Deborah Fallows Men Quotations

This moment in Internet history will be gone in a blink. We may soon look back on it as a charming, even quaint moment, when men reached for the farthest corners of the Internet, trying and experimenting with whatever came along, and when women held the Internet closer and tried to keep it a bit more under control.

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.

Women are the ones who ask directions and men are the ones who never stop to ask directions, so they do it online as well.

More than men, women are enthusiastic online communicators, and they use e-mail in a more robust way. Women are more likely than men to use e-mail to write to friends and family about a variety of topics: sharing news and worries, planning events, forwarding jokes and funny stories. Women are more likely to feel satisfied with the role e-mail plays in their lives, especially when it comes to nurturing their relationships. And women include a wider range of topics and activities in their personal e-mails.

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.

I think the real interesting story is the young women, because that is the one age cohort where there are many more women online. The younger women are just much more comfortable with the Internet.

If there is an overall pattern of differences here, it is that men value the Internet for the breadth of experiences it offers, and women value it for the human connections.