Gender Differences in Internet Use Patterns and ...

CVBERPSYCHOLOGY & BEHAVIOR

Volume 3, Number 2, 2000 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.

Gender Differences in Internet Use Patterns and Internet Application Preferences: A Two-Sample Comparison ERIC B. WEISER, M.Sc.1

ABSTRACT Although the Internet frequently has been characterized as male-dominated, recent evidence indicates that the gender gap in Internet use is rapidly diminishing. If more females are using the Internet, then what specific applications do they prefer and do they differ from those of males? This article presents results from a survey assessing gender differences in specific uses of the Internet. The survey included 19 items and was made available to Internet users. For comparison, a paper-and-pencil version was administered to several hundred introductory psychology students. Numerous gender differences in preferences for specific Internet applications emerged. Results showed that males use the Internet mainly for purposes related to entertainment and leisure, whereas women use it primarily for interpersonal communication and educational assistance. However, additional analyses showed that several gender differences were mediated by differences in age and Internet experience. Potential implications of these results for commerce and advertising are discussed. INTRODUCTION

tainly will explode as we enter a technologically sophisticated 21st century. URING THE PAST SEVERAL YEARS, the Internet The remarkable growth in Internet access has has grown extensively in its availability, sparked a phenomenal increase in the number connectivity, and geographic distribution. The of users. Prior to 1995, when the Internet began ubiquity of Internet accessibility, coupled with to permeate the cultural landscape, fewer than the ease of publishing multimedia materials on 20 million people worldwide used the Internet the Internet, has spawned radical changes in regularly. However, in recent years the annual business, education, government, and enter- growth rate of Internet use has been approxitainment. With more than 300 million pages mately Y75%1; by 1998, there were approxiwithin the world wide web alone (i.e., not in- mately 68 million Internet users in the United eluding bulletin board systems, newsgroups, States alone,2 and some current estimates sugTelnet, or other Internet data applications), the gest that the number of U.S. Internet users is Internet has become indispensable for infor- approaching 100 million.2"4 Around the world, mation gathering, interpersonal communica- there may be as many as 200 million individution, commerce, and entertainment. As Internet als who are now "on line."2 The staggering intechnologies evolve, and as the cost of internet crease in the number of Internet users means access decreases, growth in access almost cer- that the user population is becoming incredi-

D

Department of Psychology, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX. 1Ph.D. candiadate, Texas Tech University. 167

168

bly diverse with respect to its experiences, skills, abilities, and the reasons for use of the Internet. Indeed, the amount of useful information and the range of amusing activities and hedonistic diversions the Internet has to offer is virtually limitless. Increasingly, the Internet has become a vital tool for business, education, government, and entertainment, and it has become clear that a crucial mechanism for success in these endeavors involves reading a more precise understanding of the characteristics of the Internet user population and the primary motives driving use. From a commercial standpoint, knowing who uses the Internet and why they use it would facilitate appropriate and efficient marketing of products and services. For example, knowing what groups have a representative presence on the Internet and their reasons for using it would enable businesses (particularly Internet access providers) to devise marketing strategies that stress aspects of the Internet congruent with the demands of those groups.

WEISER

If interpersonal communication, information acquisition, and entertainment constitute people's primary uses of the Internet, what specific domains of these three broad functions do users most prefer? Before addressing this question, one must recognize that surveys conducted by Internet research organizations (e.g., CyberAtlas, e-land, NetSmart America, Nua Internet Surveys, etc.) repeatedly have characterized the typical Internet user as overwhelmingly white, male, and well-educated, with a higher than average income. Thus, researchers who wish to delineate and generalize more specific reasons behind Internet use must recognize the demographic homogeneity of the user population and thus realize that, for the most part, their data will apply primarily to men. Indeed, the legitimacy of the contemporary discourse touting the Internet as what Alicia Wolf metaphorically called "The Great Equalizer" has been, as far as gender is concerned, largely unsubstantiated.6

THE GENDER GAP IN INERNET USE MOTIVES UNDERLYING INTERNET USE Many have regarded the Internet as a techSome authors have contended that Internet nological "boy toy," an electronic pathway to use is driven mainly by interpersonal commu- riches of information and entertainment that nication, information acquisition, and enter- was developed exclusively by men for men. Intainment, with interpersonal communication deed, data from a variety of empirical sources constituting the dominant underlying reason.5 confirms the assertion that Internet use is prinHowever, the generality of this assertion can cipally a male-dominated ritual. Several years obscure an accurate assessment of the specific ago, Georgia Tech University's First Graphics, applications that provide interpersonal com- Visualization, and Usability (GVU) World munication, information acquisition, entertain- Wide Web (WWW) User Survey found that ment, and Internet user preferences for such males comprised approximately 95% of all inspecific applications. For example, there are ternet users,7 a statistic that is hardly surprisseveral means for which one may use the In- ing given that numerous earlier studies found ternet for interpersonal communication: E- gender differences in attitudes and time spent mail, Internet Relay Chatrooms (IRCs), Multi- using computers.8"10 One explanation for such User Dungeons (MUDs), message boards, etc. gender differences may be the socialization of In addition, both information acquisition and young girls, who are often systematically, if unentertainment via the Internet is multifaceted: intentionally, discouraged from many acadeUsers can conduct research, check flight sched- mic pursuits, particularly in math and sciules and reservations, build world wide web ence.11 The AAUW Report: How Schools pages, obtain educational assistance, shop, lis- Shortchange Girls describes how young girls, ten to audio broadcasts from distant radio sta- relative to boys, receive inferior education and tions, search for items that are ordinarily diffi- are dissuaded from pursuing math and science cult to find, catch up on the latest news, and so careers. In addition, the report indicates that the gender gap in science has remained steady forth.

GENDER DIFFERENCES IN INTERNET USE PATTERNS

in recent years, and that elements of gender bias continue to emerge on standardized tests of math and science. Thus, gender bias likely serves to undermine the self-esteem of young girls, effectively channeling them away from careers in math and science11; consequently, women may have less accessibility or need for computers than males do simply because women are less likely than men to have careers for which the use of computers and the Internet are important. However, other factors also seem plausible. For example, Ellen Israel Rosen12 has decried the "double day" of work for many women, which is "to come home from paid jobs to dinner, dishes, cranky children, and tired husbands; to work all week and spend much of the weekend doing the laundry and cleaning the house" (p. 93). Thus, given the enormous time constraints confronting many women, finding perhaps even 30 minutes per day to explore the Internet may be a overwhelming challenge.6 In addition, financial constraints might represent an obstacle to Internet access for women. The combination of gendered wage differential with the explosion of single mothers as heads of households and the double shift many women work suggest that one reason women are under represented online is that they may be unwilling or unable to pay for access.6 Finally, many women simply may consider the Internet to be a threatening place; pornography, online sexual harassment, "flaming," and other malevolent aspects of the internet potentially lurk behind each click of the mouse.13'14 More recent surveys from Georgia Tech's GVU Center15 have reported Internet behavioral patterns congruent with gender differences in computer attitudes and use. For example, women typically report greater difficulty finding information on the Internet than men do, whereas men feel more comfortable using the Internet, report using the Internet for more reasons (e.g., chat groups, newsgroups, doing research, etc.) and have more sophisticated Internet skills (e.g., ability to create web pages, ability to change "cookie" preferences, ability to connect to Internet audio broadcasts, etc.) than women do.15 In addition, men use the Internet for obtaining news, weather, and sports information; shopping; entertainment;

169

accessing newsgroups; and "time wasting" much more than do women.15 Further, others have reported that males are much more likely to participate in Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs) than are females.16 MUDs are text-based roleplaying games that are typically very aggressive and absorbing and require the user to stay online for long time periods to obtain proficiency and status.16 Thus, much of the research in the ares of gender and the Internet has clearly failed to confirm the legitimacy of the Internet's "Great Equalizer" metaphor6; in comparison to women, males use the Internet more, they are more comfortable with it, and their reasons for using it are more extensive. However, as the Internet becomes mainstream, affordable, and easier to use, gender discrepancies in its use should decrease. Indeed, some recent reports indicate that the gender gap in Internet use has steadily declined.4'17 For example, some have estimated that females currently comprise fully one-third of all Internet users18; other estimates place the number at approximately 40%.17 Regardless of which estimate is more accurate, both reveal a dramatic increase in the number of female online users from the 5% of 1994. Additionally, Georgia Tech's 10th (i.e., most recent) GVU WWW User Survey has found that nearly 52% of Internet users surveyed who had been online for less than 1 year (i.e., "newbies") were female, indicating the first time that females have taken a statistical lead over males in Internet usage.15 A report by NetSmart America17 goes even further, revealing that 58% of the new Internet users in the United States are women (up from 44% in 1998) and predicting that women, in all likelihood, will surpass men in Internet use by 2002. Additionally, data exist suggesting that females now comprise the majority of first-time online buyers,19 and also are now beginning to use the Internet at a younger age. The 10th GVU WWW User Survey reported that females now account for approximately 44% of users between the ages of 11 and 12.15 The 10th GVU WWW User Survey15 also found that females use the Internet for education, communication, and obtaining "personal information" more than do males. Ironically, the fact that the Internet's communication capabilities seems especially appealing to women

170

is consistent with earlier research indicating that women have more favorable attitudes toward E-mail and computer-mediated communication than do men and are even more likely than men to use the Internet for interpersonal communication with friends/ family, and coworkers.20'21 Communication through Email has more the feel and style of oral communication. For example, E-mail messages are highly personalized, spontaneous, and interactive; users can specify who they want the message recipients to be; and users may tailor their messages to reflect prior interactions and the nature of the relationship. As such, E-mail and other forms of computer-mediated communication may foster greater female participation because they conform to the "rules" that have been shown to contribute to sustaining women's same-sex friendships, namely talk, intimacy, and emotional expression.22"26 Indeed, if "talk is the substance of women's friendships" (Johnson& Aires,25 p. 354), then it is probable that, especially for women, E-mail and other forms of computer-mediated communication represent momentous technological innovations that introduce new social rules and avenues for maintaining interpersonal relationships. To summarize, current data suggest that the gender gap in Internet use of several years ago has begun to diminish quite rapidly. Increasingly, internet users are now gradually becoming evenly divided among gender lines, and some estimate that women will eventually surpass men in Internet use in the next several years. In addition, findings suggest that interpersonal communication constitutes the dominant motive of female Internet use. From the perspective of Internet commerce, success depends in large part on familiarity with the size, characteristics, and demands of the user market. Thus, an awareness of who is using the Internet and what they demand from it is crucial for businesses to establish an effective Internet presence. Clearly, the increased presence of women on the Internet has made gender relevant for e-business. Hence, recognizing the women's increased Internet presence, investigating specifically what it is they want from the Internet and why they use it, and promptly responding will become a crucial key to success

WEISER

in Internet advertising and commerce. If females use the Internet mainly for interpersonal communication, what specific applications pertaining to interpersonal communication (e.g., E-mail, chat rooms) do they most prefer? Further, if entertainment represents the dominant motive of male online use, what specific applications pertaining to entertainment do they most prefer? Businesses, especially Internet access providers, and others aspiring to make the Internet a lucrative venture would benefit from informed investigations of the primary reasons why men and women use Internet, what specific applications they most prefer, and if their preferred applications differ from one another. In general, do males and females use the Internet for specific, different reasons?

RESEARCH GOALS The primary purpose of this research was to obtain normative information about the specific reasons why males and females use the Internet by examining a broad and inclusive sample of male and female Internet users. Initially, I planned to collect all data exclusively via the Internet because Internet data collection has several advantages over traditional data-gathering procedures, including the Internet's potential access to alternative and non-student populations, elimination of data-entry and copying costs, and less restrictive time constraints. However, Internet participants in online studies are a purely self-selected sample of participants, and thus may be more homogeneous than desired. To assess such self-selection possibilities, a comparison group of college students was also included. Although college students are homogeneous in age, the extensive research testing of college students provides a known comparison base against which to compare the general population of Internet users.

METHOD Internet attitudes survey A 21-item measure called the Internet Attitudes Survey was constructed for this study.

GENDER DIFFERENCES IN INTERNET USE PATTERNS

The measure consisted of 2 demographic questions and 19 statements assessing specific applications of Internet use. Examples of the statements are, "One of the reasons why I use the Internet is to look for others with whom I can have a romantic relationship," "One of the reasons why I use the Internet is to look for items and products that are ordinarily difficult to find" (see the Appendix for a full list of the items). Respondents indicated on Likert scales ranging from 1 (not at all true of me) to 9 (completely true of me) the extent to which each statement characterized his or her Internet use. The 19 items were derived from a large pool of items that, on the basis of pilot testing, had been designated as the next popular reasons for using the Internet. An online version of the survey was created using HTML and used the forms function to distribute responses to a specified e-mail account. Radio buttons (i.e., response buttons in HTML that permit only one response per item) were used to list the available response options, which corresponded to numeric values. Only 19 items were included because it was felt that a brief survey would curtail respondent fatigue and also allow for some control over the content of the responses. The online survey was posted on the Geocities web page hosting system, and the URL of the survey was submitted to numerous search engines to increase its visibility. In addition, a sample of college students completed a paper-and-pencil version of the same survey as part of a research participation requirement. Participants and procedures

In early 1999, the Internet Attitudes Survey was administered to 506 introductory psychology students at Texas Tech University. The survey was administered as part of a group test session during which nearly all of students in the course completed a series of questionnaires, including the Internet Attitudes Survey, in return for partial course credit. The samples included 212 males and 294 females. In addition, a world wide web version of the Internet Attitudes Survey was constructed and submitted to numerous popular search engines available to help users find web pages of interest. Users

171

entering the key words Internet, surveys, or attitudes would find a link to the survey and, if they wished, could follow the link to complete the survey. Responses to the online survey were distributed to a specified E-mail account. Overall, there were 684 responses to the online version of the survey, consisting of 297 males and 387 females. In all, 1,190 surveys were collected. After indicating their gender and age group, both the introductory psychology students and the online respondents indicated on 9-point Likert scales the extent of which they agreed with each of the 19 statements. When the online respondents had finished the survey, they submitted their responses to the specified Email account and were subsequently rerouted to the Geocities main web page. RESULTS Gender X sample analyses

Table 1 presents males' and females' mean agreement levels with each of the 19 survey items for both the college sample and the online sample. The data were analyzed as a 2 X 2 factorial design for each item, with gender servings as one factor and sample serving as the other factor. The analyses revealed significant main effects for sample on all items. As would be expected from a sample of respondents who likely had extensive Internet experience, online respondents indicated greater agreement in using the Internet for each of the 19 purposes than did student respondents. In addition, main effects for gender emerged on 12 of the 19 items. Females, relative to males, reported greater agreement in using the Internet for obtaining course information (Ms = 4.68 and 4.22, respectively), F(l, 1175) = 6.46, p < .02), chatting on-line (Ms = 4.61 and 4.21, respectively), F(l, 1177) = 4.09, p < .05; seeking help with education (Ms = 5.28 and 4.85, respectively), F(l, 1177) = 7.09, p < .01; communicating via E-mail (Ms = 7.82 and 6.91, respectively), F(l, 1182) = 43.77, p < .0001; and research (Ms = 6.81 and 6.39, respectively), F(l, 1169) = 8.57, p < .01. Males, relative to females, reported greater use of the Internet for shopping (Ms = 3.12 and

172

WEISER TABLE 1.

MEAN SCORES AND F-RATIOS FOR MALES AND FEMALES FOR STUDENT AND ONLINE SAMPLES Student

Item 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15.

Helps me keep up Course info Online chat Education Look around E-mail Shopping Events in places Meet new people Research Audio Build web pages Similar others Romance Hard-to-find item

16. Sex 17. Stay informed 18. View porn 19. Online games

Online

F -Ratios

M

F

M

F

Gender

Sample

Interaction

3.8 4.0 4.0 3.8 5.6 6.4 2.1 2.9 2.9 5.6 2.6 1.6 2.9 1.6 3.6 1.4 3.4 2.6 2.9

3.8 4.5 4.2 4.3 5.0 7.9 1.7 2.5 2.7 6.4 2.0 1.3 2.6 1.0 2.5 0.9 3.2 2.0 1.0

6.2 4.5 4.4 5.9 6.8 7.5 4.1 4.4 3.7 7.2 4.0 4.4 4.3 2.3 5.8 2.1 5.8 4.3 3.2

5.9 4.9 5.0 6.3 6.9 7.9 3.7 4.5 4.4 7.3 3.2 3.8 4.7 2.0 4.9 1.4 5.4 2.1 1.9

40d

5.2

6.4 6.0 4.9 5.1 4.4 4.9 6.3 6.4 6.9 7.0 7.8 7.9 4.0 3.9 4.6 4.6 3.5 4.2 7.2 7.5 3.9 3.0 4.5 3.5 3.9 4.5 2.2 2.1 5.8 5.1 2.0 1.4 6.2 5.6 4.5 2.3 3.5 2.6

7.0 6.3 3.4 4.3 3.3 3.5 5.2 5.9 6.8 6.6 7.5 7.8 5.2 4.1 5.1 4.5 3.2 3.0 7.5 6.9 4.0 2.7 3.5 3.5 3.8 3.7 1.8 1.3 5.9 5.4 1.8 1.1 6.4 6.0 3.9 1.7 3.0 2.4

6.4 6.4 3.7 3.1 2.7 2.5 5.0 4.9 6.4 6.7 6.9 7.2 4.5 4.4 3.8 6.4 2.5 3.0 7.9 7.0 2.7 2.7 3.9 4.5 3.6 3.7 2.0 1.6 5.4 5.6 1.6 1.2 5.7 5.6 3.0 1.5 1.4 1.7

5.5 4.7 5.4 6.0 6.7 5.9 6.6 7.0 7.1 6.9 8.0 3.0 3.1 3.7 4.2 4.9 5.8 6.8 7.2 4.6 3.9 5.0 4.3 5.4 5.9 2.8 2.5 5.0 4.0 2.5 1.6 4.8 4.9 4.6 2.0 4.8 3.4

Gender

Age

Interaction

1.2

9.1****

1.5

1.2

7.8****

1.0

1.0

35.1****