Public opinion on Internet use and civil society

The exponential growth of Internet use in Australian households has led many to question whether increased Internet use has created better or worse citizens. It is often suggested that a civic-oriented society has been declining over time as people have become less involved in voluntary social and political activities, less trusting of strangers and less likely to forge bonds with people whom they have never met face-to-face. While the Australian Government is in the process of rolling out the National Broadband Network (NBN) the single largest infrastructure investment made by any Australian government this ANUpoll looks at the impact of widespread access to the Internet on civil society. The NBN will inevitably mean that more Australians in metropolitan, regional and rural areas will have ready access to high speed Internet that is always-on. Policy-makers have focused primarily on the nation-building benefits of the NBN for the economy with the creation of new jobs and businesses. The aim of this ANUpoll is to find out whether more widespread and frequent Internet use will have a positive or negative impact on civil society. This ANUpoll looks at how many households have Internet access, how often people use the Internet and what they use the Internet for.