Are women smarter than men?

Some are saying that when it comes to online behavior, especially in social media, women tend to act smarter, and be more responsible and mature. The Pew Research Center recently did a study which polled 2,277 adults online. When it comes to privacy settings and using caution in their behavior, women tended to show the more cautious behavior. One place in which women were smarter is the privacy settings: 2/3 of all female uses polled only allowed the friends to view their social media profiles restriction-free, while for men, this number will less than ½; 14% of women chose fully public profiles, as opposed to 26% of men. Other areas in which women are seen as more responsible online include who is kept in and out of one’s social network: women not only keep their circle smaller, they are also more prone to kicking people out of it. 67% of women polled said they had deleted people, while for men that number was at 58%. Also, because women keep a smaller circle, we also see that they less often regret posting pictures or other content: 15% of men regretted something they had posted, where only 8% of women said the same. Among the 15%, a majority of those men were on the younger end of the scale (18-29); in fact, only 5% of the older users regretted content. Interestingly, no difference was found among privacy settings and age groups. Whatever the reasons for this, men should be aware of their profiles and who is seeing them and what you are making available for the world to see. Content online never goes away, and reputation can be hard to rebuild. Think when you are online: the while world is watching.