Abstract
This study, based on a survey of 1,260 mobile phone users, investigates the relationships among patterns of mobile phone use, network size, and civic engagement. It finds that informational uses of mobile phones are positively associated with civic engagement – engagement in informal socializing and engagement in organized groups or clubs. On the other hand, relational and recreational uses have a neutral or negative association with civic engagement. Most important, the network size in mobile communication moderates the impact of relational and recreational uses on civic engagement while it mediates the impact of informational uses on civic engagement. This research indicates that the mobile phone, depending on its usage patterns and communication network size, can have different effects on civic engagement.
Highlights
This study, based on a survey of 1,260 mobile phone users, investigates the relationships among patterns of mobile phone use, network size, and civic engagement
The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship among mobile phone use, network size, and civic engagement
The analyses find that informational uses of the mobile phone have a significantly positive association with civic engagement
Summary
This study, based on a survey of 1,260 mobile phone users, investigates the relationships among patterns of mobile phone use, network size, and civic engagement. The number of individuals in one’s regular conversation network, has been considered an important element that characterizes citizen communication networks together with network diversity and strength of network ties (Eveland & Hively, 2009; Kwak, Williams, Wang, & Lee, 2005; Scott, 1991) It appears that individuals who have larger social networks are more civically engaged than those with smaller networks (Granovetter, 1973; Putnam, 2000; Son & Lin, 2008). The purpose of the current study is to fill these gaps by testing how different patterns of mobile phone use and network size relate to civic engagement. The current study tests whether network size mediates and/or moderates the association between mobile phone use and civic engagement. To examine these propositions, the study analyzes original survey data from a large national sample of South Korean adults in 2013
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