Gender, internet experience, Internet identification, and internet anxiety: a ten-year followup.
In 2002, we found gender differences in the use of the Internet. Since then, however, the Internet has changed considerably. We therefore conducted a follow-up study in 2012. The study involved 501 students (389 females and 100 males, 12 participants unspecified gender) and we measured Internet use, Internet anxiety, and Internet identification. We found that males had a greater breadth of Internet use; they used the Internet more for games and entertainment than females. The differentiation between males and females in terms of Internet use is evident, and in some ways is even more distinct than 10 years ago. In our previous research we had found no gender differences in the use of the Internet for communication, whereas in the current study we have found that females use the Internet for communication than males and were using social network sites more than males. We also found, consistent with our previous study, that Internet identification and Internet anxiety were related to Internet use.
Department of Psychology, University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY, United Kingdom. r.joiner@bath.ac.uk
Richard
R
Joiner
Jeff
J
Gavin
Mark
M
Brosnan
John
J
Cromby
Helen
H
Gregory
Jane
J
Guiller
Pam
P
Maras
Amy
A
Moon
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008297:Male; D012737:Sex Factors; D012933:Social Identification; D013334:Students; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires