Females are more emotional than males on a social media platform

Introduction and Thesis:

It goes without saying that in the modern world we spent a lot of time on social media. Not

only does it help us to stay connected even in the most difficult of times, but it also helps us to

express ourselves and find our own identity. The Internet has become a part of our daily lives, and it

is not likely to fade away any time soon. However, it raises a lot of questions that need to be

answered and studied. Some of them are the addictive nature of social media, the phenomenon of

trolling, the impact on the child's phycology, and whether male and female behavior is different on

social media. This should be a topic of deeper discussion. In order to answer some of the questions,

we need to have a closer look at the wider picture first. It is crucial to understand why social media

has become so popular in the first place, how trolling has become so prevalent on the Internet, why

people fall victim to a fear of missing out, what the nature of the gender stereotypes is, and whether

some of them are justified in any capacity.

In order to do that, it is vital to have a look at five articles before drawing any conclusions. In

the end, I plan to find the answer to the following questions:

What is the nature of gender-based stereotypes?

What is a fear of missing out and how does it affect each gender?

Is there any difference in the way both genders express their anger and frustration?

Annotated Bibliography:

"Meta-Analysis and the Psychology of Gender Differences" by Janet Shibley Hyde

People have long questioned how different a man's and a woman's psyche are. Sometimes

this discussion might have become heated. Janet Shibley Hyde decided to look into how different
our brains are. Gender differences had no or a very minor effect on most of the psychological factors

studied, according to Hyde, who found this to be consistent with the gender similarity hypothesis.

There were just a few significant differences: in uncommitted relationships, some males were more

physically aggressive and had a more favorable attitude toward physical intimacy than women.

In addition, Hyde discovered that gender differences appear to be dependent on the

environment in which they were evaluated. Researchers found that gender roles and social

environment substantially influenced a person's behavior in experiments aimed at eradicating gender

norms. When participants in one experiment were told that they would not be identified as male or

female and would not be required to wear any identification, none of them adhered to gender

stereotypes when allowed to be aggressive. In fact, they acted in the opposite direction of what one

might expect: women were more aggressive, while males were more calm and collected.

Finally, Hyde's 2005 paper looked at the evolution of any gender disparities, specifically

how any seeming boundary between gender norms seemed to blur. The findings showed that gender

norms change with age, becoming stricter or looser at different points throughout one's life. Any

changes are not stable, as seen by this fluctuation. After that, one might conclude that most

differences in behavior can be explained by social expectations and norms rather than brain

structure. (Hyde, 1990)

"Online social media fatigue and psychological wellbeing—A study of compulsive use, fear of

missing out, fatigue, anxiety and depression" by Amandeep Dhir

Amandeep Dhir and his colleagues looked into the question of why despite social media

being present in every part of our lives, a large number of users have stepped away from the

platform, either temporarily or permanently. Social media is constantly being studied by scholars

from different angles in different fields of study. However, there is presently not enough scientific
evidence of a link between psychological well-being and social media fatigue. To start this

important conversation, Amandeep Dhir's study used the stressor-strain-outcome framework (SSO)

to see if psychosocial wellness metrics like compulsive media usage and fear of missing out cause

tiredness, and if being overwhelmed by social media leads to anxiety and depression.

Using a repeated cross-sectional approach, the study model was evaluated with adolescent

social media users in India. There were two sets of data (N = 1554, 1144) acquired. The findings of

the study imply that compulsive media use is directly linked to social media fatigue, which might

lead to a set of mental health problems. Through the mediation of compulsive social media usage,

fear of missing out was found to be an indirect predictor of social media fatigue. The theoretical and

practical consequences of the current study, as well as its limits and a research agenda for future

investigations, are given and explored. After this, it can be easier to understand why comments on

social media might be either filled with anger, despair or fatigue in the first place regardless of

gender. (Dhir et al., 2018)

"Understanding the Trolling Phenomenon" by J Paavola

Social media has evolved into a forum for discussion and debate on controversial topics and

social injustices, providing an opportunity to sway public opinion. This possibility has spawned a

type of behavior called trolling, which may be found in practically any conversation involving

emotionally enticing issues. Trolling is a great strategy for any organization that wants to get a

conversation off topic when they don't have enough data to back up their claims. The technologies

presented in this research can be used to detect message automation in trolling.

To begin with, trolling may be found in Internet users' interactive discussions. Secondly,

there are several methods for influencing other people's opinions, ranging from objective facts to

emotional manipulation. Facts cannot be denied. Emotional appeals, on the other hand, differ
depending on the emotions they want to elicit. Trolling involves emotionally charged offensive

language to get an angry response from the listener. On the other hand, sometimes it does not target

a particular person but rather aims to appeal to as many users of the discussion forum as possible.

Paavola and his colleagues have also discussed the ways of automatically detecting troll

messages. One might find it to be highly effective and it is hard to disagree with. However, the main

value for this particular paper is the fact that we can differentiate between genuine posts and trolling

worthy of attention in the first place. (Demsar et al., 2021)

"Using Social Media for Social Comparison and Feedback-Seeking: Gender and Popularity

Moderate Associations with Depressive Symptoms" by "Jacqueline Nesi & Mitchell J.

Prinstein.

This study looked at how technology-based activities (social comparison and interpersonal

feedback-seeking) combine with the teens' personal traits to predict depressive symptoms in

teenagers. A total of 619 students (43 percent male, 57 percent female; mean age 14.6) completed

self-report questionnaires at two different points in time. At the start and one year later, teenagers

reported depressive symptoms, frequent technology use (cell phones, Facebook, and Instagram),

excessive looking for validation, and comparing yourself to technologically altered pictures and

baiting people with titles. Depression symptoms were associated with technology-based social

comparison and feedback-seeking, supporting previous findings. Seeking attention and validation by

the strangers were linked to depression symptoms, confirming assumptions. Popularity and gender

were shown to be modifiers of this impact, with the link being strongest among females and

teenagers with low popularity.

Above and beyond the impacts of the overall frequency of technology usage,

excessive reassurance-seeking, and prevalent depressive symptoms, associations were discovered.

The findings show how important it is to look at the psychological consequences of teenagers'

technology usage within the context of potential risks for mental health such as anxiety, depression,

and eating disorders. The authors also point to the need for more nuanced approaches to the research

of adolescents' media use. This particular article helps us to shine the light on why a lot of people

are so affected by social media but still cannot look away or stay behind. It also opens a room for a

discussion whether all the disruptive behavior on the Internet is merely seeking attention and

validation and by being involved in black and white thinking which is usually connected to the

Internet, people just try to relate and find people who can be a safe space for them. (Nesi &

Prinstein, 2015)

"Women are Warmer but No Less Assertive than Men: Gender and Language on Facebook"

by Gregory Park

Gregory Park and his colleagues used a large social media dataset and contextual analysis to

investigate disparities in language usage among genders. In Study 1, they looked over 10 million

messages from over 52,000 Facebook users and looked for subjects (groups of semantically related

words). Most of the time, there was minimal difference in language between men and women.

However, self-identified female participants reported talking about friends, family, and social life on

the Internet, whereas cursing, anger, discussing items rather than people, and using contentious

language was most associated with self-identified male participants. In Study 2, they mapped male

and female-related language use along with two important variables that have been studied

concerning gender: affiliation and assertiveness.

In a sample of over 15,000 Facebook users, they identified large differences in the usage of

affiliative language and moderate differences in assertive language among genders. Self-identified

females used language that was interpersonally warmer, more empathetic, courteous, and—contrary

to prior findings—slightly more forceful, whereas self-identified men used language that was colder,
more hostile, more impersonal. Computational language analysis paired with methods for

automatically labeling topics can be used to test psychological ideas at a wide scale without being

intrusive. This paper has become extremely important in our research because it has proved the

notion that we obtained in the article "Meta-Analysis and the Psychology of Gender Differences" by

Janet Shibley Hyde, specifically the fact the differences in communication are explained by the

social norms and expectations society has for women rather than the difference in a brain structure.

(Park et al., 2016)

Conclusions

Social media is a phenomenon that is rapidly becoming an inevitable part of our daily

routine. In this paper we discussed gender psychology, fear of missing out, trolling feeling of being

left out, or depressive feeling you might get on social media. I came to the conclusion that gender

psychology is rather a myth than a truth. Also, one might conclude that social media is designed to

make people feel like they are missing out on something which might lead to a feeling of sadness or

loneliness. In desperate need of attention, some might even resort to trolling. Despite all of that, it

should be stated that social networks can be a positive and fulfilling place if used correctly.

In the article "Women are Warmer but No Less Assertive than Men: Gender and Language

on Facebook" it was stated that men and women use different language in big research on gender

and language, with the greatest difference being the degree of interpersonal friendliness. Self-

identified females used language that was warmer, friendlier, and more centered around a person,

whereas self-identified men used vocabulary that was more socially detached, unpleasant, and

focused on items. Women, contrary to popular belief, were slightly more forceful in their discourse

than males. Instead of letting humans estimate the data that was gathered in research and being

prone to mistakes, they let the machines do the calculating. Gregory Park took inspiration from both

computational linguistics and psychological theory in approach, and I believe that such
interdisciplinary techniques might be effective in rethinking old psychological patterns. However, it

should be stated that these findings might be connected to the expectations society placed on

women. From an early age, they are conditioned to be nice and polite all the time, which leads to

them being politer on social media and in the comments. However, when it comes to standing up for

ourselves, we are equal in standing up for ourselves.

References

Dhir, A., Yossatorn, Y., Kaur, P., & Chen, S. (2018). Online social media fatigue and

psychological wellbeing—a study of compulsive use, fear of missing out, fatigue, anxiety, and

depression. International Journal of Information Management, 40, 141–152.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2018.01.012

Hyde, J. S. (1990). Meta-analysis and the psychology of gender differences. Signs: Journal

of Women in Culture and Society, 16(1), 55–73. https://doi.org/10.1086/494645

Nesi, J., Prinstein, M.J. Using Social Media for Social Comparison and Feedback-Seeking:

Gender and Popularity Moderate Associations with Depressive Symptoms. J Abnorm Child Psychol

43, 1427–1438 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-015-0020-0

Park, G., Yaden, D. B., Schwartz, H. A., Kern, M. L., Eichstaedt, J. C., Kosinski, M.,

Stillwell, D., Ungar, L. H., & Seligman, M. E. (2016). Women are warmer but no less assertive than

men: Gender and language on Facebook. PLOS ONE, 11(5).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0155885

Paavola, J., Helo, T., Jalonen, H., Sartonen, M., & Huhtinen, A.-M. (2016). Understanding

the Trolling Phenomenon: The Automated Detection of Bots and Cyborgs in the Social Media.

Journal of Information Warfare, 15(4), 100–111. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26487554