Gender differences in social network service use

Further, in many cases those historical reactions resulted in restrictions of girls' use of technology to protect them from predators, molesters, and other criminals threatening their innocence.

"[16] In contrast, data collected by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that men were more likely to have multiple SNS profiles.

A study conducted by Pew research centers found that women were more avid users of social media.

[15] Female participants in a multi-stage study conducted in 2007 to discover the motivations of Facebook users scored higher on scales for social connection and posting of photographs.

Acquisti and Gross found that women in their sample were less likely to reveal their sexual orientation, personal address, or cell phone number.

[9] This is similar to Pew Internet & American Life research of children users of SNSs that found that boys and girls presented different views of privacy and behaviors, with girls being more concerned about and restrictive of information such as city, town, last name, and cell phone number that could be used to locate them.

[27] At least one group of researchers has found that women are less likely to share information that "identifies them directly – last name, cell phone number, and address or home phone number," linking that resistance to women's greater concerns about "cyberstalking", "cyberbullying", and security problems.

In general, women were more likely to disclose information about themselves in their Facebook profile, with the primary exception of sharing their telephone number.

Citing several examples, Strano opined that there may also be a difference in how men and women Facebook users display and interpret profile photos depicting relationships.

[29] Privacy has also been a concern for the SnapChat app, which allows you to send messages either text or photo or video which then disappear.

[31] A 2021 article found that mansplaining could be seen more prominent online rather than offline, saying that "More than 50% of our respondents in the United States and 30% in the UK heard of the term.

"[32] The authors analyzed information and conducted experiments to find if mansplaining could cause potential silence of female voices because they were afraid they would have to face sexist remarks.

[32] A 2021 article by Emily Van Duyn, Cynthia Peacock, and Natalie Jomini Stroud,[33] suggests that women's voices are typically only heard in smaller matters.

Data gathered in December 2008 by the Pew Internet & American Life Project showed that the SNS users in their sample were equally divided among men and women.

Moreover, the work by Managgo et al. discovered not only traditional gender roles and images but sexualisation of female users of MySpace.

[36] Finally, at least one study has found that men and women SNS users both left textual clues about their gender.