Meeste ja naiste internetikasutuse põhjused: kvalitatiivne uurimus
Date
2012
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Tartu Ülikool
Abstract
Keywords: sex differences; gender differences; reasons for differences; Internet usage; online entertainment; social media; work; information seeking; Estonia.
The aim of this bachelor’s thesis, „Men’s and women’s reasons for using the Internet: a qualitative study”, was to find out whether the differences (that men use the Internet more than women for entertainment and social media and women use it more than men for work and information related content) found in previous quantitative studies (Kalmus et al 2011, 2012) would also appear in this qualitative one and what might be the reasons for the differences.
For the study, six couples aged 21 and 23, 35 and 35, 45 and 48, 53 and 53, 66 and 66, 75 and 73 were interviewed.
The only hypothesis was that the cause for women to use the Internet more for searching work and information related content and less for entertainment and social media is due to the society, which puts the duty of raising the children and taking care of the household mainly on women’s shoulders and therefore makes them search for tips related to aforementioned topics and also leaves them less time for entertainment.
The results confirmed that men do use the Internet more for entertainment: men mentioned listening to music online twice as much as women, they also watched more videos and unlike women, downloaded movies. The two people who did not use the Internet for entertainment at all, were women. However, men and women mentioned using social media and e-mail equally. It was nevertheless true that the entertainment and social media related use factor was higher in men’s case. As said, one of the main aims of this study was to find out the reasons for the differences. Why men use the Internet for entertainment more than women, did not become clear from the interpretations of the interviewees. It appeared that women did have on average slightly less free time than men since two women said they do not have any free time at all, but all men had at least some free time. Therefore, one possible explanation still is that men simply have more free time for entertainment. Although, this does not explain why the rest of the women, who did have free time, do not download movies or watch as many videos. One possible explanation for the movie aspect is that women’s self-rated ability to use the Internet is lower (Dutton et al 2009) and thus they may abstain from using more difficult than average software required to download movies (e.g. BitTorrent clients). The reason may also be that since women take fewer risks (Harris & Jenkins 2006), they avoid illegal downloading more than men in fear of punishment. It may also be a sort of labour distribution in which men, who are more interested in technology, download the movies in the family so that women do not have to do that, although they may still watch the movies.
Contrary to earlier studies, however, was the result that men and women used the Internet equally regarding work and information. All working men used the Internet at work and some of them also read news there, but out of the five working women only two used the Internet at work and did it only for work purposes. Two men out of five also used the Internet at work for work purposes and an equal number of men and women mentioned using the Internet for work-related purposes at home. More men than women also mentioned online shopping and searching for practical information, e.g. bus timetables. An equal number of men and women mentioned reading the news online. Therefore, from these results it isn’t possible to say why at population level women use the Internet more for work and information related content.
The results also proved false the hypothesis that women’s larger amount of duties makes them search the Internet for helpful information. Most of the interviewees used the Internet for duties outside work and men and women did it approximately equally (women dealt more with paying the taxes, men used internet more for home improvement tips), but all the interviewees said that duties outside work constitute a rather small proportion of their Internet usage. Even the only mother of young children in the sample said that she does not use the Internet for tips on child rearing and taking care of the household. The amount of home duties was also approximately equal in men and women based on their own assessment.
The main factors hindering interviewees’ Internet use were time-consuming duties, mainly work and school, which was mentioned by two women and one man. Women had slightly more hindering factors since they had slightly less free time. Most of the interviewees nevertheless said that they do not wish to use the Internet more and that they have no serious obstacles to using the Internet.
In a nutshell, differences only occurred in Internet use regarding entertainment. One befitting explanation for the difference is men’s longer free time, different skills and willingness to take risks may also play a part. But it also cannot be ruled out that the differences are due to genders’ different agency, free will, which is shaped by different psychological backgrounds and personal interests. Although this and the previous studies (Kalmus 2011, 2012) did not specifically ask about these aspects, the differences in watching videos and entertainment for example may be in part caused by men’s ten times higher rate of visiting web pages with sexual content and higher rate of gambling (Dutton et al 2009), which’s reasons are probably partly biological.
The main weakness of the study is its qualitative method, because of which it happened that the sample was different from the average of the population and therefore could not explain some trends apparent in the population. I also had to be very careful with the conclusions, because the small sample did not allow generalizations and it is possible that with twelve different interviewees the results would have been notably different. If possible, this subject should in the future be studied with a quantitative or combined (poll and an interview) method. In addition, the future study should, if the tendency arises, ask the women, why they do not use some applications, e.g. do not download movies from the Internet, since this time this question was left unasked. Also, the differences between Estonians’ and Russians’ Internet use that emerged from previous works (Kalmus et al 2011, 2012) should be studied, since this subject was too much work for this study.
The interview method of the study might have influenced the accuracy and thoroughness of the answers, because in the course of an interview, answers are given instantly and without longer reconsideration. It also cannot be ruled out that the interviewees might have tried to create a certain impression of themselves or their consorts in some aspects and did not say exactly what they thought.