The PLoS One journal has recently published a study on how statuses in social networks can determine sex, character and even age of a person. The language that men and women use to communicate on the Internet has revealed much information.
The researchers chose Facebook as the object of study. Sociolinguists from the University of Pennsylvania have analyzed more than 15 million messages from 75,000 Facebook users. Besides, the volunteers were asked to fill out questionnaires and give a detailed account of their life in a social network.
Due to analyzing the messages and personal profiles, the scientists have studied the language of the Internet users of different ages and genders and determined their traits of character. The results were published in the PLoS One scientific journal in the form of clouds of words that are most often used by the representatives of each group.
Girls often use emotive words and epithets. In addition, they like to add smiles at the end of each phrase.
As you might have guessed, young men are stingy in showing emotions, but they do not spare words in the discussion of sex and girls. Men often use possessive pronouns “my”, “mine”, thus emphasizing their own importance.
In addition to the division by gender, the researchers divided the people into extroverts and introverts.
Extroverts often write about parties and entertainment and use positive words in social networks.
Introverts like to discuss books, the Internet, subcultures, and games.
The scientists recommend staying away from the people, whose statuses contain profanity and swear words. These are aggressive people, from whom anything can be expected.