eMarketer has an article that caught my eye, stating that women outnumber men online, and that this wasn't likely to change. Okay, that's sort of interesting. The stereotype of "someone online" would be male - clearly that's wrong. It's always good to have some real numbers to back up the smashing of a stereotype. Still, it's really only mildly interesting.
But I nearly spit wine all over my keyboard when I came to the following paragraph:
Not only do females make up the majority of Internet users, but more of the female population goes online. This year, an estimated 66.2% of US females ages 3 and older will use the Internet at least once a month, compared with 64.2% of males, according to eMarketer. By 2011, 72.1% of females are expected to go online, vs. 69.3% of males.
66.2% of US females ages 3 and older. No, I'm not commenting on the bad grammar. I've never seen "3 and older" as an age category for... well, for anything. I don't know, I'm sure there is some parenting/baby stuff out there where maybe that's a demographic break, but it was a new one for me. I'm glad we're tracking this. I'm glad we're not dismissing the important role that kids of all ages play right now in shaping the future of this technology.
. The original is from a 1950
issue of Popular Mechanics.