Gender, Internet Identification, and Internet Anxiety: Correlates of Internet Use

Abstract

This paper reports a study that investigated the effects of gender, Internet anxiety, and Internet identification on use of the Internet. The study involved 608 undergraduate students (490 females and 118 males). We surveyed the students' experience with the Internet, as well as their levels of Internet anxiety and Internet identification. We found a number of gender differences in participants' use of the Internet. Males were proportionally more likely to have their own web page than were females. They used the Internet more than females; in particular, they were more likely to use game websites, to use other specialist websites, and to download material from the Internet. However, females did not use the Internet for communication more than males. There was a significant positive relationship between Internet identification and total use of the Internet, and a significant negative relationship between Internet anxiety and total use of the Internet. Controlling for Internet identification and Internet anxiety, we found a significant and negative correlation between gender and use of the Internet. In total, all three of our predictors accounted for 40% of the variance in general Internet use: with Internet identification accounting for 26%, Internet anxiety accounting for 11%, and gender accounting for 3%.

Gendered Internet Use Across Generations and Life Stages

“…occupation, marital status and parenthood) as regards internet use. The descriptive and regression analyses presented showed that the internet is by no means gender neutral, and support earlier research which found that men integrate technologies more broadly into their everyday lives than women (Joiner, et al 2005;Ono & Zavodny, 2003;Wasserman & Richmond-Abbott, 2005). Seven out of nine internet activities examined were undertaken more frequently by men which suggests that there are more internet platforms that are dominated by men than applications that have a female user base.…”

“…In spite of near equality in internet access, considerable gender differences continue to be found in breadth of use (Ono & Zavodny, 2003;Wasserman & Richmond-Abbott, 2005) and internet skills (Broos, 2005;Hargittai & Shafer, 2006;Joiner et al, 2005;Torkzadeh, Chang, & Demirhan, 2006).…”

“…The continued use of university students as subjects for studies leads to the comparison of a very specific group of women with a very specific group of men (eg. Joiner et al, 2005;Odell, et al, 2000). More importantly, it leads to the comparison of expert (young and highly educated) women with young expert men.…”

Effect of personality type on internet anxiety in Kerman Dental School students (2015-2016)

“…Studies have shown that between self-competency and internet anxiety in different age spectrum a significant correlation exists (15), the difference between this research results and the study's results above is due to its particular age spectrum because the majority of students were in the range of 18-25. In this study there was a significant correlation between the hours spent by the student using internet and internet anxiety that was compatible with the studies of Joiner et al (16).…”

Disclosure of sensitive behaviors across self-administered survey modes: a meta-analysis

“…These sex differences might be a consequence of differences in computer familiarity that tend to be higher for men. They report using the Internet more often (Joiner et al, 2005(Joiner et al, , 2012 and engaging in more computerrelated activities than women (Epstein, 2012). On the other hand, females report more negative attitudes toward computers and the Internet, less computer-related self-efficacy, and more computer-related anxiety (Appel, 2012;Broos, 2005;Hu, Zhang, Dai, & Zhang, 2012).…”