Gadgets or communication tools?

The Pew Internet and American Life Project issued a report on the Consumption of Information Goods and Services in the United States yesterday. The report concludes that "There is a trendsetting technology elite in the U.S. who chart the course for the use of information goods and services." Within this elite group of techies, "wired women like tools to communicate, not gadgets to show off."

Techie women are more likely than techie men to say that it would be very hard to give up email, by a 52% to 44% margin. By contrast, when asked whether it would be very hard to do without the Internet, 49% of techie women say this, while 60% of their male counterparts do. For phone calling, cell or wireline, there are some cross currents. Fully 70% of tech women said it would be very hard to do without a telephone compared with 56% of tech men. For cell phones, half of tech men say it would be very hard to do without one while 46% of tech women said this. Techie men and techie women are about as likely to have cells phones (82% and 81%, respectively). Techie women are less likely to have the hardware gadgets that one might clip to the belt (excepting cell phones), than techie men. One-quarter of techie men have pagers, versus 16% of techie women, and about one-third (31%) of techie men have PDAs compared to 15% of their female counterparts.