Cyber seducers on Facebook: How Polish divorcees use the popular social network portal for creating physical attractiveness to establish a new romantic relationship

Abstract

The currently most popular social networking website - Facebook - is a space that allows members of many thematic groups to communicate and cooperate. There are divorced or separated people in one of these groups, treating the community as a kind of support group. On weekends, community members can present their portraits to attract attention, make friends, initiate a romantic relationship. The subject of research was visual communication of the community. One aimed to recognize the strategies of self-presentation of men and women and find out to what extent gender stereotypes are reflected in the composition of the published self-portraits. The other goal was to examine what associations evoke the images of men and women and, finally, community members’ attitude to selfies - a convention typical for social media users. The research was carried out using semiotic analysis, which allowed for the formulation of adequate conclusions. The most important findings were about gender stereotypes in constructing divorced people’s physical attractiveness, even though community members represent different generations, professional groups, and social classes.