Claim: Women 'dominate' men at social networking. True?

By Sharon Machlis

"Women Dominate Men at Social Networking [STUDY]," blares the Mashable headline. But does the data back that up?

Only partially.

The problem here is not the data, which appears accurate, but the headline, which draws conclusions that I'm not sure are supported by the survey questions themselves.

Here's a key question from the "study" cited in the story:

Which of the following services to do you use to keep in touch with friends, family or work colleagues?

Social Network: such as Facebook , LinkedIn, etc.)
Instant Messenger
Voice / Phone
SMS
Twitter
Email
Other

And here's my issue. I use Twitter daily, but not to "keep in touch with friends, family or work colleagues." I use it as a source of news and trends. If someone were to ask me if I use Twitter to "keep in touch," I'd say no. Same with Google Plus, another service I use daily but rarely to "keep in touch." And I suspect I'm not alone.

The way the question is worded, it seems that someone who checks into Facebook once a month to look at family photos could be considered a social network user while a professional using LinkedIn to track potential job openings is not.

If you're wondering, the survey results showed that 68% of women and 54% of men use social networking to communicate with friends; 60% women and 42% men use it to stay in touch with family; and 34% women vs. 22% men for colleagues.

Source: Harris Interactive / Rebtel survey measuring US online adult population that communicates with friends, family & work colleagues using social networks

I'm not doubting those figures. I'm just not sure they'd look the same if the question had been: "Do you use a social network platform such as Facebook or LinkedIn?"

Yet the graphic sent to me by the PR firm representing the study uses the same headline as that story (and must be where it came from): "Women Dominate Men in Social Networking."

A reader -- Google+ follower, actually -- asked me what I thought about it. I do believe the survey is measuring what it asked. Although the survey was sponsored by telecom firm Rebtel, it was carried out by Harris Interactive, certainly a reputable outlet for measuring public opinion online.

However, more care could have been taken in examining how the questions were worded before making broad conclusions about "social networking." In other words, I don't believe that asking what you do to "keep in touch" necessarily gives a complete picture of who uses social media.

Why didn't the survey ask about general social networking use instead of using the phrase "keep in touch?" I suspect the answer is that Rebtel is less interested in social media trends than communication trends, since they sell phone cards and long-distance service.

Bottom line? I'd say this is an interesting set of numbers for those looking at how many people use social networking to keep in touch with people they already know. Just remember that's a subset of why people use social networking platforms and not the whole picture.

See more from the Data Avenger series.

Sharon Machlis is online managing editor at Computerworld. Her e-mail address is smachlis@computerworld.com. You can follow her on Twitter  @sharon000, on Facebook, on Google+ or by subscribing to her RSS feeds:
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