Studying the budding social media site, Pinterest, for gender trends

1. CULTURE CLASH

2. PROJ ECT BREAKDOWN
I followed 10 boys & 10 girls for a week on
Pinterest. At the end of each day, I recorded all of
the pins by person and category. I wanted to see
what gender dominated each category.

3. T HREE GUI DING QUEST IONS
1) What types of pins are they pinning?
2) How many times do they pin per day?
3) What is their motivation to pin?

4. QUEST ION #1
1) What types of pins are they pinning?
I took the six most common categories and counted
pins per gender in the following categories:
Art & Design
Clothing
Home
Scenery & Travel
Food & Drink
Humor

5. ART & DESIGN
Men Women
52
487

6. ANALYSIS
I was not expecting the males to dominate the
Art & Design category as much as they did. After
more thought, however, it made sense. It was
harder for me to find males to follow because
Pinterest is dominated by women. The men I
ended up following where involved in art &
design related careers, such as architecture and
advertising. Their pins were related to their
careers, so it made sense that they pinned so
much in this category.

7. CLOT HING
Men Women
61
25

8. ANALYSIS
I wasn’t very surprised that the females pinned
more in the Clothing category. I think in general
women talk about clothes more than men do and
strive for a unique style. I was actually surprised
that the men pinned about clothes as much as
they did.

9. HOME
Men Women
48
59

10. ANALYSIS
I expected the women and men to be pretty
even in the Home category. A lot of the men
were design oriented so they had a lot of interior
design pins. A lot of their pins seemed to have an
urban and rustic feel while the women pinned
whimsical, modern, and colorful Home pins.

11. SCENERY & T RAV EL
Men Women
33
43

12. ANALYSIS
I wasn’t surprised that this category was split
pretty evenly. I think working men and women
will always have a thirst for globetrotting and
experiencing different parts of the world.

13. FOOD & DRINK
Men Women
118
46

14. ANALYSIS
I was a little surprised in the difference between
the two genders; I was expecting a more even
split. Women posted a lot of cocktail mixes while
the men posted more dinner entrees.

15. HUMOR
Men Women
45
18

16. ANALYSIS
I didn’t have a lot of expectations for this
category, yet I wasn’t surprised that the men
dominated. The men tended to show more
personality with their pins. Both genders posted
a lot of memes.

17. QUEST ION #2
2) How many times do they pin per day?

18. COLLECT IV E DATA
Pins Per Day // Total Pins (lifetime) Pins Per Day // Total Pins (lifetime)
Female 1 9.6 // 4634 Male 1 4.6 // 3957
Female 2 11.9 // 9492 Male 2 2 // 383
Female 3 6.7 // 2400 Male 3 4.6 // 3621
t p
Female 4 0.4 // 1668 Male 4 2.9 // 467
Female 5 3.7 // 2833 Male 5 8.3 // 2015
Female 6 7.7 // 1742 Male 6 7.1 // 630
Female 7 2.7 // 5095 Male 7 32.9 // 14179
Female 8 3.3 // 639 Male 8 4.3 // 3579
Female 9 9.1 // 624 Male 9 22.9 // 2093
Female 10 17.1 // 1107 Male 10 27.1 // 6094

19. TOTALS
t
7.22 pins per day (average)
p
11.67 pins per day (average)
30,234 total lifetime pins 37,018 total lifetime pins
I was surprised that the men out-pinned the
women. I think a lot of these women “lost steam”
and didn’t pin as much as time went on. I couldn’t
predict that a lot of these women would
decrease their pinning, but that is what
happened. It would be interesting to redo this
with more people and more time.

20. QUEST ION #3
3) What is their motivation to pin?

21. ANALYSIS
I didn’t see much of a difference between the
genders in regards to motivation.
Art & Design: to share + inspire
Clothing: to show personal taste
Home: to dream + inspire
Scenery & Travel: to explore + marvel
Food & Drink: to find new ideas
Humor: to entertain

22. CONCLUSION
I feel like this project truly became a Culture Clash. Pinterest is highly used by females,
so it was interesting to see how the males used the site. It seems like they used the
site to show personality and inspiration for their respective career fields. It will be
interesting to see if the site continues to have a heavy female user base or if more
males will start to join.
Both genders also generally avoided some stereotypes, which surprised me. A lot of
my female friends pin a lot of wedding ideas, exercise workouts, and crafts. I didn’t see
too much of these trends with the women I followed.
I was very surprised at the lack of sports posting by the men. I feel like sports are a
huge part of “men culture,” and I was surprised at the lack of those pins during my
study.