Why do more women than men use Pinterest? And why are the haters most often men? Social media offers many examples of fascinating gender-related behaviors.
Social media has become a permanent part of Poles' lives. It is a source of information, as well as a place for establishing various kinds of relationships. Megapanel research shows that there are over 21 million internet users in Poland, which accounts for 40% of our compatriots. According to a report prepared by Sotrender in 2015, women engage in communication with brands on Facebook much more often than men. In the demographics of Facebook profiles, one can find confirmation of stereotypes regarding interests. In the case of women, these are industries such as Home and Garden, Motherhood, Cosmetics, and Clothing. Men are interested in Sports, Automotive, IT, and Politics. According to a report by the Abanana agency and Sotrender, the vast majority of visitors to fan pages of children's brands on Facebook are women. The vast majority (78%) of mothers use Facebook, with Pinterest in second place at 43%.
Offensive comments online
Women have a greater tendency than men to share personal matters on social media, such as family matters or relationships. These findings were recognized by Facebook's research team after analyzing 1.5 million status updates published on the site. The data was divided into topics, and each was evaluated based on gender preferences and audience reactions. It turns out that men and women not only prefer different topics from each other, but topics related to women's interests, such as a child's birthday or family relationships, receive more positive reactions from other users.
This does not mean that women are not interested in abstract topics enough to share them. One of the reasons they are more reserved online users is negative feedback. British journalist Marcin Belam decided to verify these statistics and conducted an experiment on Twitter. He created fake accounts in which he pretended to be a woman at times and a man at others. When he presented himself as a woman, he received more offensive comments. Similar results come from The Guardian: an analysis of 70 million reader comments showed that 8 out of 10 of the most abused journalists are women.
Differences in content
Men and women generally prefer different types of content. Women usually prefer visual platforms. Men, on the contrary, choose content intended for reading. Such preferences are also visible in social media. Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook are used mostly by women. Discussion forums such as Reddit or Wykop have more male users.
These differences are also visible in the behavior of younger internet users. Research shows that teenagers often use gender stereotypes when building their own social media channels. Teenage girls post overtly seductive photos showing their faces or figures, while boys post photos related to risky behaviors, alcohol, and sex. Girls also have a greater tendency to share cute photos featuring cats and dogs. Researchers from Northwestern University proved that social media users are focused on promoting themselves. They will show their creative work, music, or films there. Almost two-thirds of men publish photos showing their work, compared to only half of women.
Emotions in words
Men and women speak a different language on social channels. Women often use emotional words. Men are more inclined than women to use formal language. They react more negatively to interactions, while women use warmer and more positive words.
It is even possible to determine the gender of social media users by analyzing their writing style. Researchers from Johns Hopkins University analyzed the language of Twitter users and it turned out that women use more emoticons and pay greater attention to punctuation. The expressions OMG and lol are mainly used by women, while laconic statements such as yes are used by men.
Men's possessive language
Men and women also differ in the pragmatic use of language. Men use linguistic units related to information (longer words, more prepositions), while women use words that make it easier to define their relationships with others (more pronouns, shorter words). Such conclusions come from an analysis of the content of Twitter users' statements. Researchers D. Bamman, J. Eisenstein, and T. Schnoebelen identified the 10,000 most frequently used lexical elements (both individual words, as well as emoticons and punctuation marks) and discovered that women use more personal pronouns, e.g. I, you. Men's language is more concise and economical with words.
Men are also more inclined toward trolling or aggressive language online. Psychologist Mark Griffiths links this phenomenon to the fact that people use the internet as an easy way to vent their aggression. It often occurs when men are unable to communicate something face to face, unlike women. Interestingly, men's language also seems more possessive than women's. Male representatives use the pronoun my in reference to their girlfriend or wife. They do this much more often than women who use this term for their boyfriend or husband.
In summary, in real life there are considerable differences in communication between women and men. Naturally, this is reflected in the language in which they communicate with each other on social media.
