Civic activism online: Making young people dormant or more active in real life?

Abstract

Citizens can be active in their community through a diverse set of actions in real life or on online platforms. Since the emergence of the Internet, there has been continual debate about the impact of online activism on real-life activism: whilst some claim that "clictivism" creates the false sense of making a difference, and undermines real life activities, others say it actually fosters it. We therefore explored the relationship between online and offline activism, covering a range of engagement levels in eight different domains. Every offline activity had its online counterpart. The results draw from a probability sample of 1023 participants from Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H), Macedonia, Montenegro and Kosovo aged between 13 and 18 years. A unidimensional model fit the data better than a two dimensional model, suggesting that one factor underlies both online and offline forms of civic action. Our data demonstrate that online and offline activisms are not independent constructs, and that offline activism does not constrain online activism and vice versa. The two combine in a new, so called "hybrid activism", comprised of very different forms of offline and online actions.