Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Are Men Blogger's from Mars and Women Blogger's from Venus?

The thought of writing a blog on the differences between the male and the female wmennwomenay of blogging has been lingering in my mind for quite a long time. The points were there in my mind, but I have been searching for a good title and finally settled on a modified version of "Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus".

The differences between a man and woman are not just physical. The difference is evident from Handwriting, Thoughts, Actions, Responses, Reactions, Writing and what not. A Handwriting expert can look at one's writing and say if it belongs to a man or a woman. Here's some more:

Men want to solve the problem, women want to vent

Whenever there’s a problem, women tend to want to vent or discuss it. This goes along the lines that there are emotions usually connected to the problem. Women want to approach a problem by first talking about it. However, men tend to want to go directly to the problem solving. This ties into the next point, which is..

Men skip the feelings part, women are generally comfortable with their feelings

Women feel more comfortable expressing their feelings, while men don’t. Women tend to cope by expressing feelings, while men tend to cope by actually trying to solve the problem.

Women talk more than men

It is a fact that women talk more than men

Men cut to the chase, women like to tell and share stories

Men like to cut and get to the source of the problem, while women like to talk about the issues. This can be a problem because women tend to think that the stories are important, but men can feel that it is a waste of time.

It’s no secret within the blogging community that there are more high-profile male blogger's than there are female counterparts in the blogging world. This seems to be changing as blogging takes hold of the general population.

The differences in blogging between men and women aren’t so much in levels of success or types of blogs. Instead, the differences lie primarily in the way that the blogs are written and promoted. It’s no surprise that men and women blog differently. After all, men and women have a general tendency to communicate differently. The underlying difference in the way of interpreting and conveying thoughts through words matter on the blogging world as well as in other areas of communication. And just like in the rest of “real life”, neither form of communication is necessarily better than the other. They’re just different.

Here are some facts whichI have collected through web sources:

Women are stereotypically the ones that are tasked with nurturing relationships and building a community of people around them. In the world of blogging, this can be the key to “making it”. However, men tend to have an edge up on building professional networks through their manipulation of existing systems. For that reason, many female blogger's build their relationships within their blogs through regular communication with their readers whereas many male blogger's build their relationships through online social networks.

Women are better multi-taskers than men which gives female blogger's something of an edge up on the day-to-day productivity of blogging. Active blogging requires writing regular posts, researching different topics, commenting on the blogs of others, social networking on various sites, attending to the advertising revenue of your site and many other daily tasks. Women have a tendency to juggle these better than men and so often find themselves behind the scenes at major blog networks.

Men have a better grasp on defining themselves as experts whether it’s in the office or on the web. In moving up the ladder of success, the self-defined expert with follow-through moves more quickly than the person who is qualified but doesn’t make sure others know it. Male blogger's are quicker to add the “expert” or “professional” label to themselves online and therefore boost their credibility. Even without the label, male blogger's are more likely to use language that establishes themselves as knowledgeable in a subject whereas female blogger's often write in language that seems to only be expressing an opinion.

Women are more expressive in their emotions. When women read something, they often want to be connected to the heart and humanity behind the matter. Male blogger's are more factual and analytical in their writing whereas female blogger's may be more likely to look at the human behind the numbers.

Michele Woodward, in her post on "The Difference Between Men and Women" says - "There is so much to learn and appreciate from the differences between men and women. If a man can learn from a woman to slow down and enjoy the experience, while the woman learns the satisfaction of making and reaching goals, a kind of relational balance can be had – a balance which makes life for each of them that much more full. "

As blogging grows, more and more people are adding their voices to the chorus of communication happening on the Internet. Readers may find that they have a preference for one gender over the other when it comes to who writes their news and information. For that reason, blogger's of either gender who are seeking to be more successful will look to the other gender for tips on how to improve their blog and attract the readers that are currently going elsewhere.

4 comments:

Michele Woodward said...

Thanks so much for mentioning me in your blog! I'm so glad that what I wrote resonated with you. Men and women ARE different - thank heavens!

Anonymous said...

You stated in your article:
A Handwriting expert can look at one's writing and say if it belongs to a man or a woman.

That is so far from the truth!!! I would love to know your "source" of that statement.

Perhaps you need to read Albert Osborn's book Questioned Documents, or any other book out there on Handwriting/document examination.


There are 3 things that can not be discerned from handwriting

They are:

SEX
AGE
HANDEDNESS (left or right)

Please reveal your souce for this information--was it perhaps CSI? or maybe Criminal Minds...

Sheila Lowe said...

Although traditionally, gender cannot be determined from handwriting with great accuracy, there is now computer software that shows major differences between male/female.
My objection to this blog, however, was the broad generalizations it made. Not all women are talkative, for example. Not all women are nurturers. And that's why it's difficult to tell gender from handwriting--because handwriting reveals personality traits--whether the writer is more traditionally masculine or feminine. There are women with what are thought of as more masculine traints and vice versa. Generalization is always dangerous.
Sheila Lowe
Author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Handwriting Analysis

Sunil K Kurup said...

Thank you Anonymous and Sheila for reading me.

What I have written was in no way meant to offend or hurt anyone.

I am in complete agreement with Sheila where she mentions "Not all women are talkative, for example. Not all women are nurtures". This was a genaralization from my experience. I have also come in contact with men who talk non-stop. However, in my experience, what I have stated seems to be the case with the majority from my part of the world. Hence the statement.

Both of you are experts in Handwriting and thank you for sharing your knowledge with me. I am not an expert in handwriting and my view is based on reading.

A study conducted at the School of Psychology, University of Leicester, by John R. Beech, Isla C. Mackintosh mentions "There is some measure of agreement that while male handwriting tends to be messy, slanted and spiky, female handwriting is by contrast more rounded, tidier and more legible and yet is more
ornate. Certain letters in female handwriting, especially i and d appear to have embellishments.There were however contradictions, particularly on the dimension of size of handwriting."

Here's the link to the study:
http://www.le.ac.uk/psychology/jrb/PDFs/Beech%20&%20Mackintosh%202005.pdf

Though I watch CSI, it was not my source of information. Communication would have been more easier if I could address 'Anonymous' with a name.

I thank both of you again for sharing your knowledge and views through my blog.