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A Real-Cyber Merge
The USC-Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future has released an interesting study on the importance of the Internet to users comparing the value of their online world to their real-world communities.
A copy of the overview outlines some of the finding of the sixth annual survey on the impact of the Internet. The study supplements our reading on organizing advocacy in that they found that involvement in online communities leads to offline actions, increased social activism, and interaction between members. Some highlights of the survey are listed below.
Online communities: a catalyst for connection and activism
Online communities and offline action -- The Digital Future Project found that involvement in online communities leads to offline actions. More than one-fifth of online community members (20.3 percent) take actions offline at least once a year that are related to their online community. (An “online community” is defined as a group that shares thoughts or ideas, or works on common projects, through electronic communication only.)
Social activism – Participation in online communities leads to social activism. Almost two-thirds of online community members who participate in social causes through the Internet (64.9 percent) say they are involved in causes that were new to them when they began participating on the Internet. And more than 40 percent (43.7 percent) of online community members participate more in social activism since they started participating in online communities.
Online communities: daily use -- A significant majority of members of online communities (56.6 percent) log into their community at least once a day.
Member interaction -- Online communities are online havens for interaction among members. In 2006, 70.4 percent of online community members say they sometimes or always interact with other members of their community while logged in.
Internet users: reaching out across the Web
Posting information -- Growing percentages of Internet users are going online to post information, whether on a blog, posting photos, or maintaining a personal Web site.
- The number of Internet users in America who keep a blog has more than doubled in three years (now 7.4 percent of users, up from 3.2 percent in 2003).
- Likewise, the number of Internet users who post photos online has more than doubled in three years (now 23.6 percent of users, up from 11 percent).
- The number of users who maintain their own Web site continues to grow steadily (now 12.5 percent of users).
Tgiles |
Latest page update: made by Tgiles
, Mar 2 2007, 7:52 PM EST
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