web
GENDER AND COMMUNICATION STYLES
ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB
(C)Tami Sutcliffe, 1998
Why the World Wide Web?:
According to Matthew Gray of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 650,000 sites attached to the Internet in the
last eight months of 1997. As the technology to mount pages becomes increasingly cheaper and more available,
this number continues to grow so rapidly that it is almost impossible to monitor accurately (Gray 1998).
The Web, a distinct and specific sector of the larger Internet, is often the first area to be explored by new computer users, since
many Internet Service Providers and currently available operating systems build in tools to automatically connect
users to the Web. Additionally, a typical Web site is made up of recognizable graphical elements which require little
training to use, unlike some of the more esoteric Internet tools such as newsgroups, chat areas, discussion lists, and
textual FTP sites.
Until now, observing gender-based communication styles has been restricted to watching and recording humans as
they converse with each other, face to face, in real time. Recorded research material has only become widely available
over the last twenty-five years and students have historically been forced to "eavesdrop" on self-conscious subjects,
who attempted conversation despite the observer's note-taking intrusion. Opportunities to watch how people attempt t
o express themselves, both to themselves and to others, have been limited by the availability of real, live subjects
talking out loud. Even Herring's electronic discussion groups were limited in the same way that face-to-face conversation
would be: the participants were involved in many aspects of real-time self-identification and social posturing common to
face-to-face conversation while engaged in the actual transmission of their message.
On the World Wide Web page, humans have seemingly found at least one small way to share their experiences in life
while reducing language barriers, cultural norms, societal misconceptions, and misconstrued body language within the
process of communication.
The Web can supply an endlessly changing stream of entertainment, statistics, and
"information" in many guises, quickly and simply. "Surfing the Web" has become synonymous with Internet use in public
discourse, much to the annoyance of the "Netizens" who actively use the vast expanse of the "real Internet's" electronic
resources available outside of the highly commercial Web for many high-minded and thoroughly useful pursuits.
In any case, the urge to communicate is strong within humans and the non-judgmental tools a computer provides are
encouraging for many people. The appearance of 650,000 sites in the last eight months of 1997 suggests that many
people who begin by "surfing" the Web sites of others might end up constructing sites of their own. The levels of skills,
tools and equipment used vary astonishingly across the non-corporate Web, but at every level, behind every page,
there sits a human trying to communicate her or his life experiences, sometimes for the benefit of others, but frequently
simply for her or his own pleasure. Do these individuals embed recognizable, gender-specific communication patterns
in their electronic communication? Does it make a difference if these individuals are attempting to communicate with
other members of the same gender? What will they subconsciously include and what might they intentionally avoid or
emphasize?
A longstanding theory related to Web communication says that although physical objects don't accompany you into
cyberspace, your personality and your experience of the real world do (Grossman 1997). "Snapshots" of current Web
pages should reveal traces of existing communication styles. If previous theories of gender-based communication
are accurate, gender-based communication styles should be one aspect of human communication which are very
difficult to leave behind.
Last Updated: March 1999
Copyright © 1999 Tami Sutcliffe
All rights reserved.
Watercolours by Manette Fairmont: "Tuscany" 15x15 and "Field of Angels" 15x15
Courtesy of Left Coast Art:
Tour Fairmont's gallery
