Center for the Digital Future survey finds gender
differences emerge on social networks
April 2010Center for the Digital Future survey finds gender differences
emerge on social networks
Posted April 7, 2010
In a
sharp reversal over the past three years, many more young women than men now
report feeling as strongly about their internet communities as their real world
ones; 67 percent of women under forty—but only 38 percent of men in the same age
group—say they feel as strongly about their favorite internet community. As
recently as 2007, survey numbers were reversed; 69 percent of younger men said
their online communities were just as important as offline equivalents vs. 35
percent of younger women.
Researchers at the Center for the Digital Future, part of
the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism at the University of
Southern California, are reporting another gender shift. The Center’s latest
survey reveals that nearly half of young women say they’ve met offline with an
online community contact, against barely a third of men under forty (48 percent
vs. 36 percent); in 2006 the percentage was the same for women, but 59 percent
of younger males had met offline with an online community
contact.
Michael Gilbert , author of The Disposable Male and a
senior fellow at the Center, where he focuses on gender and family issues, says
growing interest in online communities and social networking by younger women
reflects historic adoption patterns.
“Women have been a bit more cautious with new
technologies but they generally catch up and often exceed men in their
enthusiasm once they’ve had a chance to look around. Men tend to charge in to
new technologies and the opportunities they enable.” But, says Gilbert, “there
are some early signs men may be over the infatuation and are starting to check
out.”
Both
sexes, of all ages, tell the Center they get considerable benefits from their
online community, but younger male enthusiasm is waning. In 2005, 77 percent of
men under forty said their online community was very or extremely important;
just 39 percent say that now. This trailing off of interest is reported even
though men generally are more likely than women to say they’re contributing to
their internet community (84 percent vs. 69
percent).
Despite the early signs of networking fatigue among
younger men, their online connections must count for something since 40 percent
acknowledge their internet community involvements have decreased the time
available for their offline communities. Here, too, women are closing the gap;
in the Center’s latest survey, 27 percent of young women say their membership in
online communities has resulted in a reduction in time spent in their offline
ones, a fourfold increase since 2007.
The
Center’s surveys also show that women, of all ages, demonstrate a wider range of
online community interests, putting greater emphasis on social, spiritual and
relationship aspects. Gilbert believes these deeper personal and social
interests likely account for the increasing importance women place on their
online communities.
About
the survey:
Through findings developed in annual surveys conducted
among 2,000 American households, the Digital Future Project provides a broad
year-to-year exploration of the influence of the Internet and online technology
on Americans by examining the behavior and views of a broad national sample of
Internet users and non-users.
The
USC Annenberg Center for the Digital Future also created and organizes the World
Internet Project, which conducts similar surveys and studies in twenty-seven
countries around the world.
Center for the Digital
Future