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.