Women and Social Media

Today, I read a thought-provoking article on Mashable entitled "How Women Use the Web." A company called ComScore analyzed the internet behaviors of women and cited a lot of fancy charts and statistical data to prove the point that although women make up a little less than half the global online population (46%), our online behaviors are drastically different than those of our male counterparts.

Not surprisingly, more women visit social networking sites and spend an average of 30% more time per month using them. Below are some of my personal thoughts on why our fair gender has jumped on the social media bandwagon and stayed on board for the ride.

• We are inherent communicators. We love to talk. Social media is yet another outlet for us to communicate and share with one another.

• We like to stay connected and feel connected. It's been scientifically proven that one reason women live longer is because of their connection to other women. Being social and feeling connected with other humans is programmed into our brains, so it makes sense that we would enjoy social media so much. It makes us feel like a part of something and allows us to stay close with one another, despite our busy lives.

• We're moving up in the business world. And we're using our communicative abilities to our advantage. It's called social NETWORKING for a reason.

• We're nosy. Have you ever tried to have a gossip session with your boyfriend/husband? They're just so...bad at it. They never ask enough questions or dig deep enough to get good info. But Facebook? Ohhhh, Facebook tells us exactly what we want to know.

Do you agree or disagree? Do you think social media has been particularly good for women? Love to hear your thoughts.

Stereotypes and Facebook Recommendations

One fairly new Facebook feature that always catches my attention and never fails to give me a good chuckle is the "recommendations" feature. Facebook, if it weren't for your crazy little algorithm, I might have gone my whole life without adding Family Guy as one of my favorite TV shows - the horror! And who knew that the pressure to get married would come more from one of your targeted ads than my own mother? By the way, if you receive hate mail from a guy named Chris, he is not my boyfriend and he won't actually go through with his plan to burn down the Shane Company...unless they keep running those terrible radio commercials.

But I digress.

I think it would be highly entertaining to see some sort of chart that details certain stereotypes perpetuated by Facebook recommendations. For example, I have "country music" listed as an interest. Yes, it's true. Those sweet, twangy tunes get my flip-flop feet a-tappin' and my head a-bobbin'. Did you follow that countryspeak? Apparently Facebook does, because almost every time I log in, my friendly neighborhood recommendations look like this:

"Hunting. Many who like 'country music' like this."

"Fishing. Many who like 'country music' like this."

"NASCAR. Many who like 'country music' like this."


Why not just give it to me straight and say:

"Redneck. Many who share your interests are one."