Study: Men want facts, women seek personal connections on Web

Reuters - Internet users share many common interests, but men are heavier consumers of news, stocks, sports and pornography while more women look for health and religious guidance, a broad survey of U.S. Web usage has found.

The study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project released today finds men are slightly more intense users of the Web. Men log on more frequently and spend more time online. More men also have access to quick broadband connections than do women.

"Once you get past the commonalities, men tend to be attracted to online activities that are far more action-oriented, while women tend to value things involving relationships or human connections," said Deborah Fallows, a research fellow at Pew and author of the report.

A larger number of men surf the Internet for pleasure, with 70% acknowledging they go online to pass time, compared with 63% of women. Men are more likely than women to listen to music, view webcams and pay for digital content.

But women are catching up in several areas measured by the survey, and intensive use by younger women suggests some of the gaps will continue to narrow.

Already, women are heavier users of e-mail, often going beyond the matter-of-fact responses of male correspondents to use e-mail to share stories, solve issues and reach out to a wider network of friends and family.

Both genders look to the Web as a font of information and as an efficient communications tool, said Fallows.

Overall, the percentage of men and women who use the Web are nearly equal. Roughly 68% of men and 66% of women report making use of the Web, up from 20% of the U.S. population Pew found in 1995, when men made up 58% of the online audience.

Over the past decade, men have proved more willing to engage in riskier encounters or transactions, such as joining chat rooms, bidding in online auctions or trading stocks. Auctions attract 30% of men but just 18% of women.

In addition, 21% of males confess to looking at porn online compared with just 5% of females who said they do so, the Pew survey found. This area is notoriously difficult to measure and may be underreported by survey respondents, Fallows said.

Meanwhile, 74% of women seek health or medical information online, far more than the 58% of men who do so. Thirty-four percent of women seek religious information from the Web versus 25% of men. Such differences mirror gender differences in the off-line world, Fallows said.

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