Telephone is still women’s favourite medium of communication
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According to a survey commissioned by the periodical Me Naiset (“Us Women”) together with the mobile phone operator DNA, talking on the phone and meeting face-to-face remain the most important mediums of communication for the majority of women in Finland.
Most of the respondents to the poll, the results of which were published on Thursday, also said that they sought to reply to SMS and email messages immediately. Just under 600 women over the age of 18 took part in the survey.
Based on the survey, women can be categorised in four different types:
Thirty-two per cent of the respondents can be classified as sociable. These women are active communicators making use of all the available media from telephone and meeting in person to the Internet. They take care of work-related calls even during their spare time and they are always available.
The women in this group hold executive positions more often than average or work as top functionaries.
Eighteen per cent of the respondents fall under the heading of Net community devotees. For them the Internet community and SMS messaging are important. On average these women are under 30 or under 40 years of age and either students or employees.
For this group, Facebook and other networking and online communication methods can be even more important than the telephone. Furthermore, their use of mobile phones is more varied than in the other categories: they send multimedia messages and use the mobile device reminder and calendar functions to organise their daily lives.
Thirty-one per cent of the respondents belong to the home-oriented group. Women who concentrate on their home and family life are not very active communicators. On average they are between 40 and 49 years of age, married mothers and well-paid workers.
On their days off they can keep their mobile phones switched off, and they do not have to receive work-related calls outside working hours. And even at other times they may still screen their calls to decide whether to accept them or not.
Eighteen per cent of the women who took part in the survey fall under the title not dependent on mobile phones. These women manage well without a mobile handset, and many of them only use or at least prefer to use a landline phone.
Also, more than the others, the women in this group still write traditional letters and postcards. These women are often pensioners.
Helsingin Sanomat
