Research finds men are technically liars

Men are not as confident as they like to make out when it comes to technology, according to research

Andrea-Marie Vassou, Computeract!ve 24 Aug 2007

British men are not as confident as they like to make out when it comes to technology, according to new research.

A survey by printer manufacturer HP has revealed that, despite proclaiming to be technologically confident, men are worried about buying the wrong products and are not up to speed on high-tech terminology.

In a survey of 1,000 men, 85 per cent said they were responsible for buying at least three-quarters of the technology products in their home. Over a third of those questioned, and more than half of those aged between 16 and 54, said that they considered themselves to be "a techie".

Over 80 per cent of those questioned claimed to be able to install a printer and download pictures from a camera. Over three-quarters said that they could set up a broadband connection.

However, in practice, it was a different story. When asked about how long it had taken to complete their last technology related task, over half the respondents said that it took them over an hour, if they completed it at all. Just under a quarter of men also admitted to feeling "unsure" when buying technology products, with some respondents claiming to be "unsure and worried".

A quarter of those questioned did not know what USB (Universal Serial Bus) stands for, and over 60 per cent did not know what a terabyte (a thousand gigabytes of storage capacity) is.

The survey also suggests that these technological difficulties have not gone unnoticed by the opposite sex. Seventy-four per cent of women questioned agreed with the statement that "Men like women to think they know what they’re doing when it comes to techie products but the reality is the majority don’t have a clue."

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