Social media and civic life

Lee Rainie

Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project

October 4, 2011

Email: Lrainie@pewinternet.org

Twitter: @lrainie

Those who use social media for civic and political activity are…

• 96% more likely than other internet users to participate in offline civic activities

• 85% more likely to sign petitions• 83% more likely to make pol. contributions• 67% more likely to contact officials• 47% more likely to belong to a civic group• By all measures happier with their communities

and their government

Digital Revolution 1Internet (78%) and Broadband at home (61%)

64%

61%

Networked creators among internet users• 65% are social networking site users

• 55% share photos

• 37% contribute rankings and ratings

• 33% create content tags

• 30% share personal creations

• 26% post comments on sites and blogs

• 15% have personal website

• 15% are content remixers

• 14% are bloggers

• 13% use Twitter

• 6% location services – 9% allow location awareness from social media – 23% maps etc.

New places for “transactions”% of internet users who did following in last 12 months:

Look for info about a public policy or issue 48%

Look up what services a government agency provides

46%

Download government forms 41%

Research official documents or statistics 35%

Renew a driver’s license or auto registration 33%

Get recreational or tourist info 30%

Get advice/info about a health or safety issue 25%

Apply for government benefits 23%

Apply for a government job 19%

Pay a fine 15%

Apply for a recreational license 11%

Digital Revolution 2Mobile – 84%

35% own smartphones

Big jump inuse of apps

26% of adults used cell phones

for political purposes in 2010

Digital Revolution 3Social networking – 50% of all adults

SNS and the social/civic world• Social media users more tied to civic groups

and their internet use bonds them more deeply to group activities

• Facebook users more politically engaged– Political participation, voting, mobilizing friends

• Facebook users more trusting• Facebook users have more close

relationships• Facebook users get more social support• MySpace users more open to opposing views

Mixed views on social media outreach

2/3/2011 11Trends in Online Government

40% of internet users go online for data about government operations

2/3/2011 12Trends in Online Government

A hint in Pew Internet data that the future might see

more engaged, more diverse population interacting

meaningfully with government

Social

Media