chicas se representan más posando que tomando la foto, mientras que en el caso de los
chicos es al revés. Además, 11,2% de los chicos se fotografían realizando una acción concreta y con algún tipo de
utilidad frente al 7% de las chicas. Otras acciones como abrazarse, besarse, exhibirse o chulear aparecen con menos
frecuencia, en porcentajes entre el 2 y el 6%.

Para la mayoría de acciones representadas no hay una distribución de roles de dirección y asistencia porque en los
sujetos se autorepresentan solos en la imagen o bien porqué no realizan acciones en las que se establecen roles
diferenciados. En todo caso, tanto chicos como chicas se representan más a menudo en el rol directivo de la acción
que no en el rol asistencial o subordinado. La proporción, eso sí, resulta en algo más de chicos en roles directivos (el
4,1%) que chicas (2,7%), con una cantidad parecida de representaciones para ellas en roles asistenciales (2,3%) y
menos chicos en este rol (1%).

3. 2. RITUALISATION OF SUBORDINATION

'Alegría' y 'complicidad o juego' son las emociones más frecuentes para ambos géneros en sus representaciones. La
alegría es expresada por cerca de una quinta parte de las chicas (19%), y en cambio para solo el 9% de los chicos.
Por lo que respeta a la complicidad o juego, es más frecuente entre los chicos, que se representan con esta expresión
en una cuarta parte de los casos (26%), frente a las chicas que lo hacen en una quinta parte del total (19%). La
'determinación, satisfacción o vanidad' es también muy frecuente, con cerca del 10% de presencia para ambos sexos
(algo más para los chicos) así como la 'provocación o picardía', que en este caso es más frecuente entre las chicas
(un 12% frente al 8% de los chicos). La 'preocupación o ensimismamiento' y la 'tristeza' son otras categorías
remarcables que, si se suman a la 'sorpresa o desorientación' resultan en casi el 15% (una sexta parte) de las chicas y
algo más todavía para los chicos (16%).
Aunque es habitual que los adolescentes se retraten solos (cerca del 70% en el caso de los chicos y del 50% en el
caso de las chicas) cuando lo hacen con otras personas, el 6,6% de las chicas aparece en la imagen en una posición
inferior frente al 1% de los chicos, y ellos están una posición superior en un 6,1% de los casos mientras que ellas
aparecen así en un 3,1% de las veces. Con todo, las posiciones en que el sujeto no se ha representado en
superioridad o inferioridad son las mayoritarias (un 35,9% para las chicas y un 21,4% para los chicos).

3. 3. LICENSED WITHDRAWAL

Aunque los sujetos acostumbran a mirar a la cámara cuando se fotografían (57,8% en el caso
de las chicas, 44,9% en el caso de los chicos), también es bastante frecuente que unas y otros
miren al vacío (14, 5% y 16,3% respectivamente). Además, el 2,7% de las chicas se retratan
con los ojos cerrados, y también lo hacen el 4,1% de los chicos. Esta mirada al vacío u ojos
cerrados, sin embargo, deben interpretarse de formas diferentes para chicos y chicas. El
análisis del discurso cualitivo evidencia que las chicas siguen un patrón que concuerda con la
definición goffmaniana ya que se muestran ausentes, ensimismadas y absortas en sus
sentimientos cuando miran vacío. En cambio, por lo general, los chicos miran al vacío como
parte de una exhibición de determinación, fuerza o solemnidad. Un ejemplo típico seria la chica
que se autoretrata en su habitación con las manos cubriéndole el rostro y expresión de pena y
distancia. Para los chicos, el ejemplo típico seria el de ellos erguidos en el centro de la imagen
y mirando hacia el cielo. De todos modos la mayoría de los adolescentes miran hacia la cámara
que les está retratando: 57,8% de las chicas y 44,9% de los chicos. El 5,1% de las chicas y el
12,2% de los chicos miran al otro en las fotografías colectivas.
Finalmente, el 2% de las chicas se representan mirándose al espejo, una práctica que siguen
un 4,1% de los chicos. Hay que puntualizar que el análisis cualitativo dota de distintos
significados estas representaciones porque ellos lo hacen exhibiendo la musculatura (ya sea
como señal de fuerza o de belleza) mientras que ellas se miran a sí mismas en algunos casos
exhibiéndose y en otros autoanalizando su cuerpo.

No hay mucha diferencia entre géneros por lo que respecta a lo que Goffman llamaría
“protective participation” en el sentido de que un miembro cubra al otro. Para la mayoría de los
casos ninguno de los retratados cubre al resto; esto sucede para el 27,3% de las chicas y el 18,4%
de los chicos, y en muy pocos casos (entre el 3 y el 4%) un sujeto cubre o es cubierto por el otro.

4. MODELO DE RELACIONES AFECTIVAS Y SEXUALES.

The most frequent concept of love is the one that associates love and pain (11,7% de las chicas y
3,1% de los chicos). Para las chicas también es muy frecuente la expresión de que “el amor es
inevitable” (9% de los casos) y que “el amor es para siempre” (9,4% de los casos). En cambio,
los chicos en sus discursos sobre el amor manifiestan otro tipo de concepciones más vinculadas
al modelo alternativo. Relatan relaciones en las que se da la pasión y la ternura (7,1%), parejas
que se tratan bien (6,1%), y se apoyan (5,1%). Esta tendencia que muestran los mensajes de los
adolescentes tiene todavía algunos matices: aunque en sus intervenciones ellos dan más peso a
discursos alternativos, también ellas en un 6,2% de los casos relatan relaciones que aúnan pasión
y ternura y en 5,1% relaciones en las que se da un buen trato. Así pues, el repertorio de las chicas
es más amplio y quizás se explica porqué en la muestra están sobrerepresentadas.

Also the qualitative analysis of the texts shows that a traditional love model is reproduced in the
Fotolog environment. From the different examples that we found, four aspects emerged: a) the
link between passion and pain (including suffering caused by violence), b) love as unpredictable
and inevitable, c) dependence and d) negative feelings such as jealousy and resentment.

(a) Passion/violence
“I love you above anything, above anything that crosses my mind. I love you when you insult me
and you push me because you are angry with me. I love you when after that you start crying, you
hug me and you tell me I’m your whole life.”
http://www.fotolog.com/daleqetussabes/56771148

“Being by his side is like riding an amazing roller coaster. When it comes down, it hurts and it
makes me dizzy. When it goes up, is absolutely unstoppable. Over time I don’t know if I prefer
the way up or the way down”.
http://www.fotolog.com/sariita_y_lucas/65556265#

(b) Love and destiny

We try to find happiness every day and we don’t realise that it is happiness that will find us. And
this will be when you lesat expect it: at school or at the supermarket, or in the middle of the sea.
http://www.fotolog.com/siempre__llovera/53311523

(c) Dependence and self-sacrifice

-Ask me whatever you want me to be: funny if you want, or pensative, intelligent or
supersticious, corageous or even a dancer. I will be what you want me to be. Tell me and I will
be that for you.
-You’re silly
-I could be that…
http://www.fotolog.com/comprateuunfurby/67582661

I’m a junky of your voice (…), my stomach hurts every time I feel that I am losing you …. My
greatest dispair is that I don’t want to get over being addicted to you. I want to die with you. I
want your body, your smell, your voice, your kisses to kill me…”
http://www.fotolog.com/simply_kiss/77463354

(d) Negative feelings

Let me make you suffer, so that you are the one to cry and suffer for having done what you did,
for having abandoned me in the middle of that empty space that was so difficult to get out of,
that hole I felt inside me because you were missing… now I am laughing about everything, after
everything that happened.

http://www.fotolog.com/suicidalxletter/74416639

It hurt me when I saw him talking to another girl, I was playing it cool, but inside I felt how
jealousy was stinging like a thorn. Then he would come back, smile at me, kiss me, and all the
thorns would disappear.

http://www.fotolog.com/lucia_prio95/71256514

Thus, love is associated with ‘sparks’ and chemistry, and thus understood as sudden and
inevitable, and never as a conscious and responsible choice. Youngsters describe relationships as
based on dependence and jealousy, acknowledging their suffering in dealing with these
relationships. But they do not seem to look for a transformation or a change. Rather, they act on
intuition, in terms of destiny, impulses and whims, more than in terms of reason. Passion,
fantasy, dreams and magic are associated with the unknown and the inaccessible (Gómez, 2004).

También el estudio cualitativo de los alias nos ha permitido observar la reproducción de los
modelos en la manera en que se chicos y chicas se autodefinen. When teenagers ‘rename’
themselves, they use expressions like: what_if_i_violated_you (male) or do_it_to_me_in_class
(female). As in this example, we generally observed an active/passive dichotomy between girls
and boys. Some girls’ usernames were: put_it_in_me_smoothly, fuck_me_wildly,
make_me_feel_yours, visual_pleasure, do_it_to_me_in_public
And boys chose names like: meet_me_in_my_bed, it_doesn’t_fit_in_your_hand,
single_and_no_commitment, I’ll_set_you_on_fire, I’ve_got_what_you_want,
night_without_a_condom

Nevertheless, it must be said that in some cases passion and tenderness are linked (11 female
posts and 9 male posts), and that youngsters also appreciate a boy or girlfriend who treats them
right (5 female, 6 male). Finally, there are expressions of mutual support and cooperation (4
female, 5 male), concepts that have been related to the alternative love model.

Existe una correlación muy fuerte entre algunas de las creencias asociadas al modelo
tradicional: el amor es inevitable correlaciona con la idea de que amor duele (.152**),
que el amor es para siempre (.227**) y con el deseo asociado a lo inalcanzable
(.114**). Además. el amor duele correlaciona con el amor irreflexivo (.182**) y . con el
deseo asociado a lo inalcanzable (.213**). La voluntad de cambiar a la pareja
correlaciona con la expresión de un amor irreflexivo (.328**) y con el deseo asociado a
lo inalcanzable (.401**). El establecimiento de relaciones estratégicas correlaciona con
la idea de que no hay que dejar a la pareja pase lo que pase (.193**) y con el
convencimiento de que el deseo de los hombres es incontrolable (.498**). Finalmente,
el rechazo al compromiso correlaciona con la idea de que no hay que dejar a la pareja
pase lo que pase (.227**). Esta consistencia entre los indicadores se observa también
en el modelo alternativo donde se presenta de forma más acusada. Las muestras de
apoyo y cooperación entre los miembros de la pareja correlacionan con
manifestaciones que vinculan el amor a la estabilidad (.256**) y la pasión con la ternura
(.182**). También correlaciona con la valoración positiva de que la pareja te trate bien
(.145**) y muestras de una relación basada en el diálogo y el consenso (.178**). A su
vez, la expresión de relaciones basadas en el diálogo y el consenso correlaciona con
manifestaciones que vinculan el amor a la estabilidad (.178**) y la pasión con la ternura
(.133*) y con la valoración positiva de que la pareja te trate bien (.149**). Cabe añadir
que la valoración positiva de que la pareja te trate bien correlaciona con
manifestaciones que vinculan el amor a la estabilidad (.145**) y la pasión con la ternura
(.446**). Finalmente, también hay una fuerte correlación entre las manifestaciones que
vinculan el amor a la estabilidad y las que vinculan la pasión con la ternura (.417**). En
ambos casos las creencias relacionadas con cada uno de los modelos es consistente y,
como cabría esperar, dichas creencias se refuerzan mutuamente ya que cuando una
persona sostiene alguna de estas ideas, tiende a presentar el resto de elementos de l
mismo modelo. Una excepción es la correlación de la competencia entre chicas con la
valoración positiva de que la pareja te trate bien (.224**). Esto plantea el interrogante
de porqué algunas personas pueden tener una relación de pareja afectuosa y basada
en el respeto y, en cambio, competir con los amigos o las amigas para conseguir la
atención de la pareja.

Además, también correlacionan las imágenes con connotaciones eróticas y algunos de

los indicadores relativos al modelo tradicional de relaciones sexuales y afectivas. La
idea de “la inevitabilidad del amor” (.172**), “la falta de compromiso” (.197**), “no dejes
que te roben el corazón” (.200**) y “el amor es para siempre” (.147**). Sin embargo, en
el caso de los chicos las representaciones con connotaciones eróticas se correlacionan
con representaciones de relaciones opuestas: por un lado, con la “falta de compromiso”
(.398**) y, por otro lado, con la concepción del “amor vinculado a la estabilidad”
(.264**). Remarcamos que las chicas sólo muestran más débilmente la correlación
entre representaciones con connotaciones eróticas y la “falta compromiso” (.127*).
Cuando las chicas se fotografían resaltando el escote suelen aparecer “solas en la foto”
(.204**), acompañadas de objetos de belleza (.270**) y de objetos de poder (.223**).

En cambio, las fotografías de pareja se correlacionan con creencias de ambos

modelos. En el caso del modelo tradicional, con la idea de que el amor es para siempre
(.291**) y con la creencia que no se ha trabajado suficiente para la relación (.198**).
Para el modelo alternativo, estas imágenes se acompañan de textos que presentan la
compatibilidad del amor y la estabilidad (.258**), la combinación de pasión y ternura
(.465**) y la valoración positiva de ser bien tratado por la pareja (.235**).

Estos datos muestran que cuando en las autorepresentaciones hay una

instrumentalización del propio cuerpo ésto se da en consonancia con creencias y
valores asociados a un modelo tradicional de relaciones sexuales y afectivas. Sin
embargo, los jóvenes que optan por presentarse con la pareja en las imágenes pueden
sostener creencias y valores de un modelo o de otro.

CONCLUSIONS

The most traditional stereotypes are found when teenagers present themselves in their Fotologs
in order to be attractive to potential partners. First, adolescents generally produce - within the
available repertoires - highly sexualised self-representations, both through their choice of
nickname or alias (20% of our sample) and through their pictures (40% of our sample). This
coincides with previous studies by Subrahmanyam, Samahel and Greenfield (2006), who
detected that in online teen chat rooms nicknames are an important vehicle for sharing identity
information, and that close to 20% of their sample’s nicknames were sexualised. This may be
explained by the extraordinary proliferation of discourses about sex and sexuality across all
media forms in general (Gill, 2007). The same conclusions come from the analysis of Jessica
Ringrose when she asserts the pornification of self-representations of youngsters in social
network sites (). Second, despite the fact that both girls’ and boys’ bodies are sexualised, male
users tend to portray themselves in active poses, surrounded by objects that underscore their
power or position in a peer group, while women tend to focus their attention on beauty and
intimity, usually stressing how important their boyfriends and close (girl)friends are to them.
Attraction processes, then, are still linked to beauty and vulnerability for women, and to power
for men (Gómez, 2004).

One of the results that was not expected at the beginning of the research, but came up again
and again, was what we call ‘the lesbian pose’. Girls often address their girlfriends using the
words ‘lesbian’ or ‘spouse’, and in some of the pictures of our sample (and in many more in the
in-depth analysis of Fotologs that were not part of the quanitative study), girls are kissing or
hugging each other in very explicit ways. This tendency could be interpreted as part of the
performance of a particular gendered identity (Turkle, 1995) in online environments, but also as
the interiorisation or imitation of the ‘lipstick lesbian’, also seen in TV series and music videos,
and pointed out to by Gill (2007) in her analysis of advertisment representations.
As to gender differences between the ‘gazes’ that underly teens’ self-presentations, boys mainly
tend to stress their belonging to a peer group and its activities, usually with the implicit corollary
of the power they can exert over others. Girls also underline the importance of peers, but as
opposed to boys, they tend to represent themselves in terms of ‘to-be-looked-at’-ness, implying
a passive exhibitionist female [body], made to give pleasure to an active male spectator
(Mulvey, 1999; Berger, 2004). It is, again, the female body that is offered to exert action upon.
Moreover, according to Mulvey, both feminine and masculine subjects internalise a male gaze,
which explains why women experience pleasure when objectifying themselves and submitting to
men.

También en el estudio desarrollado por Valkenburg, Schouten y Peter (2005) se encontró que si
bien los chicos y las chicas no difieren en la frecuencia con la que experimentan con sus
identidades, sí que lo hacen en buena parte de las self-presentational strategies. Girls pretend
to be older more often than boys y ellas pretenden ser beautiful more often mientras que ellos
pretend to be macho more often.ESTO YA LO DIJIMOS EN EL MARCO TEÓRICO, PARA MI
LAS CONCLUSIONES DEBEN SER ESTRICTAMENTE LAS DE NUESTRO ESTUDIO

In the same way advertisers do, teenagers use hyper-ritualisation in their representations.
Gender expressions are staged, and both girls and boys try to portray themselves in brilliant
poses (Goffman, 1991). Although the categories defined by this author in ‘Gender
Advertisements’ have been mainly applied to the analysis of gender representations in
advertising, they prove to be useful for describing images in self-generated media like SNS, as
these seem to imitate images used in advertisement. In other words, teens use advertisement-
like images to advertise... themselves.

The love socialisation models behind teenagers’ Fotolog interactions and practices tend to
reproduce on the Internet what Gómez (2004) calls a traditional model: love is associated to
pain, destiny and the unattainable. Many of these traditional notions correspond to the 'myths of
love' described by Galician (2004), such as 'love is forever', ‘love implies suffering, or ‘love is
chemistry and is thus inevitable’. Indeed, many of the girls in Fotolog express the ‘pain’ of being
attracted by someone who treats them badly, and their inability to end the situation. One of the
most recurrent traits in girls’ texts is the notion of dependence regarding their boyfriends.

However, our analysis also shows some progressive features concerning attraction and choice
models of teenagers. For example, we found some girls who expressed feeling attracted to their
partners because of the boys’ communication skills, and approving common support within the
relationship. Moreover, in many friends comments we found examples of peer solidarity, notably
among women, which speak against the same-sex competitiveness of the traditional model.
And there are also a few boys who demonstrate a respectful and egalitarian way of relating to
girls. These progressive traits correspond to the depictions of Giddens of a new society where a
‘confluent love’ is possible: active and contingent, and thus not ethereal (Giddens 1992: 61).

After having analysed the risks but also the opportunities of photolog portrayals about love, sex
and gender, we want to underline its importance per se in identity building and socialisation
processes. New media allow for new identity play as teens can express themselves directly and
usually without control from parents or other adults. But at the same time, self-generated media
help to reproduce inequalities existing in the non-virtual world, as SNS become a platform to
express notions of love that are closely linked to a traditional model of sexual-affective
relationships. They become a stage where images of men and women are re-produced in
stereotypical ways, and in which women are still shown in either passive or sexually active
poses, only to be objectified again, so that the imposition of an active pose now comes from the
inside not the outside (Gill 2007). ?ÉS AIXÒ QUE VOLIES DIR AMB: en las que ellas se
muestran o bien pasivas o bien activas sexualmente (pero, como indica Gill (2007), para
objetivizarse de nuevo de manera que la imposición no viene de fuera sino de dentro).

Until now we have looked at the how and the what of teens’ contents as produsers in photologs.
Far from structuralist gazes (NO SE ENTIENDE), Fotolog shows us how adolescents
appropriate narratives about relationships and express these from their own points of view,
sharing them with a peer community. Thus, the conclusions of this study should draw the
attention to the continuous relationship between media messages and the affective socialisation
of teenagers, without missing the individual level located in specific teenagers’ discourses. In
this sense, we would encourage research that linked media content and reception studies as
this would allow us to look into the ‘why’: how teenagers construct their sexual and gender
identities with and through SNS affordances and how they make sense of their media
experiences.

[1] The reflections and results that are presented here are framed in the research
project �Media and gender violence: catalists or factors of prevention?�, funded by the
Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (2009-2011).
[2] Si bien se pudieron analizar 355 Fotologs porqu� 45 cuentas se hab�an cerrado
entre el per�odo de muestreo y el el an�lisis, si ten�amos registrados todos los alias.