Article on the different attitudes which men and women  have when using sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Level: Intermediate +

Contributed by: Sean Banville - find Sean's websites at: www.freeeslmaterials.com

Reading, listening and discussion activities, together with printable class handouts, and online quizzes for the article below are available from www.breakingnewsenglish.com 

Women More Cautious On Social Media

A new report on the Internet and how we use it says that more of us are using social media. The Pew Research Centre's Internet and American Life Project surveyed 2,277 U.S. adults about their Internet use. About two-thirds of Internet users now belong to social networking sites. Pew reports that ninety-three per cent of social network users have joined Facebook, up from 73 per cent in 2009. The continued rise in Facebook’s popularity contrasts with the decline of MySpace. Twenty-three per cent of those questioned said they had a MySpace profile, down from 48 per cent in 2009. Twitter continues to attract more users, with 11 per cent of respondents saying they use it, up from 6 per cent in 2009.

The report showed big differences between how men and women use social media and how we manage our privacy. Women are more likely than men to delete friends. Sixty-seven per cent of women said they have deleted friends compared with 58 per cent of men. The study reported that men are almost twice as likely as women to have posted messages, photos or videos that they later regret. Fifteen per cent of men said they have done this, compared with eight per cent of women. The study also showed women to be more cautious who they share information with. Two-thirds of women use the highest privacy settings, sharing data only with friends. Less than half of the men did so.