Digital social media : how can civic commitment be reinforced?
Visuel
Type of text :
Opinion and report
Type of referral :
Own initiative
Working group :
Section for Education, Culture and Communication
Date d'adoption
Date adopted : 01/10/2017
Rapporteur(s) :
Photo
Gérard ASCHIERI
Qualified individual
Photo
Agnès POPELIN-DESPLANCHES
Environment and nature Group
Overview
Présentation
Civic commitment is more than ever one of the central issues at stake in our society. Creating, encouraging and enhancing this commitment is decisive today, for it plays a major part in protecting and deepening our democracy. This is the context in which digital social networks have started to play a spectacular role over the past few years: 56% of the French population are signed up to at least one social network.
Although the number of people using the social networks continues to increase, part of the population is excluded due to a digital fracture both socially and in terms of equipment.
The social networks on the Internet represent extremely powerful and attractive tools combining enhanced self-worth, aggregation of individualities and strength of cooperation of links that are made. They can be vectors of collective intelligence and collaboration online. They have also transformed the transfer of information into a horizontal transmission, transforming each social media user into a transmitter and receiver of information. Anyone can express his/her point of view. Digital communities can now produce content that will be commented, sent, broadcast, enriched almost in real time.
Digital social media thereby offer remarkable potential for creating and encouraging commitment
and are also the object of commitment. They must not be underestimated.