Social media are ubiquitous in today’s society. The anonymity of posts seems to foster blaming others and falsely accusing individuals. The study presented in the Dutch article ‘The online platform as a megaphone‘ investigates posts on online platforms that address female and male professionals, including politicians, mayors, lawyers and scholars.

The researchers compaired the contents that the professionals posted. In total, they investigated 8402 posts related to twelve professionals. Moreover, they conducted interviews with four professionals and with four senders of posts.

Results of this study suggest wide differences between the professionals and the genders with respect to the contents of the posts that they receive. Though the setting is small and quite specific in terms of respondents, I believe that the findings are important and underline a larger trend.

Source: Janine Janssen.