One thing that the literature can agree upon is that men and women do tend to use social media in different ways. A heavily cited study from Krasnova et al. (2017) found that men and women used social networking sites for both acquiring knowledge and growing relationships, but with differing specific motivations. Women used social media with the intention of maintaining existing relationships and gaining social knowledge about their associates, and men used social media with the intention of forming new relationships and gaining general knowledge. Prior studies have also observed that women are more likely than men to be problematic users of social media, meaning that they are more likely to struggle with regulating their use of social networking sites (Kircaburun et al., 2020). Many women report using social media out of boredom or because it has become a habitual pastime of theirs (Croes & Bartels, 2021), which may explain why they face difficulty controlling how frequently they use it. It can be expected that female users will exhibit greater amounts of time spent on social media than male users. 

Though previous studies agree there are gender differences in motivations for using social media, there are disagreements on these differences themselves. While Krasnova et al. (2017) stated that women use social media to gain social knowledge and men use it to gain general knowledge, a study two years later found that women often use social media for seeking general information as well. The results showed that women used Facebook for seeking knowledge more frequently than men do. Although they were using a social networking site, they were not seeking social knowledge. These women turned to social media and their social networks when looking for general information as well (Noguti et al., 2019).

Other studies have also contradicted the initial notion that more men use social media for informational purposes and more women use it for social purposes. Lokithasan et al. (2019) found that women prefer to follow social media influencers for general information on beauty and fashion. A study done on teenagers demonstrated teenage boys using social media more for communication and interaction with each other, and teenage girls using social media primarily for educational purposes (Ali et al., 2021). This directly contradicts the findings of Krasnova et al. (2017) from nearly a decade earlier. Almost no two studies entirely agree on what the gender differences in social media use are, depending on when the study was conducted and on the age of participants. This study is intended to fill the gaps that lead to these contradictions and develop a better understanding of what the current gender differences in social media use are, as well as the motivations behind them.

Another significant difference observed in male and female social media use is in regard to which social media platforms they prefer to use. Shabir et al. (2014) found that men were more adventurous in their use of social media and were more open to trying out new social networking sites than women were. Though men are more interested in trying new social media platforms as they are introduced, women are generally more interested in using social media and other forms of mediated communication than men are (Kimbrough et al., 2013) but simultaneously display greater concerns regarding online privacy (Abd-Aziz & Abd-Aziz, 2020; Tifferet, 2019). This study aims to uncover whether women’s overall preference for social media has remained the same.

The most recent data from 2023 has established that significantly more women than men were using Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Snapchat. Significantly more men than women were using Reddit, and the other social networking sites accounted for did not have a drastic difference between the amount of male and female participants who reported using the platform (Sidoti et al., 2024). Although this addresses which platforms each gender prefers to use, it does not address how they prefer to use it. This study will examine the correlation between gender and social networking sites used as well as what motivated the user to spend time on that platform.

One theory as to why men and women exhibit different social media habits is that women are more concerned with their self-presentation and use social media for this purpose more than men do. Women care more than men about creating positive self-presentation when engaging in face-to-face communication (Haferkamp et al., 2012) which translates into their use of social networking sites as well. Women tend to post photos of themselves to Facebook and Instagram more frequently than men do to curate their self-presentation (Kearney, 2018), suggesting that the same motivation could translate to other social media platforms and that women have a greater interest in the gratification of self-presentation via social media sites. Men have used social media for the purpose of curating self-presentation as well, but typically do so in a more “self-promoting” manner and are more likely to reference mature topics such as alcohol use in their posts (Herring & Kapidzic, 2015) rather than try to appear in the most beneficial light.

Another proposed motivation for their differences in social media use is that women are more interested in the support they receive on social media than men are, and as a result place a greater emphasis on the community aspect of it. Women both give and receive greater social support on social networking sites than men (Tifferet, 2020), and appear to be more interested in community as a gratification of social media. This does correlate with prior findings that women use social media to maintain and strengthen relationships (Krasnova et al., 2017).