Genderization of Social Media

By: Rakhi, Lisa, Mary, and Tricia

The Research Began with Two Questions…

How do college students differ in their social media usage?

Are their gender differences in narcissistic

tendencies on social media sites?

HypothesesWomen use social media

sites more frequentlyMen display more

narcissistic tendencies

Another hypothesisUse of social networking sites

will be positively correlated with narcissism

Methods

O sixty participants

O 30 male/30 female

O Aged 18-25O Majority from

UMass Dartmouth

MeasuresO 11 item questionnaire for social networking

sitesO 59 item survey for narcissism

Procedure for Participants

Asked classmates and friends to participate.

Informed them of anonymity

Answered questions

Placed completed survey in secure place

Sample Questions O How many social networking sites

are you a member of?

O How often do you log on to these sites?

O What do you post most about?

O Why do you use social networking?

Narcissism StatementsO On a scale of 1 to 5

O I have a natural talent for influencing people

O If I ruled the world, it would be a better place

O I like to be the center of attention

O I prefer to blend in with the crowd

ResultsO Mean age of males was 20.63O Mean age of females was 21

Males are members of about 2.27 SNS

Females are members of about 3.37 SNS

Frequency of SNS Usage

MalesO 57.7% visit every

day/multiple times a day

O 20.7 have more than 100 pictures on profile

FemalesO 80% visit every

day/multiple times a day

O 48.3 have more than 100 pictures on profile

Females are more frequent users of SNS

Men have more narcissistic personality

Males: Narcissism and Reasons for SNS Usage

O 36.8% of males with high narcissism use SNS because every else has it as compared to 26.7% of females with high narcissism

O 36.8% of males with high narcissism use SNS to keep everyone updated on their life compared with 20% of females with high narcissism

However……..

No correlation between narcissist personality and SNS usage

Discussion• Both males and females like to talk mostly

about their daily activities, events, and lifestyle

• Posting subjects were common across gender

More Discussion…

O Males scored higher on 42 narcissism items (out of 59)

O Higher items were related to confidence

O Males narcissist tendencies are not on the high end of the scale

And More Discussion…O Females visited SNS every day multiple

times a day as opposed to males (80% vs. 56.7%)

O Females spent 1-5 hours per session on SNS as opposed to males who spent less than 30 minutes per session

O Males update status multiple times a day as opposed to females who update once a day

Limitations

• Not a large enough population

• Questions for SNS questionnaire

not detailed enough

• Narcissism survey could have included items reflecting narcissism and SNS

rather than just narcissism

Future Research• Intensify the use of survey to go in-depth

• Vary the ages to study a more general population