Old wine in a new technology, or a different type of digital divide?

Abstract

Gender differences exist in both general and specific uses of information and communication technologies (ICTs). Most of this research has focused on computers and the internet to the exclusion of mobile phones. Little research has examined gender differences in specific types of mobile phone usage, especially among youth. This issue is examined using data from a random sample of middle-school students. Although gender differences exist at the bivariate level, the picture changes in multivariate models. Boys exhibited greater frequency of use for non-social, gadget-like features of mobile phones; no gender differences existed in more traditional communicative mobile phone uses.