A web-based study of Italian e-mail users, and aspects of their social network

The research is a web-based study of a convenience sample of 187 Italian e-mail users (52% men; 52% above 25 years of age; 73% from the north of Italy) who, prompted by a banner, answered (may-september 2000) an online questionnaire (QS) at one of four Italian internet sites. The issues addressed by the study focused on the relationship between e-mail usage (frequency, kind of addressees, motives for using it) and the users' social network. The analyses of subjects' answers confirmed most of the hypotheses, but also disconfirmed 'worries' that have been reported in the literature. More specifically, results showed that most (73% on average) e-mail users - whether 'heavy' (10 or more messages per week), 'regular' (2-9), or 'light' (0-1) e-mail users - reported having a satisfactory number of friends to start with, friends that most subjects, especially if they are below 35 years of age, they see more than once a week. In fact, e-mail usage frequency and social network 'richness' are unrelated. However, 'heavy' users (men outnumber women in this category, whereas age is irrelevant), especially the subgroup who sends frequent messages also to newsgroups and/or mailing-lists, do make new friends via internet more frequently than 'regular' and 'light' users. Messages might be sent to a variety of addressees, but the most frequent ones are work colleagues, and friends; 'heavy' users tend to use e-mail both for work purposes and to keep in contact with friends, whereas 'regular' and 'light' users mostly have only the latter aim; not surprisingly, the importance subjects attribute to the possibility of e-mailing is highly correlated with their usage frequency. Finally, e-mail messages are sent also for relational purposes: in order to talk about one's own problems, to ask advice about important questions, and to seek support. These goals are unrelated to whether e-mailing is mostly used for work- or for friendship-maintaining-contacts, and, most importantly, the frequency with which they are implementes is positively related with users' social network 'richness'. Gender differences were observed in connection to these issues: men send and receive more messages to/from colleagues than women do, and do so to pursue work-related aims, whereas women entertain more frequent written relationships with their partner than men do (interestingly, no gender differences were observed for the specific category "friends") and use e-mailing mostly to keep in contact with friends; women, furthermore, more often than men admit that they use messages in order to seek support