尽管Facebook等社交网络在一定程度上缩小了人们的代沟，然而事实上男性和女性，在校大学生和毕业大学生对社交网站的使用方法不尽相同。

因此，以下由S. Craig Watkins主导的研究就是对Facebook社交网站各种不同社交体验的首次分析。其中，Radio-TV公司的博士生H. Erin Lee协助设计调查和进行数据分析。

首先，据Watkins研究显示：Facebook社交活动无法取代家人，朋友之间的面对面交流，但不可否认其为人们增进友情，提高团体积极性提供了大量的机会。

在此次研究中，Watkins访问了900位在校大学生和毕业大学生以了解其主要从事的Facebook活动，性别和年龄差异对从事Facebook活动的影响，和Facebook网站新闻，信息和娱乐等活动的作用等。

不论是分享墙贴，照片，评论或新闻链接，年轻人加入Facebook的本意都是为了和家人朋友保持联系。当被问及最常做的Facebook 3项活动时，66%的被访者选择“更新状态”，60%选择“发表评论”，49%选择“给朋友留言”。另外，当问及与哪类朋友进行Facebook交流时，47%选择与他国朋友保持联系最重要，28%则认为与同个城市的朋友保持联系最重要，而近35%则认为与家人保持交流最重要。

Watkins认为，“Baby Boomer一代”的父母主动使用Facebook增强与家人联系，使得人们相信社交媒介能促进代购的缩小。

另外，尽管使用Facebook社交网站的男性和女性在数量上差距不大，两者也都是为了增进与朋友的交流，但他们从事的社交活动却有所不同。

其中，男性更倾向于使用功能性活动，如分享新闻和信息等。男性比较不热衷于分享照片，即便分享也主要与个人兴趣有关。相较于女性，仅有8%的男性表示可能分享视频剪辑到Facebook档案。女性则更热衷于在Facebook社交网站上分享家人照片。据调查显示，女性普遍认为照片是分享乐趣的重要途径之一。

去年，Facebook社交网站就隐私问题展开了严密检查。虽然watkins的调查显示年轻的Facebook用户对分享个人信息相对宽松，但当他们转型为社会人士时就会更注重个人信息的隐私性。

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在各种的个人信息分享中，watkins发现“关系状态”和“喜爱的媒体”等信息分享最为广泛。较之毕业生，在校学生更喜欢发表自己的政治和宗教观点。其中，男性比起女性更热衷于发表这类观点。

而关于社交媒介和隐私泄露问题方面，调查显示社交媒介的用户年纪越大，对分享的个人信息选择性也就越强。

此外，在这份《”Got Facebook? Investigating What’s Social About Social Media”》调查中的发现还包括：

1，在年轻人从事的各种Facebook活动中，87%被访者选择上传照片，然而只有不到20%表示会每周或经常上传照片。

2，随着社交游戏的盛行，社交网站发展成为一种社交游戏平台。对此，58%的受访者表示会在社交网站进行游戏，而33%则相反。另，参与游戏的人群中52%为大学毕业生，44%是大学在校生。

3，在高中向大学转型期间的Facebook用户会分享更多的重要个人信息，与更多人群交友，但花费在Facebook上的时间不会增多。

4，大学生Facebook用户更依赖于传统新闻源，如电视和广播等。

5，男性会更经常发布关于流行文化的时事政治的新闻话题。令，受访Facebook用户的“好友”平均数为254人。

While the social network site — the most visited site in the world — is helping to close the social media generational gap, it’s being used differently by men and women, and by current college students versus recent college graduates.

The study, led by S. Craig Watkins, associate professor of radio-TV-film, is the first to examine the distinct ways in which engagement with Facebook is evolving into a multi-faceted social experience. Radio-TV-Film doctoral candidate H. Erin Lee helped with the survey design and data analysis.

“Our findings indicate that Facebook is not supplanting face-to-face interactions among friends, family and colleagues,” said Watkins. “In fact, we believe there is sufficient evidence that social media afford opportunities for new expressions of friendship, intimacy and community.”

Watkins surveyed 900 current college students and recent college graduates across the country to find out what and with whom these Facebook users communicate, the influence of gender and age, and the role of news, information and entertainment (for example, quizzes, games, photos, etc.).

Whether it’s a wall post, photo, comment or news link, young people’s engagement with Facebook is driven primarily by a desire to stay connected and involved in the lives of family and friends who live near and far, or have recently entered their lives.

When asked to choose the top three activities most engaged in on Facebook, 66 percent of respondents listed “posting status updates,” 60 percent listed “posting comments/likes to my profile” and nearly half, 49 percent, listed “posting messages and other content to friends’ profiles.”

When asked about the type of communication they engage in on Facebook, 47 percent of survey participants cited their communication with friends who live in a different state or country as “very important,” while 28 percent cited communicating with friends who live in the same city as “very important.” Thirty-five percent of survey participants cited communicating with family members, such as parents, aunts and uncles, as “very important.”

“Using Facebook to strengthen familial ties indicates that boomer parents are now quite active, leading us to believe that the generational gap in social media use is closing,” said Watkins.

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While men and women use Facebook in equal numbers and agree it’s an important tool to stay in touch with friends, they engage with the social media platform differently.

Men tend to use Facebook for functional activities, such as sharing news, information and task-oriented content. Men are less likely to share photos on Facebook, but when they do they’re more likely to be photos connected to their personal interests, such as hobbies, animals or scenery. In comparison to women, men are 8 percent more likely to post video clips to their Facebook profile.

Women tend toward affectionate uses of Facebook, such as sharing personal photos from family events. Women in the survey viewed photos as an important way to share fun and important personal experiences with friends.

Over the last year, Facebook has come under intense scrutiny concerning its privacy policies. While Watkins’ study found young Facebook users are relatively open to sharing personal information on their profiles, individuals tend to censor themselves more as they transition from college to the professional world.

Of the personal information individuals are able to share on their profile, Watkins found “relationship status” is widely shared (84 percent), as is “favorite media,” including information about their favorite books, TV shows and movies. Compared to graduates, college students were more likely to list their “religious views” and “political views” on their profiles, suggesting that as users move from college to the professional world they become less likely to share personal information that may be perceived as controversial. When it comes to sharing what may be considered personal information men are much more likely than women, for example, to share their political views (49 percent vs. 36 percent) as well as their religious views (51 percent vs. 43 percent).

“As the debate about social media and privacy rages on, this study suggests that as social media users grow older they may become more selective about the personal data they share online,” said Watkins.

Other findings from the “Got Facebook? Investigating What’s Social About Social Media” study:

• Of all the media content young people share via Facebook — photos, videos, links, quizzes — sharing photos is common with 87 percent of respondents reporting that they post photos on Facebook. However, less than 20 percent of these people post photos weekly or more frequently.

• Facebook has evolved into a social gaming platform with 58 percent of respondents reporting they are likely to play a game or take a quiz on a typical day, whereas 33 percent reporting they are not likely to. Of those who participate in gaming, 52 percent are college graduates and 44 percent are college students.

• In the transition from high school to college, individuals share significantly more personal information and “friend” more people, but don’t spend more time on Facebook.

• College-educated Facebook users still frequently rely upon more traditional news sources, such as television and radio, and turn to those sources more frequently than online news sources.

• Men tend to use Facebook more than women to post links to pop culture, current events and news-related topics.
The average number of Facebook “friends” among respondents was 254. （Source：physorg）