People all over are always comparing the males to the females, and the females to males. About all kinds of different things, such as which sex is smarter, or in all around, who is the “better” sex? So, what about communication? Everyone communicates in their own way, but do the women communicate differently from how men communicate? What about how woman communicate with other woman, and how men communicate with other men? The answer is men and woman both communicate,but in indeed in different ways. The sexes don’t always communicate in different ways. There have been similarities like in the general way people normally speak to one another, or when people speak in respect to someone because of the other person having higher power over them, or just being polite. Here are just some contrasting communication styles in social media, being born a certain sex may have an effect on communication styles, and competitive and nurturing communications styles between the sexes.
With social media being everywhere, both sexes are constantly using them between being on their cellphone, I-Pods, laptops, I-Pads, and many more, people are basically coming up with their own “tech lingo” if you will. So do women and men communicate the same with their technology? With the new tech lingo? A Middlesex Community College class, Ms. Keough’s students (myself included) performed an experiment that involved separating males from females. Then we would give the top three abbreviations the women use through communicating using technology, then the top four that the men used. Guess what? They weren’t the same. Women came up with “LOL”, “OMG”, and “LMAO”. Men came up with “Yo, what’s Gucci?”, “Hi”, and “What’s up?”. After that, we had to draw something that symbolized all six of those things. The results? Men ended up drawing more literal pictures and women drew pictures that were quick to understand, and simple. There had only been one symbol that was the same for both sexes, and that was “Hi”. Both sexes drew a hand waving.
When women want to text, or type to their friends, or current lover they normally tend to over simplify their words, prefer to get right to the point, and they’re able to hold conversations over no specific topic. Women are known for their multitasking skills. In order to be quick and efficient, they’ll just simplify the problem down a lot, and get right to the point so they can continue with the other things they’re multitasking on. Women are so good at communicating with social media that they are able to talk to other people with no actual specific topic to talk about. Women talk literally about nothing with other people if they really want to because they may not want to stop texting somebody, or Facebooking them, or Tweeting. Women love drama, and social media always has drama. No matter if it’s on your current Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, or any other social media that you use. You’ll always see someone commenting on something and someone won’t like it, and then BAM. You’ve got a fight started, and the two people might not even know each other, or meet each other in their lifetime. You’ll see that mostly women are the ones getting into these arguments with other people, and that men don’t bother with those kinds of things with social media.
On the other hand, when men use social media, they don’t usually simplify their words, or have much drama going on. A male’s Facebook will more likely consist of sports ads, and or maybe they’ll play a few sports games on their Facebook. They’ll have pictures of half-naked women, and they don’t post their statuses very often. Possibly one to three times a day depending on if anything had a great effect on their mood. But, men aren’t strangers with drama. Men can like an app on Facebook, and see other peoples comments and read every single fighting comment like it’s the hottest new movie out, and if the fight gets more intense, he might even comment saying “Ohhhhh burn!” or “Dude, that wasn’t right” just to add gas to the flames for their enjoyment. This may be the case for social media communications, but is it the same for other ways of communication?
A lot of scientists feel that because you were born a male, or a female that it automatically defines what your communication style will be like. Women are supposedly better communicators for reasons such as women talk more, and women are better at multitasking. As far as talking more goes, according to Dr. Yvonne K. Fulbright, “A review of 56 research studies by Deborah James and Janice Drakich found 34 that reported that men talk more than women”. Not only did that prove a lot of average people’s theories, but scientist as well who have been theorizing that women talk more. As Dr. Yvonne continues, “A more recent University of Arizona study in the journal Science reported that both genders speak almost the same exact number of words daily (16,000).” So as time continued, and a more recent study was done, and it was still proven that woman don’t talk more than men. Multitasking however, might be a different story. “Women have about fifteen percent more “grey matter” then men. Grey matter, made up of nerve cells and the branches that connect them, allows the quick of transference of thought from one part of the brain to the another.” Says Camille Lewis in her story, “Born to be Different”. Due to this scientific discovery, it would make sense now of why women may be better at multitasking, like how women can cook dinner, watch their child, and be on the phone all at the same time.
Men seem to always feel like they need to hide their feeling so they don’t look “weak” or looked down upon as a “man”. But apparently that doesn’t stop them from blabbing their mouths as much as women seem to, according to that Arizona study. Although, for multitasking, Camille states, “Men’s brains, on the other hand, have a more generous portion of “white matter”. Made up of neurons, actually inhibits the spread of information.” So as women have more cells that transfer messages faster, men have white matter that prevents messages to be sent. That would make them only be able to focus on one thing at a time. Camille continues saying, “In addition, men’s larger skulls contain more cerebral spinal fluid which cushions the brain. Scientists theorize that this reflects men’s history of engaging in warfare and rough sports, activities which bring them a high likelihood of having their head banged out.” Seeing as how men like to rough house, and go to war, and play sports, it’s no wonder they can’t focus on more than one thing at a time. Seeing as how men do such things that are awfully competitive, could that be why men try to dominate while conversing?
Men naturally try to come off as dominant. So does that affect them while communicating? What about women? Women are more thought of as being a more nurturing communicator. Are those statements true? Well, in another study in Dr. Yvonne’s Debunking the Mars-Venus Myth she states, “Hyde’s meta-analysis showed that there was only a small effect size favoring males when it came to conversational interruption and assertive speech.” So men are not as dominant as we may think. Yes, apparently they can come off as tough, but for the most part they are pretty the same when conversing. Although, do women try to use more cooperative language because they prefer not to argue and keep things harmonious?
Women have been known to seem more nurturing during a conversation. Always trying to make sure the other person they are talking to is on the same page with them, that they have a mutual understanding, and that no one is trying to over-power anybody. “Hyde’s meta-analysis indicated that there was a moderate effect size for women when it came to smiling during conversations. There was also a small effect size for them when it came to speech production, talkativeness, affiliated speech, and self-disclosure.” Says Dr. Yvonne, but since there’s no actual supportive evidence, we can’t exactly tell if it’s caused from nature or nurture. My opinion? I think it’s both.
All in all, there will always be differences between the way women and men tend to communicate just by everyone’s different personalities alone. Of course there are still similarities but it’s mostly toward the simple minded thing but those were just my few topics on social media, being born a certain sex having an effect on your communication styles, and competitive versus nurturing in men and women. Maybe in the future there will be a time when it just won’t matter anymore, but I’ll probably be long gone by then. Who knows, maybe in the next couple generations, we might find women on Venus and men on Mars. With today’s science you can never be sure how far men and women can go.
