Civic Engagement in a digital time - Is there a divide in terms of social civic behavior?

Abstract

ICT’s and social media dramatically reshape the way citizens communicate and get involved into the civic life of a city and country. As a consequence of these developments, we would expect people to be more engaged citizens, active participants in both their online and offline communities. However, two questions arise: do people actually become more civic minded due to the digital evolution? Does social involvement in online virtual communities translate into real life actions? Answering these questions is the aim of the present study, which intends to analyze if there is a divide in terms of social civic behavior on two axes – attitude towards civic engagement and stated civic participation, online and offline behavior. We used survey as main research method in order to answer our research questions, and the study is a descriptive one. The investigated population consisted of a purposive sample of internet users from cities with possible different degrees of civic attitude (measured through a classical Civic Engagement Scale).