Political Behavior

, Volume 35, Issue 3, pp 589–603 | Cite as

The Online Citizen: Is Social Media Changing Citizens’ Beliefs About Democratic Values?

Original Paper
First Online:

Abstract

Social media websites are rapidly changing the way that Americans live and communicate with one another. Social media sites encourage individuals to constantly share information about one’s self (and constantly seek information about others) that would have been private in the past. This experience can alter how an individual views the world in ways that political scientists have not been able to fully capture. In a cross-sectional survey of the American public I find a strong correlation between the use of Facebook and personal blogs and support for civil liberties. Individuals who spend more time self-publicizing on the Internet seem to value freedom of expression more, but also value the right to privacy less than individuals who use social media less often. This pattern suggests that technology may be altering American attitudes on basic democratic values and highlights the need for dynamic research designs that account for the causal effect Internet use may have on individual political development.

Keywords

Political psychology Democratic values Online socialization 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the three anonymous reviewers as well as the editors for their comments and suggestions. I would also like to thank Jessie Swigger, Michael Neblo and William Minozzi for their encouragement and insight. Any remaining errors are my own.

Supplementary material

11109_2012_9208_MOESM1_ESM.doc (80 kb)
Supplementary material 1 (DOC 79 kb)

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Department of Political ScienceOhio State UniversityColumbusUSA

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