What Speed Brings
February 7, 2022
People, especially senior citizens, love to proclaim that the Internet is ruining personal relationships, eroding communication and participation, and destroying society. While society will continue to stand, the old fogies might be right about the ruination of participation and communication. The Guardian has an interesting and startling article titled: “Faster Internet Speeds Linked To Lower Civic Engagement In UK.”
Faster internet might be a detriment to society, because a recent study from Cardiff University and Sapienza University discovered that when people had faster Internet they engaged less with political parties, trade unions, and volunteering. Ironically faster Internet did not impact interactions with family or friends. The joint university study found that faster Internet speeds reduced civic engagement among 450,000 people. That is more than double of Great Britain’s Conservative party.
While one cannot trust the polarization of media and the 24-hour news cycle, the Internet does bring attention to civic-centered actions whether that be positive or negative. With that in mind, one would think that people would engage more in civic duties. Faster Internet speeds, however, mean faster access to entertainment and increase the instant gratification syndrome.
Faster Internet might decrease social engagement according to this study, but others found the opposite:
“The study’s authors have also speculated that the phenomenon may have helped fuel populism as people’s involvement with initiatives for “the common good”, which they say are effectively “schools of democracy” where people learn the benefit of cooperation, has declined.
Other studies have shown that social media engagement has strengthened other kinds of civic engagement, for example by helping to organize protests and fuelling an interest in politics, even if it does not manifest in traditional forms of participation.However, politics conducted online has been found to be more susceptible to “filter bubbles”, which limit participants’ exposure to opposing views and so foster polarization.”
The study did take the Covid-19 pandemic into consideration, because it limited civic involvement. Bonding with family and friends grows with faster Internet speeds and current communication trends, but people’s understanding of the importance of civic duties. Economic activity and how democratic institutions function suffer. What is the solution to repair that?
Whitney Grace, February 5, 2022
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