Net gender gap closing: Study

Though there's still a gender gap (men are the early adopters and women the communicators), the sexes are "more similar than different" in their use of the Internet, the Pew Internet & American Life Project found in its latest study. They both value the Net for its efficiency (where shopping's concerned), as "the gateway to limitless vaults of informaation." And where there is a gap, it's closing fast: 68% of men and 66% of women go online. Here are a few more key findings:

* Men are "slightly more intense" Net - they go online more often, spend more time online, and are morely to be broadband users than women.
* Women are more "enthusiastic online communicators, and they use email in a more robust way." They're also "more likely to feel satisfied with the role email plays in their lives, especially when it comes to nurturing their relationships."
* Men and women are "equally likely to use the Internet to buy products and take part in online banking, but men are more likely to use the Internet to pay bills, participate in auctions, trade stocks and bonds, and pay for digital content."
* Men are more avid consumers of online information, more likely to use the Net as a destination for recreation, and download and listen to music online than women, and the former are "more tech savvy."

That last item continues a theme found in research about online boys and girls nearly a decade ago, finding boys more likely to play and tinker with computers themselves and girls more likelyl to use them as a communications tool, a "means to an end." Some things change, some things seem not to.
There was lots of coverage of this, including at ABC News in the US.