INTERNET, GENDER AND SENIORS

This paper provides the results of a study conducted of students in the University of the Balearic Islands’ University Programme for Seniors, known as the Universitat Oberta per a Majors (UOM). For this study, we devised a questionnaire with items related to Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to be completed by the students in the programme during the 2007-08, 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11 academic years, which resulted in a sample of 220 students. The priority aspects evaluated were the students’ use of the Internet, how often they used it and the contents they searched for most, which were all analysed from a gender perspective. Thus, we can prove that significant gender differences in Internet use exist and that its use improves the students’ different skills, such as communication amongst themselves and other generations, physical and psychological well-being and creativity and adaptation to the new society.
The use of ICTs involves a positive adaptation to the changes taking place in society, as reflected in the data, since the senior population currently enrolled in education programmes for seniors have changed their way of thinking regarding the use of ICTs; they perceive them as a tool that can help them in their daily lives. It is also noteworthy that although the number of women participating in the programme is higher than the number of men, women use ICTs less than men do. According to our data, participation in an education programme will make it possible for this situation to change by helping bridge the gender digital divide