pinterest culture clash
DESCRIPTION
Studying the budding social media site, Pinterest, for gender trendsTRANSCRIPT
CULTURE CLASH
PROJECT 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.
T HREE GUIDING 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?
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 & DesignClothingHome
Scenery & TravelFood & Drink
Humor
QUEST ION #1
ART & DESIGN
487
52
Men Women
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.
CLOT HING
25
61
Men Women
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.
HOME
48
59
Men Women
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.
SCENERY & T RAVEL
33
43
Men Women
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.
FOOD & DRINK
46 118
Men Women
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.
HUMOR
45
18
Men Women
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.
QUEST ION #2
2) How many times do they pin per day?
COLLECT IVE DATA
Female 1 9.6 // 4634
Female 2 11.9 // 9492
Female 3 6.7 // 2400
Female 4 0.4 // 1668
Female 5 3.7 // 2833
Female 6 7.7 // 1742
Female 7 2.7 // 5095
Female 8 3.3 // 639
Female 9 9.1 // 624
Female 10 17.1 // 1107
Male 1 4.6 // 3957
Male 2 2 // 383
Male 3 4.6 // 3621
Male 4 2.9 // 467
Male 5 8.3 // 2015
Male 6 7.1 // 630
Male 7 32.9 // 14179
Male 8 4.3 // 3579
Male 9 22.9 // 2093
Male 10 27.1 // 6094
Pins Per Day // Total Pins (lifetime) Pins Per Day // Total Pins (lifetime)
t p
tTOTALS
p7.22 pins per day (average)
30,234 total lifetime pins
11.67 pins per day (average)
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.
QUEST ION #3
3) What is their motivation to pin?
ANALYSIS
I didn’t see much of a difference between the genders in regards to motivation.
Art & Design: to share + inspireClothing: to show personal taste
Home: to dream + inspireScenery & Travel: to explore + marvel
Food & Drink: to find new ideasHumor: to entertain
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.