According to a recent survey by the Swedish computer magazine PC för Alla, women seem to be consistently more frustrated than men when it comes to computers and the Web. (For those of you who don’t speak Swedish, “PC för Alla” translates to “PC for Everyone”.)
The highest frustration levels are understandably brought on by computer crashes, which cause frustration in 77% of the men and 85% of the women.
This is followed by slow load times for web pages, which frustrate 56% of the men and 66% of the women, and Internet advertising, which frustrates 47% of the men and 52% of the women.
Here is a selection of the survey results:
Frustrated by slow load times for web pages
Men: 56%
Women: 66%
Frustrated by ads on the Internet
Men: 47%
Women: 52%
Frustrated by keeping track of multiple passwords
Men: 32%
Women: 34%
Frustrated when their computer crashes
Men: 77%
Women: 85%
Frustrated if their broadband connection doesn’t reach the promised speed
Men: 48%
Women: 56%
Frustrated by (interacting with) computer support
Men: 38%
Women: 42%
Average of the above
Men: 49.7%
Women: 55.8%
We found this highly interesting. What accounts for the difference between men and women here? It seems too large to simply be explained away by a statistical anomaly since the sample base was almost 4,000 people.
And we here at Pingdom can’t help but wonder why not 100% of the people in the survey are frustrated if their computer crashes… Who would find that even remotely ok? 🙂
About the survey:
The survey got 3,812 responses. 717 from women, 3,060 from men, and 35 who did not to divulge their gender. You can read the resulting article (in Swedish) on the IDG.se website.
It should be noted that most PC för Alla readers are probably close to what can be considered “the average Swedish Web user”. It’s not a magazine directed at advanced users or experts.
