Facebook: Men provoke, women are emotional
Men like to brag and provoke others on Facebook, while women are more likely to talk about their feelings and relationships. This is what researchers at the University of Gothenburg found in an online survey of 1,000 Swedish Facebook users between the ages of 18 and 73.
"Men and women behave significantly differently on Facebook - almost as if it's a completely different product for them, which is also designed to satisfy different needs," the study authors explain in the Pressetext interview.
The researchers, led by psychologist Leif Denti, determined what benefits profile owners see in their Facebook behavior, how they update and what the psychological consequences are. Basically, it's about organizing relationships with friends and family members, according to the main result, but by no means does every piece of content end up on the network: Most postings relate to important events, positive experiences and good humor, while only 38 percent of respondents also write negative things.
Some of the results confirm earlier assumptions about Facebook's "addictive effect": "Many people feel pressured to log in frequently, and one in four even feels uncomfortable without it," the researchers report. Logging in takes place six times a day on average - for most, always when opening the web browser. 85 percent of those surveyed count Facebook as a fixed part of their daily routine, while one in two considers it difficult to stay "up to date" without it. Two-thirds of younger users say they often kill time on Facebook. Older users mainly want to make new acquaintances on the platform.
Unlucky longer logged in
A closer look reveals a clear difference between the sexes: The women surveyed spend an average of 81 minutes a day on the social network, while the men spend only 64 minutes. 30 percent of men like to provoke in postings and one in four brags online; for the female gender, the figure is only half as high. However, women are more unhappy and dissatisfied in life the more intensively they use Facebook. The same also applies to people with little education and income, but not so much to men overall.
The researchers stress that further studies are needed to clarify the exact relationships. "We have a chicken-and-egg problem here, because it is not clear what is cause and what is effect. It's conceivable that unhappy people spend more time on Facebook, but conversely, it's also conceivable that Facebook makes isolated people unhappy." The primarily positive postings don't necessarily brighten the mood yet: Perhaps it wears down some depressed people to have only happy-go-lucky contacts. "You can't see that they're often not happy in real life.
