Faster internet speeds linked to lower civic engagement in UK | Volunteering
Faster internet access has significantly weakened civic participation in the UK, according to a study which found that engagement in political parties, unions and volunteering decreased as internet speeds increased.
Volunteering in social care fell by more than 10% when people lived closer to local telecom hubs and thus had faster internet access. Participation in political parties decreased by 19% for every 1.8 km increase near a node. In contrast, the arrival of fast internet did not have a significant impact on interactions with family and friends.
Analysis of the behavior of hundreds of thousands of people, led by scientists from Cardiff University and Sapienza University of Rome, found that faster connection speeds may have reduced the likelihood of civic engagement for nearly 450,000 people - more than double the Conservative Party's estimated membership . They found that as internet speeds increased between 2005 and 2018, time online “supplanted” other forms of civic engagement.
The study's authors have also speculated that the phenomenon may have helped fuel populism, since people's involvement in initiatives for "the common good," which they say are effectively "schools of democracy" in which people learning the benefits of working together has declined.
Other studies have shown that social media engagement, although not manifested in traditional forms of participation, has strengthened other forms of civic engagement, such as helping to organize protests and generating interest in politics.
However, online politics has been found to be more prone to 'filter bubbles', which limit the exposure of participants with opposing views and thus encourage polarisation.
"We observed that citizen participation and the form of engagement in the activities of voluntary organizations and political participation decreased with proximity to the network," says Fabio Sabatini, co-author of the study. "Fast internet seems to be crowding out this kind of social engagement."
In-person volunteering in the UK has been in decline for lengthy periods in recent history. It fell from 2005 to 2011 and again in 2020 when Covid-19 struck, according to a separate analysis by the National Council for Voluntary Organizations.
The new study, published in the Journal of Public Economics, gathered information from communications regulator Ofcom about the locations of local internet cabling centers, which were a key factor in data transfer speeds during the period studied. It then compared this to residents' survey responses from the British Household Panel Survey and the UK Household Longitudinal Study about their involvement in social organisations.
The combined effect on engagement with organizations such as political parties, trade unions and professional organizations was a 6% reduction in participation from 2010 to 2017 for every 1.8 km closer to the local exchange where someone lived.
The greatest impact was on political party participation, while the impact on trade unions was much smaller – a 3.6% reduction. This is consistent with estimates of declining memberships in the main UK parties over the period examined, with the exception of an increase caused by a surge in Labor membership ahead of Jeremy Corbyn's election as party leader in 2015.
The decrease in the attractiveness of political parties as internet speeds increase compared to trade unions may be due to the fact that “political parties only indirectly protect the particular interests of their adherents Unions have a stronger and more explicit obligation to stand up for... their members,” the study found.
The impact on volunteering in organizations that provide social care and environmental improvement, and in Boy Scouts, defined by sociologists as “habits of cooperation, solidarity and community spirit”, was measured at a 7.8% reduction.
"These types of organizations have been defined as 'schools of democracy,' where people learn the benefits of working together," Sabatini said, adding that being involved in such organizations also helped people trust strangers.
“The rise of populism has been associated with a decline in interest in public affairs, and we thought that people who are less politically and socially active may be less able to interpret political phenomena and appreciate the complexities of managing public affairs understand,” Sabatini said.
“While tying up social capital at the same time seems resilient to technological change and bridging social capital is proving to be fragile and vulnerable to the pressures of technology,” the study concluded.
"This finding is worrying as it suggests that advances in information and communications technology can undermine an essential factor in economic activity and the functioning of democratic institutions."
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