When it comes to Internet skills, younger users are better than older ones; more educated people are better than less educated. Makes perfect sense.As the Internet is a relatively new tool, researchers felt that men and women would be equally skilled surfers. But one trend has shocked researchers.
Despite online skills pretty much the same as men's, women still rate themselves less capable. Not a single woman called herself an 'expert' user, while not a single male ranked himself as a complete novice or 'not at all skilled'
Although the online skills of men and women were roughly equal, women, as a group, rated their proficiency significantly lower than did men. At the same time, men as a group rated their skills significantly higher than women's.
Eszter Hargittai sees a replay of the he-versus-she math-and-science contest, in which women concede defeat even before an objective score has been tallied. Popular Science says that Internet might be Barbie's new math.