Gender Differences in Internet usage among Research Students: A Comparative Study

Abstract

The role of computer and internet as the means for socialization, education, information access, entertainment, shopping and communication is increasing dramatically in the life of youth. The internet has completely revolutionized the way information is accessed. Keeping in view the importance of the internet in general life and particularly in research and studies, the present paper was planned on PAU, Ludhiana research scholars with the objectives; to work out the extent of internet usage by research students; and to find out the gender difference in internet usage among research students. The sample size comprised 200 students. For the purpose of data collection, questionnaire was structured for the students. The required primary data from the students were collected in the questionnaire through personal interview method. The collected data were analyzed by applying t-test, chi-square test and z-test. The results of the study revealed that the male and female respondents spent higher time on educational sites, social networking sites and chatting sites as compared to that on religious sites, pornographic sites and magazine sites. The analysis showed that significantly higher frequency score was there for class assignments /projects, searching related literature and structuring of data collection tool among female respondents as compared to that among male respondents. On the other hand, significantly higher frequency score for preparing synopsis was there among male respondents as compared to that among female respondents. Time spent for different topics of research was similar by male and female respondents, except for searching appropriate statistical tools where female researchers devoted higher time as compared to that by the male researchers.