Facebook study details preoccupations of ‘Mr & Mrs Average’
A study into the activity of 1m Facebook users has painted a picture of the preoccupations of the average user for the first time.
This highlights a pronounced split amongst the sexes with ‘Mr Average’ becoming jaded with their careers at 30, eight years earlier than their female counterparts, whilst ‘Mrs Average’ predominantly discuss television at 44 – far later than men who do so at just 31.
Further differences were highlighted in their approach to exercise with women taking exercise seriously from age 34 whilst men hold fire till 45.
Looking at the ‘likes’ and ‘interests’ of the individuals researchers also elicited the fact that men are most likely to go to the cinema aged 31 – whilst for women the corresponding age is just 19.
In so far as travel is concerned however the age gap is much closer, with men most interested in the topic at 29 and women at 27.
Detailing the findings researcher Stephen Wolfram said: “Some of this is rather depressingly stereotypical. And most of it isn’t terribly surprising to anyone who’s known a reasonable diversity of people of different ages.
'But what to me is remarkable is how we can see everything laid out in such quantitative detail [and through data analysis create] a kind of a signature of people’s thinking as they go through life.”