Demographics, Baseline Information And Usage Patterns

The information collected in this section is intended to establish a baseline of information about the respondents. This was to ensure that the demographic information collected about the respondents was correct in terms of the research goal. Analysis in this section and in all subsequent chapters is performed using the options available in the Limesurvey software used to collect the data, as well as Microsoft Excel, and the ‘R’ statistical software package. Whilst the data was analysed on its own merits, the results occasionally make for interesting comparison with the assumptions made prior to the research being carried out (see Section 1.5). This is noted and discussed as appropriate. Data analysis was performed based on overall themes to which answers were sought. As such, and owing to the large volume of data collected, not every question, and not every possible combination of data is analysed.

Of the responses received, it was decided that only complete responses would be analysed. As such 258 responses were considered in terms of results and discussion. While the survey was carried out with separate databases for each of the participating schools, for the purposes of analysis the collected results were combined. It is acknowledged that lack of familiarity with some of the terms could have had an influence on the answers received from the respondents. Where appropriate, this is noted. Comparisons with other work are introduced throughout the discussion chapters as appropriate.

3.6.1 BASELINE INFORMATION

As noted above, 258 completed responses to the survey were received. Of these, 122 (47.29%) were from male respondents, and 136 (52.71%) were from female respondents. In terms of the stated goal of investigating potential differences between the genders, the relatively even split between the genders of respondents was a useful result in terms of later gender comparisons. Further, 70.93% of the respondents declared themselves boarders at the school, compared to 28.29% as day learners. The remaining 0.78% (all of two respondents) declared themselves ‘other’ (in both cases they specified ‘private boarder’, which is a learner who lives with another family rather than in one of the school boarding houses. This split was as expected, considering that the schools participating in the survey are primarily boarding schools.

The age range too was compliant with what was expected of learners in the target bracket of school grades 10 to 12, with an average age of 16.43 years recorded. The minimum age entered was 14 years old (consistent with a Grade 10 learner who is a year young for their grade, in that they will turn 17 rather than the usual 18 in Grade 12), and the maximum age was 18 years old, which is consistent with the age reached of the majority of learners in their Grade 12 year. All respondents were in the correct grade range, but as the intention of the research was to assess the respondents as a homogenous group rather than on a per grade basis, analysis according to grade breakdowns was not carried out. The initial analysis served purely to confirm that the correct Grades took part in the survey.

The target group of the survey was learners with regular access to computing facilities, the Internet and cellular telephones. In order to establish that this was the case, the questions in Section A of the survey focussed on establishing a baseline of respondent access and usage. Here, 87% of the respondents indicated that they had access to a personally owned computer (of varying descriptions), while all respondents indicated that they had regular (three or more times per week) access to computing facilities (including those that were not their own).

In addition, of the 258 respondents, only one indicated that they did not own a cellular telephone. When queried as to whether access to the Internet was primarily via cellular telephone or computer, the answers were split 63% to 59% in favour of access via

computer (many respondents selected both options), and those who selected the ‘other’ option indicated ‘both’ as their response. These responses were interpreted as indicating that the respondents made frequent use of both methods of accessing the Internet, with no absolute preference. It could therefore be concluded that the respondents met the desired criteria as a target group in terms of grade, age, access to computing facilities, and the Internet.

3.6.2 USAGE PATTERNS

Having determined the suitability of the group in terms of the research criteria, above, it was necessary to gain further insight into their actual engagement with the online world available to them. The information was drawn from Question 16.

Figure3.1: Self -assessed number of hours per day spent using a computer or cellphone

to access online services (including the Internet, text and instant messaging)

As is apparent in Figure 3.1, the greatest number of respondents spent 1-2 hours per day accessing online services. By combining these figures however, it is shown that 109 respondents or 42.24% spent two or more hours per day, while 200 respondents, or 77.57% spent at least one hour or more per day.

Table 3.1: Self-assessed number of hours per day accessing online services Usage category

(Hours per day)

Male (n=122)

% Female

(n=136)

% p-value

1 Hour or less 36 29.51 22 16.18 N/A

1-2 Hours 46 37.70 45 33.09 N/A

2-3 Hours 23 18.85 28 20.59 N/A

More than 3 hours 17 13.93 41 30.15 N/A

Total of categories 2,3 and 4 86 70.49 114 83.82 0.017* * significant at the 5 % level

Table 3.1 reveals the breakdown of these results by gender. The bottom row in this table is the sum of respondents whose answers fitted into all the categories of 1-2 hours or longer per day. A Student’s’ t-test was then conducted using the ‘R’ statistical package on this last row to determine whether the percentages indicating that female respondents had a higher usage level was significant. The result of this (p=0.017) indicated that it was statistically significant at the 5% level that female respondents spent more time per day accessing online services than their male counterparts. This in itself is not necessarily indicative of anything. Viewed in the context of Chapter 4, dealing with the awareness of threats however, it is revealed that female respondents were less aware to varying levels of statistical significance of certain online threats. Thus owing to a higher amount of daily online activity, and a lower awareness level (as determined in Chapter 4), female respondents could be slightly more at risk, as the more time spent online could be equated with greater time with exposure to and/or interaction with threats.

Since social media and the use thereof was included in the questionnaire as a major component, it is worth establishing the respondents’ actual usage behaviour. As such, further to the levels of usage in Table 3.1, the respondents’ estimations of their frequency of use of social media, and their total time spent was assessed through Questions 20 (usage per week) and 21 (usage per day). A total of 83.72% of the respondents fell into the category of accessing at least one social media platform or application daily. Male (83.60%) and female (83.82%) figures were remarkably consistent with this overall figure, and showed an almost identical pattern of behaviour between the genders.

Question 21 asked respondents to estimate the amount of time spent using social media out of their total time spent using the Internet. This was specifically phrased to be clear that it was referring to the Internet rather than general online connectivity. Results indicate that 32.17% was the highest figure recorded for a single category. This is the category which indicated that respondents spent approximately half of their time on the Internet using social media.

With just one category available for selection indicating that less than half of their total time was spent on social media providing a figure of 27.52%, the other categories were added together to produce the figure that 74.41% of respondents spent half or more of their total Internet time on social media, with 23.64% admitting to spending most of their Internet time in this way. This figure was indicative of the sheer volume of time spent in this way; time which would potentially have been, as discussed in Chapters 5 and 6, time spent under threat.

3.7 SUMMARY

Covered in this chapter were the selection of the respondents and the processes involved in the collection of data. Also covered were the research methodology and the construction of the questionnaire itself. In closing the baselines for the respondents were assessed, and found to be correct in terms of the stated research goals. The following chapter contains the first discussion of the results of analyses performed on the collected data.