Internet helps Aussies’ enhance social relations, political engagement: Report
April 28th, 2011 - 6:54 pm ICT by ANIMelbourne, Apr 28(ANI): Increasing use of Internet is having a positive impact on social relations and political engagement in Australia, according to a new report.
The report, by the Australian National University (ANU), is based on a survey of 1,000 respondents to examine how the Internet is changing society, social relations and citizenship.
Over 80 percent of the respondents said they have broadband access and two thirds said they used the Internet at least once a day.
ANU researcher Juliet Pietsch said the findings are contrary to the common belief that the web is increasing social isolation.
More than half of those surveyed said the Internet helped them interact with people from other countries.
The results also found political engagement is moving online, with one in four visiting political websites and one in five forwarding political content.
“Seventy percent of our respondents said they would really want to help out people in need,” Xinhua news agency quoted Pietsch, as saying.
“So, we can see there that the Internet is really encouraging this sense of good citizenship and that it’s replacing the old forms of traditional citizenship,” she added. (ANI)
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Tags: anu, australia, belief that, good citizenship, melbourne, pietsch, political engagement, political websites, researcher, respondents, social isolation, two thirds, use of internet, xinhua news agency