Social media, social identity, and the construction of perceived gender conflict: evidence from a national survey in South Korea

Gender conflict has emerged as a prominent axis of social division. This study examines how messenger apps, video platforms, and social networking services (SNS) relate to perceived gender conflict, and how these associations vary by age, education, and political orientation. We propose that platform affordances operate through two perceptual levers: normative incongruence-the mismatch between one's gender role schema and encountered signals-and issue salience-the prominence and affective tone of exposure. Analyses of the Korea Social Integration Survey (N = 8,294) show that messenger app use is associated with lower or flat perceived gender conflict, SNS use raises it, and video platforms display a mixed pattern that becomes clearer once identity is considered. Age and education significantly moderate these associations: among older and less-educated respondents, the dampening effect of messenger apps weakens, while the amplifying effects of SNS and video platforms strengthen. Political orientation shows no consistent moderation. We discuss how platform design and digital literacy initiatives could reduce misperceptions of social division and foster constructive political attitudes, social trust, and policy acceptance.