I really should start writing about real-world activism:
“Many worry that youth who spend significant time on fan sites or in online communities tied to hobbies, sports or other interests will become socially isolated. The study found the opposite to be true. Youth engagement in interest-driven online communities was associated with increased volunteer and charity work and in increased work with others on community issues. The Internet can serve as a gateway to online and offline civic and political engagement, including volunteerism, community problem-solving, and protest activity.”
I feel like I do my part by writing this blog, but I still go out and knock doors occasionally just to keep limber. I’m glad that reading blogs and belonging to online communities doesn’t depress and, in fact, enhances civic engagement. But people still need to know how to get involved and what to expect.
Most of the people who “worry that youth …” blah blah blah are the old farts who are dealing with yesterday’s paradigms. It might have been a reasonable stereotype to assume that a kid who played with computers in the 1980s would be socially isolated, but in 2011 social networking is both ubiquitous and portable.
Heck, a parent who already has a cell phone plan already need spend only $10/month + tax for each additional kid cell phone, and maybe $15/month for a data plan. The phones themselves are “free” with a 2-year contract (and even a 3rd G iPhone 8GB is only $50), and are now so advanced that they are beyond anything the 1960s SF writers imagined. So kids without any special computer skills or interests routinely use their idle time waiting in line or in transit participating in social networks. They meet people on line with similar interests and are likely to meet up with them at fan/hobby events.
Moreover, hobbies have grown as a result of the internet and the wireless revolution. Once if you wanted to get someone to teach you, say, how to fly a special kite you had to ask around and maybe look up obscure trade mags. Now you can join on-line kite-flying groups in a minute or two and learn where local kite-fliers like to meet and demonstrate the hobby. So it’s no surprise that people who join such groups see an uptick in their social interactions.
So, in short, the study makes sense. It was the “conventional wisdom” that was about 2 decades out of date.
two decades? I think you’re exaggerating.