Tired of wading into a political argument every time you open Facebook? You’re not alone. Almost half of social media users are worn out by the volume of political posts they encounter, whereas only 15% say they like such content, according to a recent survey from the Pew Research Center.

This is hardly surprising – generally people prefer not to see politics on social media. The record levels of people paying attention to and posting about politics and the 2020 U.S. presidential election, combined with concerns about the proliferation of misinformation online, may turn even more people against politics on social media.

But one element of this survey is particularly worth noting. Women and men are equally likely to say they are worn out by political social media posts. They are also equally likely to say they like them. 

Posting, Ignoring, Blocking

The Pew findings align with research that I published in 2016, which looked for, but generally did not find, gender differences in posting about and responding to politics on social media.

There is a long history of a so-called gender gap in political interest, knowledge, and participation (with the notable exception of voting, where women participate at higher rates than men do). I was interested in whether this gap would persist in a specific realm of growing importance: social media.

In general, women and men create online content differently—for example, women are less likely to post online or use the internet to seek information but more likely to use the internet for social interaction and relationship maintenance. These differences, combined with political gender gaps, led me to expect that women would be less politically engaged on social media than men.

In general, women and men create online content differently. These differences, combined with political gender gaps, led me to expect that women would be less politically engaged on social media than men.

To determine if there are gaps in how men and women use social media for political purposes, I analyzed survey data collected by the Pew Research Center in 2012. I consider three different ways of thinking about political social media use:

1. General use of social media for political purposes, such as using social media for political reasons, posting about politics on social media, commenting on political social media posts, and liking political social media posts;
2. Reacting to disagreeable political content on social media, including agreeing and disagreeing with political content on social media, ignoring or responding to disagreeable content, and unfriending for political reasons; and
3. Offline reactions to political social media content, such as changing an opinion, becoming more active, or becoming less active after seeing a political post on social media

Across these 11 different ways of thinking about political engagement on social media, only two showed gender differences. Women were less likely to post about politics on social media, and more likely to block, unfriend, or hide someone because they posted too frequently, disagreed argued, or offended about politics.

New Media, New Political Engagement?

My research and the Pew survey suggest that gender differences are much less pervasive in political engagement on social media than might have been expected. As in other recent research showing that using social media can increase exposure to political information and potential knowledge effects as a result, it is possible that social media represent a fundamentally different type of media experience, changing our understanding of how people gain, use, and propagate political information in the modern media environment.

This is a new understanding of an old idea – that the Internet can sometimes improve representation of voices heard by lowering the costs of participating.

Because women are more likely to use social media, and use it more intensely for relationship maintenance, they seem to be able to overcome the structural and social factors that lead to deficits in political information exposure, political knowledge, and political engagement in other areas.

Because women are more likely to use social media, and use it more intensely for relationship maintenance, they seem to be able to overcome the structural and social factors that lead to deficits in political information exposure, political knowledge, and political engagement in other areas.

Minding the Gap

This finding should not be interpreted to suggest there are no differences in the way men and women use social media for politics. Indeed, recent research identifies gaps in who posts about politics on Twitter, and who comments on political news online. In addition, it’s worth considering that the nature of social media has changed substantially since the data were collected in 2012. The platforms people tend to use have changed, and how the platforms curate and disseminate content is also substantially different. We can’t say how these changes may have affected the conclusions here without collecting new data.

Finally, simply examining men and women is much too simplistic. Being a man or a woman intersects with many other identities which can affect political engagement, including race, partisanship, religion, and education. This research fails to account for the complicated way that multiple characteristics and affiliations can interact.

But it does indicate that new technologies and ways of communicating may change the nature of which people engage in—or find themselves worn out by—the political process.  Policymakers and technology firms should continue to work towards a social media environment that levels the playing field, rather than amplifying gaps in engagement.