Harvard Study: Men use social sites to eye girls
By Techgirl

The Harvard Business School is consistently rated among the top 3 MBA institutes in the world.  Its alumni have gone on to run some of the most successful tech businesses in the world.  Home Minister Chidambaram is a graduate.  The flip side of the coin is that many Harvard MBA’s were also intrinsically involved in the biggest business failures in USA.

Enron, CitiGroup and Leahman brothers had a fair sprinkling of Harvard graduates before they ran into trouble

India has close links with Harvard.  In 2007, Indians constituted the largest block of foreign students.  Of the 900 students who joined Harvard in 2007 to graduate in 2009, at least 38 had an Indian background.  At least 15 percent of Harvard professors and lecturers have an Indian link as well. In 2007, Harvard Universities endowment fund worth $4.2 billion had its largest investment in Infosys.

In India, perhaps the most well known and successful MBA from Harvard is our ex-Finance Minister and current Home Minister, P Chidambaram.  Most of his decisions have helped the booming IT and BPO industries.  Notable Harvard Business School graduates include Mr. Mahindra who founded Mahindra & Mahindra and respected Indian businesswoman Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw.

Now, a Harvard study into social network sites like Facebook has found that the killer application is photos.  Apparently, most (yes most) men who logon, look at photos of women they do not know. The study  by Assistant Professor Piskorski reads in part 

“
The biggest discovery: pictures. "People just love to look at pictures," says Piskorski. "That's the killer app of all online social networks. Seventy percent of all actions are related to viewing pictures or viewing other people's profiles."

Why the popularity of photos? Piskorski hypothesizes that people who post pictures of themselves can show they are having fun and are popular without having to boast.

Another draw of photos (and of SN sites in general) is that they enable a form of voyeurism.

Piskorski has also found deep gender differences in the use of sites. The biggest usage categories are men looking at women they don't know, followed by men looking at women they do know. Women look at other women they know. Overall, women receive two-thirds of all page views.

"This was a very big surprise: A lot of guys in relationships are looking at women they don't know," says Piskorski. "It's an easy way to see if anyone might be a better match." Again, online networks act as cover.
“

Any girl will tell you that some of this Harvard study is based on fact.  But we have to keep Harvard in perspective. Even as it was churning out business and political leaders, Harvard lost $10 billion of its endowment because of its bad judgment in investing in the American mortgage industry leading up to the recession.

Techgoss note:  Techgirl is a senior Tech journalist who reports on the IT, KPO and KPO Sectors for a leading media house.  In her spare time, she dabbles in satire in her blog http://techgirltalk.blogspot.com