Week 6 - Civic Engagement in the Digital Age

     It is a known fact that nowadays, a lot of people, especially the youth, are involved in the participatory culture of the Internet.  People who may have been reluctant to share their views on the what goes on in the world (politics, economy, environment, education, or social issues) are now more "vocal" because of the Internet and the networking it provides.  The question remains, does this participatory culture translate to more civic engagement or does it simply suffer a natural death in the online realm?  This is important as "the future of democracy is in the hands of these young citizens of the so-called digital age" (Lance Bennett, p. 9).

     If we are going to measure civic engagement in terms of traditional ways such as voter turnout in the polls, there seems to be a disconnect of the increased online engagement versus actual civic engagement.  In the Philippines, for example, there was an online campaign not to vote a senatorial candidate named Cynthia Villar, a businesswoman, because during one of the televised debates, she made a mistake of saying that Filipino nurses do not really need a lot of education as most of them are merely "room nurses".  She may have been referring to the Philippines' need to create an associate nursing program, like in the United States, where people can work as a Registered Nurse with only two years of college, versus the minimum of four years in the Philippines.  But that comment drew ire among the Filipino nursing community and their families (who are the recipients of their hard-earned money from working overseas). Pictures of Villar, (comically, with a nurses' cap) and videos of the debate circulated in Facebook and Youtube, followed of course with angry comments defending Filipino nurses against her supposed "ignorant" statements.  Her credibility was torn into pieces.

     Shockingly, this woman still won and is now a full-pledged Philippine senator.  What happened here?  The reality is that, majority of Internet users in the Philippines are young (under 30 years old), and in this section of the population, the voter turnout is low.  In short, the people who made those caricatures and angry comments didn't go out to vote.  And vote-buying in the poor communities being rampant in that country, makes it more important for the educated and conscientious voter to go out and vote.  I know of a lot of young, college-educated people who say they "do not believe" in voting.  Is this true, are they merely too lazy to actually walk away from their laptops and go to a polling precinct and exercise their right to vote?  Going further, is the Internet making people lazy, wanting everything to be at the end of their fingertips, or maybe handed to them on a silver platter?

     It is also possible that the youth, being so informed now of the flaws of the voting system in the Philippines, specifically the vote-buying, coupled with cases of fraudulent vote counting referred to as "dagdag-bawas" ("add-subtract"), have become so "jaded" and no longer trust the government.  Admittedly, there is a need to regain social trust in the dotnet generation, whose political beliefs (or lack thereof) may have been influenced/affected by the generations before them.  "In short, we must not only prepare citizens for politics but also improve politics for citizens" (Lance Bennett, p.4).