Civic Engagement among Early Internet Adopters: Trend or Phase?

People use communication and information tools to meet existing needs and purposes. In Fischer's (1992) words, 'Americans used the telephone to enhance the ways of life to which they were already committed.' As such, media have 'dual effects' (Pool, 1982) depending on an individual's prior behavior, needs and interests. This paper brings evidence to bear on the question of the long-term effects of Internet diffusion on civic engagement in geographic communities. It draws on findings from survey data collected in four U.S. towns and cities in fall 2000 where community computer networking is established. The study shows that the evidence in these four sites is consistent with earlier findings in Blacksburg, Virginia (Kavanaugh, 2000; Patterson and Kavanaugh, 2001; Kavanaugh and Patterson, 2001) and other studies of early innovation adopters (Rogers, 1983; Kohut, 1999; Valente, 1995, among others). The data indicate that early adopters of the Internet are more likely to engage in civic activities and to have higher levels of community involvement than later adopters. Further, early adopters are more likely to use the Internet to increase their community involvement, political participation and connectivity with like-minded people. Later adopters in all four sites show less involvement in their local community and less interest in political activity and information, particularly online. The findings summarized in this paper reinforce those of the Kohut (1999) study showing that later adopters are less civic minded and more interested than early adopters in consumer and commercial applications, such as shopping and entertainment. The results reported in this paper lend weight to the argument that increases in civic engagement and community involvement are due primarily to the behavior of early adopters, making such increases a phase, not a trend. As later adopters come on line, use of the Internet for community involvement or civic engagement decreases. In the long term, Internet access will have only a modest effect on community involvement and civic engagement in geographic communities. Models of the Local Community In trying to explain the impact of computer networking on social ties and participation involvement in geographic communities, early models of local community provide a useful point of departure. A "linear development model" explains social ties and participation in community primarily by differences in population size and density. This model has roots in Toennies (1887) and Wirth (1938). This model predicts a decline in community, as urban ways of life continuously weaken social networks and bonds. Another model of local community arising from the Chicago school of urban sociology, a "systemic model" of local community counters that In this model, length of residence, social status and life-cycle stage are key predictors of local social ties and community participation (Axelrod, 1956; Wilensky, 1961; Laumann, 1973; Kasarda and Janowitz, 1974). Higher status individuals tend to have smaller proportions of their friends and relatives residing within their own communities and fewer relatives living nearby due to their greater mobility. For the same reason, they tend to belong to more formal organizations in the community. Due to their greater mobility (or rootlessness and weaker local social networks), higher status individuals tend to rely more heavily on formal or "secondary" social networks through local formal organizations. At the same time, higher status persons have a greater stake in the community and a higher ability to articulate their interests. Therefore, involvement in the affairs of the local community is influenced most by a person's position in the social structure (Kasarda and Janowitz, 1974). Some more recent studies of community attachment (Stamm, 1985) and involvement (Rothenbuhler, 1991), concur that social status (measured by education, income and occupation) is an important factor. Social status (class) and family cycle are two of the most powerful variables working on structure and content of a person's social network (Bernard, 1973, p. 53). The higher levels of formal education among persons of higher social status often reflect a natural tendency or predisposition toward leadership a characteristic of early adopters of an innovation. Early Adopters and Civic Engagement Diffusion theory claims that the characteristics of early adopters of an innovation are distinct from later and non-adopters of an innovation. Moreover, these characteristics are consistently associated with higher levels of civic engagement and community involvement. Early adopters of innovations are distinguished from later adopters and non-adopters by higher levels of education and social status, media exposure, cosmopolitanness and empathy (Rogers, 1983). Diffusion studies of computer use show that formal education is the single variable most consistently associated with the adoption of personal computing; social status is also a consistent predictor (Dutton, Rogers and Jun, 1987). Early adopters are opinion leaders, what Markus (1990) calls 'high resource individuals' , who are sought after for their knowledge and expertise (Katz and Lazarsfeld, 1964). Diffusion researchers have established the importance of opinion leadership and social networks in understanding how an innovation diffuses through a social system (Coleman et al, 1957; Kling and Gerson, 1977; Rogers 1983; Markus, 1990; Valente, 1995, Patterson and Kavanaugh 2001). Opinion leaders share their experiences about an innovation with members of their social networks, thereby making the social networks of early adopters critical to the diffusion process. Towards a Model of the Networked Community: This paper draws on the systemic model of community and diffusion of innovation studies, to explain the effects of computer networking on local social ties and community participation. This paper presents an examination of the variables found to be significant in the systemic model of community, together with variables significant in Internet adoption and diffusion. It evaluates several hypotheses to determine whether early adopters of community computer networking show classic characteristics of early adopters, including high levels of education and social status, and high levels of civic engagement and community involvement. Further, the study tests whether early adopters are different from later adopters in terms of their use of the Internet for strengthening local social ties and community participation. The hypotheses tested in this