Is Twitter more for girls?
March 28th, 2010 | 
Author: By Amanda Lian
Is Twitter more for Girls?
Recently, I got a few comments from friends and colleagues alike that Twitter is more for girls. Why, you may ask. The demographic is more akin to the feminine gender. Although it is very hard to find out the exact user numbers according to gender, we can only list out why the people around me think so and why I beg to differ.
Before you think that everything does not make sense, read on.
If you are a girl, think back to the days when you were young. Have you actually used a diary? Or places to note down all your secret memories and thoughts? This medium is definitely not foreign to you.
On another hand, although I do not pinpoint that boys do not do the same, I can safely say that girls are more inclined to jazz up the diary entry. No? Reading the journals of male friends, gives me a feeling that they are more technical – cold hard facts, while the ones of girls are lively and more emphasized on the asestically beautiful, resulting in a vivid, brilliant imagery etched in your thoughts for some time. Unless you do not agree with me that reading a diary entry written by a girl is more apt and on topics you can expand on?
Have you noticed that if you had added or “followed” in the Twitter sense, Bill Gates for example, his Twitter posts are mostly technical notes of some sort and only a handful of pictures and visuals along the way? If not, males usually retweet (RT) news which is more practical in a way. In my friend’s corporate circle, there is a pattern which you all out there may find newsworthy.
The most obvious thing that they put forward to my attention is that women tweets about what happened today, some insights to their personal life, quotes that are not too serious, and not too political.
Twitter started out because it covers the need of a certain niche of people, people who wanted to blog but only in bite-sized snubs. The 140 character limit calls for short, simple but to the point expressions and thoughts.
Facebook is for the people who wanted to connect more than just following while Twitter is to actually follow what an individual post up for the whole day. And you all know what? This seems so much like the journalist syndrome. The need to be accurate, to the point, short and sweet, yet engaging!
Given all of the above, which gender would you think fills your mind of the perfect match for Twitter? Females, of course, you might say. Also, I do want to add that in fact, most of my journalist friends are guys! Is there a huge problem now?
Given that most of my friends are in the technology sector, I may be bias towards the media industry when analysing this issue.
However, the basic concept of social media is skewed towards females. If you found a male who is very friendly and have tonnes of female friends, I am sure you would say that he is either, odd or there must be something about him that can click with the females.
Alright, not to stereotype, but do you agree with me? Men are more tight-lipped; women more out-going, research have shown, leading all the way back to the ancient times. So maybe the developers should have looked into this phenomenon when they were designing Web 2.0 right?
The guys who you like to follow on Twitter, somewhat have the girls’ trait of being more open with their personal life and is generally more outspoken. Disagree? How about the famous writer of New York Times, Thomas Friedman as an example or many other famous comedians? They all have a strong following which further exerts my friend’s point. And to them, these guys are considered “lower-ranked” women.
In my view, however, I believe that Twitter works for guys as well. I hold different views from the people around me just because I do see that guys are also quite outspoken when it comes to technology, gadgets or pictures. Guy designers will also tweet about fashion, relationships and beyond (take note that they are straight).
So whether Twitter is for guys or girls, take your pick. Leave your comments and we will know in time to come.
Or is the Twitter platform just a marketing tool for businesses? Tweet, tweet!
About the Author:
Amanda Lian graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in English Language, Creative writing and Child Psychology from the University of Western Australia. She worked as a staff writer for Hardwarezone and is currently an editorial executive at Cre8 Singapore Pte Ltd.
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Twitter is just another fad that will soon be forgotten (like ecircles, yahoo!groups, friendster) once the users move on to even more popular and trendy social network sites. Myspace and Facebook will soon follow.
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Huh? Why would I want people, majority who are probably strangers, to know what I am doing every minute or hour?
Personally, it’s for people who are self-absorbed in their own world, and the people who read their tweets are just voyeurs.
Soon, twitter will be bastardized by businesses/organisations hawking their products and services.
Already, we are seeing people with hidden agendas using twitter to propagate or evangelise their thoughts or beliefs.
Not forgetting, the people who tweet may not even be, the intended author. There are actually a posse of people working as ‘ghost’ writers to tweet for celebrities and politicians.
Anyways, that’s just my POV.
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Totally disagree on the gender preference here… using two points you made, females like to connect, and males are more practical in nature. By those definitions Facebook allows people a deeper connection and twitter is for a more practical gender…
“Facebook is for the people who wanted to connect more than just follow”
Men do not desire the connection to others quite like women do.
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I disagree that Twitter is more “feminine”. The nature of the microblogging platform would probably suggest that it’s more likely to pander to those with short attention spans – regardless of their gender.
And it’s up to users how they use their Twitter. Some people use it to quickly spread news; since links can be included, the longer article is easily at hand for further clarification.
As for voyeurism and proselytism, it’s not limited to Twitter. There are full blogs, websites and organisations dedicated to that. Twitter is just a tool, and like I said, it’s up to people how they want to use it.
I like Twitter because it makes me feel closer to the people I’m following – friends, people I met online with similar interests, writers and celebrities.
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It doesn’t matter if Twitter is a fad or not; its impact is already felt. and it has changed the social media landscape more than players like MySpace or Friendster did back in their heyday.
As for people who don’t get Twitter, that’s understandable. You have to use it to get it, and even then some people don’t get it. The key word is “engage”, and Twitter, used properly, is better at that element than others.
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i tink girls fancy twitter more than guys, guys use it a couple of time and never login again
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My take is that Twitter requires you to “report back” more than Facebook. Because of it’s text-only like interface, I find that if you dont have much to rumble, don’t use it.
Facebook, on the other hand is more personal allows you to share pictures, videos, notes and games, also the grouping structure organises information well.
Comparing Twitter to Mysapce and Facebok is like comparing apples to oranges.
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