Gender Differences In Technology Use

Previous research has shown that men use the Internet more than women, and men and women use it for different things. For instance, Weiser (2000, 2001) reported that men, compared to women are more likely to use the Internet to search for dates, read the news, look for job leads, get sports and financial information, read politics, and to play games, whereas women, compared to men, are more likely to use it for interpersonal communication (email, chatting, etc.).  Additionally, Georgia Tech reported that approximately 95% of all Internet users were men in 2000, and that this demographic homogeneity was something that researchers must recognize in future research on technology use and the Internet (Weiser, 2000). Up until the middle of the last decade the Internet was mostly regarded as a technological “boy toy.” It was an information pathway created for men by men (Weiser, 2000). 

Guadagno and Cialdini (2002) posture that these early gender difference are based in communication styles. Computer-mediated communications were highly socially constrained into the first part of the twenty-first century, restricted for the most part to text-based, impersonal forms.  This text-based style of communication fits well into the male social role, which urges them to achieve independence and avoid failure (Tannen, 1990).  Women on the other hand are more focused on establishing bonds within social interactions.

            Guadagno and Cialdini (2002) show that text-based communications make no significant difference in male communications as compared with face-to-face interactions. However, women in face-to-face communications exhibited more agreeableness and rated liking in their communication partner higher compared to the email condition, but for men there was little difference in agreeableness across conditions. Women in particular were more task-focused over text-based communications because their relationship goals, relationship formation and cooperation, were less salient. These results show that men may have more naturally adopted early communications over the Internet than women.

            Weiser (2000) postulated that it could have been a matter of exposure and need that lead the Internet to be more quickly adopted by men than women.  Women are often socialized away from academic pursuits, particularly in regards to math and science fields (AAUW, 1992). He hypothesized that because women are often channeled away from these pursuits that they may have less accessibility or need for computers as compared to men, and that women were less likely to have careers for which the use of computer and the Internet were important (Weiser, 2000).

There is only one women mentioned in scientific bingo, Marie Curie.

              Fallows reported in 2005 that there were no longer gender differences in the overall amount of Internet use, but differences in motivation and utilization of time spent online. For example, during these five years we see women using the Internet more for social interactions and the promotion of relationship maintenance, while men were more likely to spend their time online engaging in more task focused activities (e.g. reading the news and getting financial information).  These results show that over the course of a few years women had adapted communication styles for text-based communications and were even using e-mail more than men, and in a more engaging way than men (Fallows, 2005). Specifically, women were more likely to use e-mail as a way to maintain relationships, spending most of their time e-mailing friends and family who they already had a prior connection.  Women and men were both equally likely to value e-mail for its efficiencies and convenience, but women were more likely to feel more satisfied with the role e-mail played in their life. Additionally, women said that e-mail played a more significant role in their life than men (Fallows, 2005).

            Men, however, were still more intense Internet users. They logged on more often and spent more time online. Men were more likely to use the Internet and e-mail communications as a source for facts and information (Fallow, 2005). These results follow the pattern that men were still using the Internet for more agentic means, but that women had started to embrace the technology as a way to maintain interpersonal relationship.

As Fallows (2005) reports women had adapted communication styles for text-based messaging in the early part of the twenty-first century. It should come as no surprise then that when social networking burst onto the Internet scene women as well as men were quick to adopt the technology (Mazman & Usuel, 2011). People use social networks for a variety of reasons from establishing and maintaining social contacts and relationships, supporting informal learning practices, reflecting on daily life, and sharing and analyzing the continuously increasing body of information available over the Internet.

A study by Hargittai (2008) found that equal amounts of men and women were users of Facebook. However, by 2009, 57% of Facebook users were women and 43% were men (Taylor, 2009). This change could be due to the rapid growth experienced between 2007 and 2009 (50 million to 300 million users). In late 2009, Facebook was growing at over 700,000 active users a day (Smith, 2009). The Internet finally had a place for social interactions, and females were at the forefront of this technology (Taylor, 2009).

Gender differences observed using social networking sites could also be expanded to other online environments. Guadagno et al. (2011) showed that in Second Life, a virtual online community, people behaved according to traditional gender role expectations.  Specifically, their results indicated that, women reported in engaging in more communal activities such as meeting people and shopping, relative to men who reported in engaging in more agentic activities such as building things and owning property. These research findings support an interesting notion. Even when men and women have the freedom to behave in a way that is inconsistent for social expectations, they still continue to behave in a way that is consistent with and in support of these expectations.

            A recent study conducted by Kimbrough et. al. (2012), shows that women are using social networking sites at higher rates than men to maintain social relationships. Women report greater use for this mediated communication compared to men, and they show higher preference rates of this type of communication as opposed to offline communication. As social networking sites continue to become evermore popular and seek to become the infrastructure on which information online is transmitted we may see a higher increase in women online (Kirkpatrick, 2010).

            These results also show that women have surpassed men in using text-based communications off-line specifically with regards to texting (Kimbrough et. al., 2012). This contradicts previous research that men are more adept at communicating with text-oriented communications. Over the past decade women have adapted these communications. Based on previous research by Guadagno et al. (2011) we can assess that women are still using these technologies in ways that are consistent with gender role stereotypes. This suggests that women have found a way to use text-based communications not only as a way to communicate in task oriented way as suggest by Guadagno and Caildini (2002) but also as a way to maintain relationships.

            As social networking sites and other technology-mediated communications become ever more popular, I predict that we will see more and more women in the technology world, especially if current trends continue. Social networking sites have quickly become the Internets leading infrastructure. They are where connections are made and information is shared (Kirkpatrick, 2010). If women continue to be the leading force on these sites we may see them displaying more agentic traits online in the future.

Sources

Fallows, D. (2005, December). How women and men use the Internet. <http:// www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2005/How-Women-and-Men-Use-the-Internet. aspx> [retrieved 11.15.11].

Guadagno, R. E., & Cialdini, R. B. (2002). Online persuasion: An examination of gender differences in computer-mediated interpersonal influence. Group Dynamics: Theory Research and Practice, 6, 38–51.

Guadagno, R. E., Muscanell, N. L., Okdie, B. M., Burke, N. M., & Ward, T. B. (2011). Even in virtual environments women shop and men build: Gender differences in second life. Computers in Human Behavior, 27, 304–308.

Hargittai, Eszter (2008). Whose space? Differences among users and non-users of social network sites. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13, 276–297.

Hoffman, A. (2008). The Social Media Gender Gap. Bloomberg Business Week. Retrieved from: http://www.businessweek.com/technology/ content/may2008/tc20080516_580743.htm

Kirkpatrick, D. (2010). The Facebook Effect: the inside story of the company that is connecting the world. New York: Simon and Schuster, Inc. 

Mazman, S. G., & Usluel, Y. K. (2011). Gender differences in using social networks. The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology, 10(2), 133–139.

Smith, J. (2009). Fastest growing demographic on Facebook: Women over 55. <http://www.insidefacebook.com/2009/02/02/fastest-growing-demo-graphic-on-facebook-women-over-55/> [retrieved 11.15.11]

Tannen, D. (1990). You just don't understand: Men and women in conversation. New York: Ballantine Books.

Taylor, M. (2009). Women outnumber men on social networking sites. The Wall Street Journal.  Retrieved from: http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/10/07/ women-outnumber-men-on-social-networking-sites/

Weiser, E. (2000). Gender differences in Internet use patterns and Internet application preferences: A two-sample comparison. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 4, 167–178.

Weiser, E. (2001). The functions of Internet use and their social and psychological consequences. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 4, 723–742.