A study by Jed Brubaker and his collaborators Funda Kivran-Swaine (Rutgers), Mor Naaman (Cornell Tech), et al. was featured on Fast Company, in an article titled “Women Are More Lonely On Twitter, But Men Get More Sympathy“.

A new analysis that catalogued some expressions of loneliness on Twitter found compelling gender differences both in how people vent, as well as the replies they receive. Women are much more likely to tweet about their loneliness, the study concluded, a finding that matches up with a large body of evidence showing women are more emotionally expressive than men.

the paper:
Kivran-Swaine, F., Ting, J., Brubaker, J. R., Teodoro, R., Naaman, M. Understanding Loneliness in Social Awareness Streams: Expressions and Responses. Proceedings of ICWSM-14. Ann Arbor, MI. June 2-4, 2014.