The Relationship Between Cyber Space and Gender Identity, Case Study of the Internet Users in Kashan, Iran

The cultural construction of gender identity would lead to the development of personal and social thoughts and ideas regarding the appropriate behaviors for men and women in different conditions. Hence, the gender identity is a function of social conditions and the individual self-image according to the ideals and resources that the society or the individual construct for the self. The introduction and development of new communication-information technologies and the cyber space have encouraged the researchers to examine the role of these technologies in changing the unwritten rules and regulations dominating human interactions and how they view their gender. Therefore, the present study aims to investigate the potential relationship between different patterns of using cyber-space and the gender identities of the users. To this purpose, the present study which is conducted through cross-sectional survey as the method and questionnaires as the instrument. This study investigates 260 users from 15 to 25 years old, selected through quota sampling from Kashan, Iran. The results of this study indicated that there is a positive and significant relationship between the history of the users and the time that they spend using the Internet weekly and their gender identity. However, this relationship was different for men and women with regard to the patterns of using Internet (such as entertaining or social purposes). The results revealed that the gender identity of the women who mainly searched the Internet for scientific information was stronger than the men. In addition, using the cyber space for entertaining purposes such as chatting, playing games, and pastime reduces the sense of belonging to one's gender. This might be resulted from the specific characteristics of interaction in cyber space (pace, anonymity, …..) that create a the same environment for all users which is devoid of the necessities caused by gender identity construction.