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Pew: Internet Users Are More Likely to Volunteer, Participate in Groups

by Amar Toor on January 18, 2011 at 03:25 PM

group volunteer Surfing the Web may be a relatively solitary activity, but, according to a new study, Internet users are a lot more active than they appear.

In a national survey, the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project found that 75-percent of all Americans are currently involved in some sort of volunteer group, but Internet users are noticeably more likely to participate in them; 80-percent of all online Americans participate in such groups, compared to just 56-percent of those who aren't connected. Social networkers were even more inclined to volunteer (82-percent), with Twitter users leading the way (85-percent). Pew also found that Web users are generally more active as participants than other members of volunteer organizations, and typically feel a stronger sense of pride and accomplishment in group actions.

Murray Milner, a sociology professor at the University of Virginia, told CNN that social networking is largely responsible for increased volunteerism, since it makes it easier for people to join and form groups based on common interests or causes. But Milner added that more fluid digital networking may come at the expense of stronger, more personal connections, that are harder to forge online. Strength, however, remains in numbers. And, as long as social networking encourages more people to get out and be active members of society, it shouldn't really matter whether our Facebook "friends" are really friends.

Tags: Activities, groups, Internet, PewResearchCenter, SocialNetworking, study, survey, top, volunteer, Web

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