Cameron Conaway wonders why men are more willing than women to share personal information on the Internet.
A new study has shown that men are more likely than women to share their phone number, physical address, geographic location and political and religious affiliations on social media sites. The market research company uSamp surveyed only 600 social media users, which isn’t really enough to draw good conclusions, but for the sake of discussion let’s assume that this study was error-free and garnered the same results after studying 600,000.
While this study will surely be used to help companies target ads and direct traffic, what does it reveal when viewed through the lens of gender?
One revelation according to those I spoke with might be that the fear response higher in women in physical reality is the same in virtual reality. Though the Internet feels safe, the bridge between virtual worlds and physical worlds can be a short one. There are plenty of stories detailing how male stalkers, rapists and murderers have used social media information to track down their female victims. If the fear response theory is correct, it means that the level of physical vulnerability and the willingness to prey on physical vulnerability significantly impacts how men and women engage in the virtual world. Businesses are sure to capitalize on this. Viewed from a criminological angle, this reinforces what we already know and what MSNBC’s To Catch a Predator helped show the masses: Men are more dangerous criminals on the Internet, too.
Regarding the political/religious information, this could show that perhaps men feel less threatened to show this information (in terms of job opportunities, etc.), or that women want to play a more neutral role lest they be judged. Either way, it reveals something about how gender alone can influence things like power, responses to authority and trust.
There are many ways to dissect what this study might mean, but, and especially in response to those who believe gender differences in 2012 are created constructs, one thing is sure: gender differences exist even behind the seeming anonymity of computer screens.
Photo courtesy of NASA Goddard Photo and Video
Society doesn’t focus much on male vulnerability, but loses its mind over female vulnerability. Most men probably don’t know their risk of physical and sexual assault or are expected to ignore it and act brave. I truly wouldn’t be surprised if men were stalked at similar levels but hasn’t been studied much like other forms of violence.
Maybe men are just raised to take more risk?
I responded comprehensively but forgot to put in my details, so it was wiped out (alak!!) – Check out Patricia Murray on G+ – one of my shares will give you the name of a Channel 4 programme, in fact will give you the programme, about a young woman who was stalked on the internet, and the destruction it caused to her life and that of her family. I have had trouble with an ex-friend who has harrassed me and pursued me on internet for months, which taught me one must be careful about what one shares – we were… Read more »
Alright I’ll be honest…the reason I don’t put much of my info onto facebook is because I don’t want to seem like I’m sharing too much. (It’s shallow, I know)…but I don’t want people I know to click on my name and be like, “Woah…over-sharing,” and then judge me for it. Thought that says more about me and my own personal issues than it does about women in general though, I think. Anyway…I also make as much of my facebook page private as I can. A small part of that is to do with the nagging feeling that if I… Read more »
Now that I think about this some more…maybe part of it is to do with how men are expected to be tech-savvy.
Weird random guys try to friend me on Facebook (another one today!) whenever I use a female profile pic ….(I have stopped using my real photo [it felt stalker-y]…and used one of a famous actress!)….
Sometimes I’ll use a photo of a favorite writer (ie., Gary Shteyngart, Carlos Eire) or favorite actor (ie., Viggo Mortensen or Michael Fassbender), which cracks me up…people I know from school/real life can still find me pretty easily through our mutual networks….
I wonder if this speaks toward some belief that men are expected to put more of themselves out there in order to earn trust than women?
They may want to be more open so that it’s clear they are not hiding anything.
Or, it could be the same reason that men are more likely to take the risk and, in fact, die in a high risk rescue trying to save a family in trouble, and the same reason that men are more likely to successfully perform a high risk rescue of family in trouble.
Bottom line, neither of the above facts suggests that men are inherently evil and trying to oppress women to keep them barefoot and pregnant.
This looks like a really clear case of how women are kept out of the public sphere, to reinforce the power differential. I’m easier for an employer to find and contact, because I’m out on the internet and not afraid of real-world consequences of that choice. I’m not hiding from a creepy neighbor, dangerous ex, or a world full of men who will harass a woman on the internet and leave a man alone, even though we all take up the same number/kind of pixels. More than that, I’m easier to network with, so I’m more likely to find out… Read more »