Online and engaged

Mark Zuckerberg

Hollywood has brought us no shortage of characters who come off as social misfits -- unkempt hair, rumpled clothes, nerdy glasses and the glow of a computer screen lighting up their face as they sit typing away in the basement of their parents' house.

Well, it's time to put that a cliché to rest.

New research from Pew contradicts the tired fallacy that the internet fosters social isolation, the Knight Digital Media Center reports. Earlier this month, the Pew Internet and American Life Project published The Social Side of the Internet — a report which indicates that the internet has become a key part of how civic, social, advocacy, and religious groups and organizations function and flourish today…

Among the study’s key findings, the Knight center reports:

• 80% of US internet users participate in groups (including volunteering, fundraising, civic engagement, campaigning, events, and more) — compared to just 56% of non-internet users.
• Social media users are especially likely to be active in groups. 82% of US social network users and 85% of Twitter users report participating in groups. 

Movie stereotypes aside -- the latest involving Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in "The Social Network" -- these findings don't surprise me and, in fact, are quite comforting.

As I think about my peers who serve with me on various boards and councils, it's clear that we rely on the internet to keep each other informed and, more importantly, to evangelize about our groups. Those of you reading probably recall an e-mailed invitation or two to attend a particular event or support a certain activity -- along with the opportunity to  make a financial pledge. (For that, I thank you.)

But as I think about friends and family members who are not regular internet users, I'm struck by the other side of the coin, the realization that they're not as engaged in their community, or in national or world news, to the extent of others. That's both sad and sobering.

The internet can be a time-sucker, for sure. But it's also helped bring people and causes together  for the common good and I'm happy to see that trend validated in the Pew report.

Photograph: www.impactlab.net