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Internet Access and Voicing Opinions: The Moderating Roles of Age and the National Economy

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Abstract

We investigated the association between Internet access and citizens’ voicing their opinions to public officials and how age and national economy affect this association in the theoretical framework of civic engagement. Survey data collected from representative samples of residents of 126 countries were analyzed for the investigation (N = 226,716). The results of the generalized linear mixed models analyses show that Internet access is positively associated with voicing opinions to public officials and that age and national economy moderate the association. These results suggest that those who are older and those in comparatively less economically developed countries are more likely to become socially engaged once they have access to the Internet compared to those who are younger and those in developed countries. Implications of the findings and limitations of the study are discussed.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education and the National Research Foundation of the Republic of Korea (NRF-2017S1A3A2066611).

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  1. Division of Liberal Arts and Science, Korea National Sport University, 1239 Yangjae-daero, Seoul, 05541, South Korea

    Hyunjung Kim

  2. Centre for Positive Psychology, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne, 100 Leicester Street, Carlton, Victoria, 3010, Australia

    Mohsen Joshanloo

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Kim, H., Joshanloo, M. Internet Access and Voicing Opinions: The Moderating Roles of Age and the National Economy. Soc Indic Res 150, 121–141 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-020-02298-8

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