Website Preferences of Finnish and Mexican University Students: A Cross-Cultural Study

Abstract

This paper is focused on understanding Internet use and comparingcross-cultural differencesaccording tothe contents and preferences of the websites that are most visited bytwogroupsof university students from Finland (n=30) and Mexico (n=30).The following research is anexploratory qualitative study with some basic statistics. A questionnairewas used in this study as a data collection instrument. The findings show that in both groups, university students prefer websites about social networking (Facebook), sending email (MSN), videos (YouTube), multiplatform applications (Google), educational sites (UniversityofOulu), and wikis (Wikipedia). Thisdemonstratedthat both groups have an interest in sharing ideas and meetingfriends.The differences reveal that Finnish students use their university’swebsite more regularly thanthe Mexican student respondents and that theytend to implementtheirideas more often.Furthermore, thisstudyexplored how university students use the Internet and whattype of influencethe Internet has onthem.The emotional effects suggest thatalmost quarter ofstudents reportedusing the internet to escapenegativefeelings, such as depression or nervousness.The findings provide information for university teachers about students’habitsand prior knowledge regarding Internetusefor educational purposes. The informationwill behelpful when designing learning and teaching in multicultural student groups.