Women Growing To Become Great Majority On The Social Web

Posted by Paul Glazowski on November 23rd, 2007

You know how most things to do with technology are supposedly slanted toward the male segment of the human species?

Yes, I?m sure you?re aware. Aware of that assumption, anyway. And it?s completely understandable as to why exactly people feel that that is the case. After all, one doesn?t typically find airport lounges and cafes populated by a great deal of women wielding laptop computers, clicking away happily, content to spend their waken moments in their own personal virtual worlds. No, it?s men that one would normally think feel a natural inclination to buy the latest gadgets, download the shaky software betas, trawl chatrooms through the wee hours of the morning, and binge out on a combo of caffeine and Twitter/Pownce feeds.

Alas, one would be thoroughly mistaken to assume that the cards are stacked against the female population of the world. At least as far as social networking is concerned, anyway.

Midnight Excess blogger Paul Francis, in a post discovered earlier this week by Michael Arrington of TechCrunch, analyzed some basic data presented via Facebook?s new targeted advertising tool, and he discovered something rather interesting. In gathering together certain numbers and certain parameters made available by the network?s new utility, he arrived at a conclusion that females currently edge out males in total volume.

How much exactly does he see the female majority amounting to at present? Is it just above the halfway point? Or is it much greater? Well, according to the numbers tallied by Francis, it?s a clear-cut two-thirds portion of the overall pie that women hold. Two-thirds. Which is, you know…pretty big.

What Francis found essentially solidifies the strong suspicion held by a great many names in the blogosphere today: that as far as the use of popular online communication services goes, women have an edge on men.

I don?t believe it?s too much of a stretch to consider the strong possibility that this finding might be factually similar to those of networks elsewhere. In numerous studies conducted in the recent past (some more scientific than others), research has shown that most ?friends?-based social services on the Web do appear to cater to more women than men. MySpace, Bebo, Orkut. On the whole, the number of women in the membership(s) such services? is no doubt quite large. So a strong majority is very possible. Very probable, even.

Really, only LinkedIn and similarly specialized ilk are thought at present to serve an opposite arrangement. But if current trends continue, even the professional-minded services of the social Web will see their female ranks grow significantly in the next few years. It?s no secret that women in the US currently hold a majority in both college attendance and college graduation, so naturally more women than men will be signing up for LinkedIn and its competitors as this decade reaches its end and the next begins.

Is this movement a good thing? Absolutely. If there?s a boom in female use of Web-based services, that means those services have effectively broken past that stubborn and unsavory ?geek-only? barrier, which essentially grants them greater legitimacy on the public stage. And that?s recognition that I can?t imagine any business would wish to shy away from.

What do you make of this discovery? Surprised? Not surprised? Happy? Indifferent? Let us know. Post your comments.

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