IT in developing nations makes women and poor people happier

A study by BCS, the UK Chartered Institute for IT, concluded that the introduction of technology to developing nations disproportionately improves the happiness of women and poor people. This runs contrary to the anti-IT-development argument that runs, "The world's poor need civil rights and food, not phones and laptops."

It found that women in developing countries, and people of both sexes with low incomes or poor education, were most influenced emotionally by their access to technology.

It is partly because women tend to have a more central role in family and other social networks, said researcher Paul Flatters of Trajectory Partnership, which conducted the research on behalf of the BCS.

"Our hypothesis is that women in developing countries benefit more because they are more socially constrained in society," he added.

Technology linked to happiness, study claims

(Image: Connecting India, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from t1tan's photostream)