Taiwanese college students spend about five hours each day surfing the Internet, with male students focusing on instant messaging (IM) software to make new friends online, while their female counterparts are more interested in reading and writing articles on blogs, a study released yesterday showed.
The research by professors of communication at National Chengchi University, National Chiao Tung University and Shih Hsin University on 8,733 undergraduates and graduate students of the three schools between Nov. 21 and Dec. 18 found that students tended to use different Internet media simultaneously.
They tended to use IM software, such as the MSN, check e-mails and log on to bulletin board systems (BBS) everyday, but they only surfed Web blogs, played online games or surfed dating Web sites from time to time, the survey said.
The poll also showed that male students would use IM software as a platform to develop relationships with their on-line friends, while female students would more likely use Web blogs to keep in touch with their peers.
Only 2.2 percent of the 5,340 female students in the survey would create personal entries on dating Web sites, while 5.3 percent of the 3,393 males would do so, the study found.
The students said they called friends and classmates on their mobile phones more often than they called their family.
More than 40 percent of the interviewees owned a 3G mobile phone, on which they tended to listen to MP3s and surf the Internet. Up to 73.3 percent of the students said they felt anxious if they didn’t have their mobile phones with them, the study said. Female students were more likely to be anxious about not having their mobile phone than males.
A total of 3,906 respondents said they owned a Web blog, with 88.8 percent of them maintaining their blog to keep a record of what was going on in their life, while 78.7 percent said they write in their blog to relieve the pressure of daily life, the survey showed.
The study found that the majority of the students were also interested in health information, with diet, nutrition, nutritional supplements, exercise and disease topping the list of topics they had researched, but only 2 percent of them had looked for information on safe sex.
The study also found that although a large percentage of the students would search for health information online, they did not necessarily believe the information they discovered.
Three batches of banana sauce imported from the Philippines were intercepted at the border after they were found to contain the banned industrial dye Orange G, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. From today through Sept. 2 next year, all seasoning sauces from the Philippines are to be subject to the FDA’s strictest border inspection, meaning 100 percent testing for illegal dyes before entry is allowed, it said in a statement. Orange G is an industrial coloring agent that is not permitted for food use in Taiwan or internationally, said Cheng Wei-chih (鄭維智), head of the FDA’s Northern Center for
LOOKING NORTH: The base would enhance the military’s awareness of activities in the Bashi Channel, which China Coast Guard ships have been frequenting, an expert said The Philippine Navy on Thursday last week inaugurated a forward operating base in the country’s northern most province of Batanes, which at 185km from Taiwan would be strategically important in a military conflict in the Taiwan Strait. The Philippine Daily Inquirer quoted Northern Luzon Command Commander Lieutenant General Fernyl Buca as saying that the base in Mahatao would bolster the country’s northern defenses and response capabilities. The base is also a response to the “irregular presence this month of armed” of China Coast Guard vessels frequenting the Bashi Channel in the Luzon Strait just south of Taiwan, the paper reported, citing a
UNDER PRESSURE: The report cited numerous events that have happened this year to show increased coercion from China, such as military drills and legal threats The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) aims to reinforce its “one China” principle and the idea that Taiwan belongs to the People’s Republic of China by hosting celebratory events this year for the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, the “retrocession” of Taiwan and the establishment of the UN, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said in its latest report to the Legislative Yuan. Taking advantage of the significant anniversaries, Chinese officials are attempting to assert China’s sovereignty over Taiwan through interviews with international news media and cross-strait exchange events, the report said. Beijing intends to reinforce its “one China” principle
A total lunar eclipse, an astronomical event often referred to as a “blood moon,” would be visible to sky watchers in Taiwan starting just before midnight on Sunday night, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said. The phenomenon is also called “blood moon” due to the reddish-orange hue it takes on as the Earth passes directly between the sun and the moon, completely blocking direct sunlight from reaching the lunar surface. The only light is refracted by the Earth’s atmosphere, and its red wavelengths are bent toward the moon, illuminating it in a dramatic crimson light. Describing the event as the most important astronomical phenomenon
RSS