Studies Show That Men And Women React Differently To Technology

Aadhya Khatri - Sep 30, 2019


Studies Show That Men And Women React Differently To Technology

Research has shown that girls and boys react differently to games and social media. And boys are prone to suffer from internet gaming disorder than girls

We have had lots of research trying to find or prove the neurological difference between genders. Some believe the distinction is large. They argue that females tend to be more social since that is the way their brain works.

An article by Julie Jargon on The Wall Street Journal highlighted that parents of girls and boys noticed their children reacting differently to technology. Boys tend to be fond of video games, while girls seem to be more interested in browsing through social media sites.

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Boys tend to be fond of video games while girls seem to be more interested in browsing through social media sites

Pew Research Center in 2017 revealed that boys and girls have different perceptions of how much time they spend with technologies. 47% of girls from 13 to 17 years old said that they thought they had spent too much time on some social media sites. 41% of boys believed that they did the same thing with video games; whereas only 11% of girls said the same.

PRC’s research only revealed what happened, but it has failed to clarify why this is the case. In 2018, several researchers from different Chinese universities teamed up to find neurological differences relating to genders with boys’ and girls’ reaction to video games. The team made use of MRI machines to record responses of male and female gamers, with a focus on brain parts in charge of the sense of reward and addiction.

The results reveal that when men see photos of people playing video games, researchers noticed more activations in the brain part for addiction. This may mean that men are more prone to suffer from internet gaming disorder than women because their brain is wired that way. This is what game developers are exploiting as they are focusing on making addictive games.

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Men are more prone to suffer from internet gaming disorder than women because their brain is wired that way

The same is true for girls and social media. This is proven by another research conducted by PRC. In the US, the study found out that around 78% of women go on social media sites at least once a day, while the figure for men is 65%.

In a study named “Social Media Use and Adolescent Mental Health” by ScienceDirect, girls are shown to be prone to anxiety and depression after they have spent too much time on this activity, which does not happen to boys.

Jargon’s article also noted that women tend to feel being missed out more than men; thus, they are more compelled to keep going on social media to keep up with the latest updates of their friends. This, and the fact that these sites are designed to be addictive, makes browsing social media a challenging habit to quit. According to Catherine Price, the author of the book "How To Break Up With Your Phone," many apps are designed to make us addicted to them. They make a profit by attracting our attention and some of them are Instagram, Facebook, news or dating apps. users should be skeptical with anything that charges us nothing to use.

People spend four hours on average on social media, and these apps are designed to keep us on for as long as possible. Every detail you spot on these apps is the result of that one aim only. Price said that the color of the notification badge is red, a color signals alarms, the shade of poisonous barries, and of blood.

They are exploiting addiction, our biggest weakness. However, if we can educate ourselves to be more aware of these schemes, we have a better chance of breaking up with them.

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