Chatrooms

Female Online Presence is Growing

Although it is impossible to tally how many women use online chatting features, social media scholars believe that men use interactive Web technologies slightly more than women. Women are increasingly engaging in traditionally male chat outlets such as online gaming and role-playing. They continue to use already-female-dominated chatrooms that discuss personal issues such as pregnancy, rape, breast cancer, or lesbianism-noting that online interaction about such issues is less intense, minimizes embarrassment, allows them to feel more open to themselves and others, and also provides access to new acquaintances who have faced similar experiences. Chatrooms also allow women opportunities for sharing workplace experiences or to voice political opinions that may otherwise be muted because of gender bias.

Despite the advantages online chatrooms provide women, stigma continues to surround both the mechanisms and those who use them. Television programs such as To Catch a Predator paint a world where men are waiting to take sexual advantage of young women, and a variety of television programs or movies depict women who use chatrooms as victims of cyber-stalkers or mentally unbalanced individuals who cannot cope in their physical worlds. Research also indicates that while individuals feel it is okay for them personally to meet others online for dating and friendship, they continue to judge others who may take the same actions. Studies show, however, that relationships initiated through chatrooms can be as healthy as face-to-face initiated relationships and that chatrooms, overall, pose no additional risk to individual well-being.