Exploring the Relationships between Gender Differences and Digital Media Use: A Systematic Literature Review

A systematic, qualitative literature review was performed to determine the extent and scope of scientific, peer reviewed literature on gender differences and digital media use among adolescents. The research design consisted on four steps: (1) searching and identifying relevant literature; (2) reading of abstracts; (3) analyzing and categorising of full papers; and (4) synthesizing the findings. This review was conducted according to the articles preferred for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) (Page et al., 2021). The data were retrieved in April 2026 with the boolean search „and”. In this review, I included primary empirical studies investigating gender differences on digital media use. I used the following keywords (or a combination of keywords) in searching articles published between 2015 and 2025: digital media use, gender differences, adolescents. My eligibility criteria for inclusion were: a) primary empirical studies published in peer-reviewed journals in English with full texts available; b) publication period between 2015 and 2025; c) focused on gender differences on media digital use among adolescents. Therefore, the following records were excluded from our review a) conference abstracts, book chapters, commentaries, editorials, academic letters, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and literature reviews. According to the results, there are gender differences in digital media use meaning that more male adolescents than female adolescents are using the digital media technology. Conclusions: To date, more male than female adolescents use digital media in different contexts so that a computer literacy among females should be studied more carefully.