NCoC: Sociability, Internet Use and Civic Engagement

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Sociability, Internet Use and Civic Engagement

New Hampshire 2009 Civic Health Index

November 16, 2009

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New Hampshire residents are fairly sociable. Close to two-thirds (62 percent) of respondents, similar to Americans nationwide (60 percent), report that their whole family usually eats dinner together. But Granite Staters (51 percent) are more likely than Americans as a whole (40 percent) to say that they spend a lot of time visiting friends. Among New Hampshire respondents, visiting with friends is a far more common activity for those with only a high school diploma (61 percent) than for those with some college experience (47 percent) or who graduated from college (41 percent). Additionally, three out of four New Hampshire residents (74 percent), compared to fewer than two- thirds (59 percent) of other Americans, report spending a lot of time communicating electronically with friends using a computer, cell phone or some other device.

New Hampshire residents are also active users of Internet technology for purposes of political and community engagement. Eight in ten (81 percent) Granite Staters, compared to 60 percent of Americans nationwide, use the Internet at least occasionally to gather information about political, social, or community issues, and this is something that over a quarter (29 percent) of New Hampshire residents do weekly or more often (compared to 18 percent of Americans in general) . New Hampshire men (39 percent) are more likely than women (24 percent), and college graduates (40 percent) are more likely than respondents with some college experience (35 percent) and respondents who are high school graduates only (23 percent) to frequently use the Internet for gathering political information.

Additionally, substantial numbers of New Hampshire residents report having used the Internet to express their own opinions about political, social, or community issues over the past year. The range of Internet tools engaged to express political opinions is impressive. It includes email (61 percent), social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace (28 percent), instant messaging (17 percent), text messaging (16 percent), using Facebook’s
causes application (12 percent), writing blogs (7 percent), posting comments on other blogs (18 percent), photo and video making and sharing (14 percent), commenting on others’ photos and videos (22 percent), and watching online political videos (36 percent) and speeches (31 percent) (see Figure 18). Again, these rates of Internet use in New Hampshire are higher than the national average. And when New Hampshire residents use the Internet to gather information with regard to taking action on a social or community issue, almost all do so from home (97 percent, compared to 81 percent nationwide) rather than from work (10 percent versus 20 percent), a library or community center (4 percent versus 7 percent), or from a mobile phone (3 percent versus 5 percent).

Nurturing Civic Involvement • Conclusion and Policy Implications

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