Republic of the Philippines

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Division of Eastern Samar
DOLORES NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL
Dolores E. Samar

Facebook as a Part of the Self:

A Gender-Based Categorical Data Analysis on Friends’ Facebook Posts

A Survey Report

In partial fulfillment of the requirements in

English for Academic and Professional Purposes

Zaira Shane C. Hipe

12 – Apollo

Mr. Igour O. Pomarca

Subject Teacher
 I. INTRODUCTION
The advent of technology and social media has made it possible for anyone to take a
glimpse of everyone’s lives, equipped with personal profiles and curated posts of the
individual, one’s social media account can now serve as a window to the very essence of
their albeit refined soul.
Despite the countless surge of social media platforms, Facebook remains the most
frequented, with a user-friendly interface that encourages rapport and establishes an
intimate environment for one to share their thoughts. For every single day the application
welcomes its users with their token question and asks, “What’s on your mind?” an
average of 400 million people all around the globe responds with a status message. Some
would also choose to post about their latest escapades, photos of their aesthetically
pleasing meals, and share advocacies along with inspiring excerpts of the book they are
currently reading. Over the past few years, researchers have discovered the way people
choose to present themselves on the platform speaks volumes about their personality and
self-image (Morin, 2014).
Gender plays a big role when it comes to self-discovery and distinction, the contrast
between genders is very much apparent especially in the way one acts and communicate,
and these are naturally reflected in the way they use social media. They post about
different things, prefer certain platforms and even use language differently. Some finding
might appear obvious but others are bound to shake the status quo (Atanasova, 2016).
This study aims to determine a quantifiable conclusion on how a person’s Facebook
posts reflect their personality and interests, especially in relation to their gender.
II. METHODS
Respondents. This study integrated the purposive random sampling method where 30
respondents are chosen from the researcher’s Facebook friends, male and female,
Respondents Frequency Percentage
Male 12 40
Female 18 60
Not Indicated 0 0
TOTAL 30 100
Figure 1. The number of respondents

Data Gathering Procedure. Data was collected by surveying the existing Facebook
posts of the respondents and transcribing the data in categories.
Data Analysis. The data gathered was classified into 10 predetermined categories: (1)
Neutral / Can’t be determined, (2) Political, (3) Moral / Religious / Philosophical, (4)
Showbiz related, (5) Sports related, (6) Recreational, (7) Nature related, (8)
Financial / Business / Livelihood, (9) Cosmetic / Fashion, (10) Food / Culinary and
were evaluated into percentages in order to determine the statistical configuration of
the number of posts per strata in relation to their gender.
III. RESULTS
In a survey with 30 respondents and 1,176 posts, in accordance with the data
shown in the chart below, results indicate that 24% are neutral or can’t be determined,
8% are political, 8% are moral or philosophical, 20% are showbiz related, 6% are
sports related, 12% are recreational, 7% are nature related, 2% are financial or
business affiliated, 5% are on fashion, and 8% are food or culinary posts.

Neutral Political Moral Showbiz Sports Recreational Nature Financial Fashion Food

Figure 2. Percentage per category

With a total of 30 respondents in which 40% are male and 60% are female, the
statistical results are in conformity with the data specified in the figure below:
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Neutral Political Moral Showbiz Sports Recreational Nature Financial Fashion Food

Male Female Not Indicated

Figure 3. Percentage per category in association with the gender of respondents

IV. CONCLUSION
With the established results at hand, it can be seen that what one chooses to
share in social media platforms are evidently reminiscent on the essence of self-
expression and using gender as a benchmark has given the study a perceptive
rationale as it has proven that most males tend to lean into sharing moral and sports
related posts while females dominated formulaic categories such as showbiz, fashion,
and food. But in some great disparity, the study has also shown that it is possible for
one to derail from stereotypical conventions toward their gender as females reigned
over patriarchally ascribed fields like politics and business.