WOMEN use the internet for Facebook and shopping while men surf for news, sport and pornography, it emerged yesterday.
A study of 2,000 adults found men clock up more than 19 hours a week online – the equivalent of more than 42 days a year – while women spend 14 hours a week surfing the web.
It also emerged men consume more online news than women and also spend as much time on celebrity news sites. The results also revealed one in eight women regularly surfs the web for pornography.
The research, which was commissioned by domain giant Siteopia.com, also found women are the bigger Facebook users, checking five times a day on average, while men spend longer on Twitter.
More than half of those polled admitted the may be “addicted” to the internet – with women most likely.
A Siteopia.com spokesman said: “The results showed men to be the biggest internet users, spending more time reading the news and show a much bigger tendency for gaming online.
“It’s interesting to see men now consume as much celebrity news as women, while there were also clear patterns between different forms of social media, with women the bigger Facebook users while men devote more time to Twitter on average.
“The internet is now such a big part of our lives that it’s no surprise so many of us rely on it to function day to day, but it’s important to acknowledge the high proportion of people who feel they cannot go without – with many saying 90 minutes is the longest they can be offline.
“Like everything, it’s important to recognise what enhances and benefits our day to day lives, while making sure we focus on quality sites and services that add convenience and enrich our routines rather than simply fill time.”
The average man spent 1,012 hours online in 2012, while women spent 741 hours.
As many as six in ten people feel they now need the internet to function in their day to day life. Seven in ten people go as far as to say there is a point where they feel they have to go online if they have not had access for a while.
The average person admits that they only go a maximum of 90 minutes each day without having some sort of online activity.
Men are also twice as likely to game online, download more and watch more videos.
A fifth of men delete their browsing history each and every day.
