Study Suggests That The Internet Makes Youth 'More Engaged Citizens'

from the that's-a-good-thing,-right? dept

Thu, Mar 17th 2011 3:18am — Mike Masnick

Following on our recent post discussing Clay Shirky's views concerning social media's role in helping to politicize people who were formerly not all that interested in politics, Shocklee points us to news of a recent study that has found, indeed, that high school students who use the internet to research key interests "were more likely to become involved in 'civic and political issues.'" And it appears that this greater involvement goes beyond just posting about it online, but really becoming more involved in certain causes. This seems to counter the claims of some that online interest in civil and political issues is more just people screaming in front of their computers. It actually does seem to have a real impact.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: activism, engagement, internet, politics, social media, studies, youth

15 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Anonymous Coward, 17 Mar 2011 @ 4:19am

Makes some sense. Without the Internet, the only opinions you get to hear come from TV, books and other people close to you.

In the Internet, you can engage/listen to other people from across the globe, who have totally different opinions and live in totally different realities. You get to see how much better/much worse the world is, far away from where you live.

This makes you more informed, and information is power.

Politicians learn this quickly. That is why they try to shut down the Internet: to dumb people down so that they just shut up and accept the lies they feed them.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
mike allen (profile), 17 Mar 2011 @ 4:23am

that can only be a good thing.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Josef Anvil (profile), 17 Mar 2011 @ 4:36am

Score one for the DUH column
I'm not really sure why it takes a "study" to figure out that a communications platform that exposes everyone to the views and opinions of people around the globe would have an impact on how people act and think.

DUH is the only comment that really comes to mind.

Maybe when people stop thinking of the internet as a small TV screen and more like a BIG smartphone, things will start making more sense.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Capitalist Lion Tamer (profile), 17 Mar 2011 @ 5:00am

Call me old-fashioned...
but after having dealt with the youth of America (including the teenager I'm raising), the last thing I would want today's youth to get involved with is politics. If the subtle nuances of conversational techniques escape them, I can only imagine the damage that could be done with a few online petitions, a mass of forwarded texts and several "If you agree to X, post as your status" updates on Facebook.

(Actually, those all would be highly ineffective. As you were, youth of today.)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 17 Mar 2011 @ 5:27am

Re: Score one for the DUH column
There's a huge gulf between "knowing" something and having demonstrable proof. You do know that, right?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Chris in Utah (profile), 17 Mar 2011 @ 5:41am

One of the most crowdsourced projects to date is gameful.com. Apparently its popular to peoples idea of idealism as well.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
abc gum, 17 Mar 2011 @ 5:50am

Re: Call me old-fashioned...
It really depends upon the particular youth ... stereotypical knee jerk reactions should be avoided.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 17 Mar 2011 @ 6:39am

Techdirt alone has certainly politicized me and I thank you for it. I just cant help but feel like Im "that guy" when I talk to uninformed friends about 4th amendment issues.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Vigo, 17 Mar 2011 @ 6:39am

Re:
Sure the internet *can* expose youth to different idea's and views, but your average teenager is spoonfed what political beliefs to have more than ever.

Facebook shows political ads of whatever view it thinks you will hold, as well as filtering out political posts from friends it thinks you will disagree with based on what comments you have "liked" in the past. Pretty much giving any dumb teenager the impression that the whole world agrees with their ill formed political views. Not much exposure to different views there.

At least when kids didn't get told by their peers what to believe on social media every day, they actually had to form their OWN opinion once in a while.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
fogbugzd (profile), 17 Mar 2011 @ 7:17am

Study rings true
As someone who works with college-aged students every day, this study rings true to me. The students may not be political in the traditional sense, but they know a lot more about what is going on now than they did 20 years ago. And they care about it. Today's students will also take action under the right circumstances.

I don't think most people understand today's youth. For one thing, they are pretty much off the radar of most polling systems.

There is also a tendency to put down young people that gets in the way of understanding them. Frankly, we even see that in some of the comments already posted in this thread. I have worked with young people my entire career, and the generation that is emerging is different than the others. Most of them are not interested in some of the traditional hot-button issues, and they are an independent bunch of people who are not going to be easy to herd into one of the traditional liberal or conservative labels.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 17 Mar 2011 @ 7:22am

While it is wonderful that students (and young people) are becoming more political, it is also more than slightly dangerous. One of the problems of youth is being easily swayed by people making wonderful claims, pushing utopia, or otherwise spouting off a point of view that sounds good. Many of these people are suggesting courses of action that are illegal or immoral, but in making them sound good, it is easier to get impressionable youth to join the cause.

It is great that they are better informed. We just hope that they are in fact better informed, and not more easily mislead.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
John M. Hoyt, 17 Mar 2011 @ 7:32am

Engaged Youth
I have two children, one 16 year old boy and an 18 year old girl... They both are "engaged citizens". Obviously it is due to the internet. I can see that, and appreciate it ;)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
The eejit (profile), 17 Mar 2011 @ 10:52am

Re:
You mean like the American Bible Belt?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 17 Mar 2011 @ 11:54am

Re: Re:
Actually, a perfect example. Have ever run across someone in their early teens, example, and a "true believer" of whatever religion that their parents jammed down their throats? They feel remarkably informed and totally convinced they are right.

People who are exposed to only one point of view often think they are informed, when they are not.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Hephaestus (profile), 18 Mar 2011 @ 7:44am

Re: Study rings true
"Most of them are not interested in some of the traditional hot-button issues, and they are an independent bunch of people who are not going to be easy to herd into one of the traditional liberal or conservative labels."

Yeah isn't it great. A generation of people who are going to shock the crap out of the political system in a couple years. People that believe global warming is happening, politicians are corrupt, that monopolies rule the political system and need to be taken down a notch or removed. And thats the view point of my friends 12 year old.

What most people do not understand is this generation is a profound change from previous ones. They can actually quickly find like minded individuals to connect with. That allows for the rapid growth of ideas, and speedy concensus, and rapid implementation. I think politicians the world over are just beginning to see what is happening in the world of communication. You just gotta love the Party Of We, Anonymous, Chinese human flesh search engines, flash crowds, recent government collapses, Critical mass. By the time they actually understand, it will be to late ... their world will have changed.

and to quote Anonymous ...

"We are Anonymous,
We are Legion,
We do not forgive,
We do not forget,
Expect us."
[ link to this | view in thread ]