You know that image of the antisocial computer nerd, hunched over a glowing screen, alone and isolated?
Turns out, the typical Internet user is a joiner: connected, networked and entrenched in group life.
That updated portrait emerges from a recent Pew Research Center study showing that Internet users were more active in volunteer groups and organizations. They’re more likely to communicate with fellow group members, draw attention to issues and make an impact on society at large.
Anyone watching the popular uprising in Egypt can hardly doubt it. As tensions rose, the embattled regime of Hosni Mubarak blacked out Internet and cell-phone use. Among the many widespread effects of that desperate policy, 5 million Egyptians were cut off from Facebook.
Didn’t work. The movement for political change, which by some accounts traces its genesis to the Web, kept right on rolling. The regime pulled down its digital roadblock after five days.
We’re only beginning to appreciate the social side of the Internet, particularly its role in getting people organized, and spreading the word about developments important to us.
Just a few years ago Americans were wringing their hands about the Internet contributing to social isolation.
The theory, advanced in a 2006 survey backed by the National Science Foundation, suggested that Facebook friends and e-mail traffic fostered only superficial relationships. Staying in constant contact undermined more intimate social ties, the study said. A similar theory was outlined earlier in an influential book, “Bowling Alone,” which contended that deeper personal connections were falling by the wayside.
It’s not unusual to blame technology for what critics perceive as the latest social ills. You might recall seeing implausible reports about electronic communication “rewiring” the mind’s neurons, making it harder to concentrate and get things done. Those observations echoed the worried parents of many a baby-boomer who loudly voiced their conviction in the 1960s and ’70s that TV would rot the brain.
Based on what we’ve seen in Egypt, the information-processing capabilities of engaged Internet users remain unimpaired. Let that be a warning to those who would restrict the freedom to assemble in public squares — or through social connections online.
