“Like My Status”

Abstract

This paper engages with the relatively new area of research into teenage girls and online social networks, focusing on the experiences and views of Israelis. In particular, we examine how Israeli girls construct social relationships on Facebook. Adopting a feminist interpretive approach, this qualitative study is based on focus group interviews with Israeli girls aged between twelve and eighteen from diverse cultural, economic, and social backgrounds. The girls clearly distinguish between different circles of social closeness on Facebook, with each circle marked by different relationships, dynamics, and expectations. The study's findings beg the question of whether social networks allow Israeli girls to exercise control, power, choice, and agency in their social world, or whether they remain informed by existing social structures that shape and restrict their choices and actions. The significance of these findings is discussed in the contexts of feminism, girl power, and Neoliberal discourse.

Keywords::

• Facebook
• teenage girls
• Israel
• focus group
• social network sites

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to express their gratitude to the Research Authority of the College of Management Academic Studies, Rishon LeZion, Israel, for their financial support of this research.

Notes

^1. The age groups in Israel using social networks sites most intensively are twelve to fourteen year olds (89 percent) and fifteen to seventeen year olds (87.6 percent).

^2. Arab Israeli girls were excluded because of the complex cultural and social factors involved which are beyond the scope of this paper.

^3. Although the study sampled a relatively wide age range, we noticed an absence of age differences. Where patterns emerged that were unique to a specific age group, it is explicitly mentioned. Where no age-related differences were found, we attempt wherever possible to include quotations from girls of different ages, in order to express that.

^4. The “Like” button allows one to express appreciation/affection regarding a certain object posted by users on their Facebook page.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sigal Barak Brandes

Sigal Barak-Brandes is a lecturer at The School of Media Studies, College of Management Academic Studies, Israel. Her research interests include: gender representations, media portrayal of wife abuse, women and girls' audiences, and girls' images. E-mail: [email protected]

David Levin

David Levin is a lecturer in The School of Media Studies, College of Management Academic Studies, Israel. He focuses on the conjunctions between the possibilities and limitations of various media, cultural models, and the implications of special contexts of use. His recent publications include research on cell phones (International Journal of Cultural Studies) and the conjunction between news construction and Facebook's social protest (JOMEC journal). E-mail: [email protected]