Men risk more for Likes
Many Internet users want one thing above all else on social networks: to show off to their friends in order to get as many likes as possible. As a worldwide study shows, many of them don't take the truth very seriously. This is especially true for male users.
Compared with the global average, Internet users from Germany still fare quite well in Kaspersky Lab's study. Only 7.1% (12% worldwide) would twist the truth for more likes or 'like' clicks when posting. However, even in this country, significantly more men (8.4%) than women (5.8%) are willing to do so.
The gender-specific differences are due to the fact that men look more strongly for social acceptance in social networks. In Germany, 16% of male users, but only 11.8% of female users, believe that their reputation among friends decreases with a lack of likes.
Men are more likely to compromise privacy
In the hunt for more likes on social networks, men are far more willing than women to disregard their own or others' privacy. In Germany, for example, 5.6% of men but only 3.2% of women would disclose confidential information about their work colleagues. The situation is similar when it comes to confidential employer data (men 5.6%, women 2%), and when it comes to revealing embarrassing details about friends (men 6.6%, women 2.4%), or showing them in an alcoholic state (men 7.8%, women 3.8%).
Astrid Carolus, a media psychologist at the University of Würzburg, explains that men are more willing to cross boundaries here: "Men are generally less focused on social harmony and take higher risks." In the process, they apparently don't spare their own privacy either. In the Kaspersky Lab survey, for example, 9% of the men surveyed in Germany said they would also post photos in which they were only lightly dressed. And 5.2% would go so far as to completely strip off their clothes. Of the women, only 3.6% and 2.4% respectively are willing to do so.
"In the quest for social acceptance, the boundaries of privacy are being stretched far and wide," says Holger Suhl, General Manager DACH at Kaspersky Lab. "We are exposing ourselves and others to unnecessary risks as a result. Even in Germany, 42.6% of all respondents do not want friends to publish photos of them that they themselves would not have put online. We should therefore pay more attention to what information is shared via social networks." Users should also make sure that all devices used for this purpose are equipped with an up-to-date security solution. Pressemelding Kaspersky Lab
The study "Have we created unsocial media? How social media affects our lives and mood" with worldwide results can be found at https://blog.kaspersky.com/digital-depression/13781/
