Kayci M. Muirbrook, Michael R. Cope, Scott R. Sanders
{"title":"The Link between Internet Activity and Community Experience in Rural Utah☆","authors":"Kayci M. Muirbrook, Michael R. Cope, Scott R. Sanders","doi":"10.1111/ruso.12467","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"The growth of high-speed Internet access in rural communities is a relatively recent event. In this exploratory study, we contribute to the literature regarding the Internet and local community by analyzing the influence of Internet activity on community experience, measured through community satisfaction and attachment, using the systemic model as controls. After surveying 24 rural communities in Utah, USA once in 2008 and again in 2017 with a cumulative analytic sample size of 2,236, we find a negative association between increased use of the Internet for amenity purposes and community experience. While our models show mixed findings that community experience has decreased over time in rural areas, we find evidence that Internet activities can affect community experience, strengthening arguments that researchers should control for more than merely Internet access. Due to the associations between Internet activities and community experience, we argue that rural policymakers should find place-based ways to strengthen community experience.","PeriodicalId":47924,"journal":{"name":"RURAL SOCIOLOGY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.3000,"publicationDate":"2022-09-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"RURAL SOCIOLOGY","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ruso.12467","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"SOCIOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The growth of high-speed Internet access in rural communities is a relatively recent event. In this exploratory study, we contribute to the literature regarding the Internet and local community by analyzing the influence of Internet activity on community experience, measured through community satisfaction and attachment, using the systemic model as controls. After surveying 24 rural communities in Utah, USA once in 2008 and again in 2017 with a cumulative analytic sample size of 2,236, we find a negative association between increased use of the Internet for amenity purposes and community experience. While our models show mixed findings that community experience has decreased over time in rural areas, we find evidence that Internet activities can affect community experience, strengthening arguments that researchers should control for more than merely Internet access. Due to the associations between Internet activities and community experience, we argue that rural policymakers should find place-based ways to strengthen community experience.
期刊介绍:
A forum for cutting-edge research, Rural Sociology explores sociological and interdisciplinary approaches to emerging social issues and new approaches to recurring social issues affecting rural people and places. The journal is particularly interested in advancing sociological theory and welcomes the use of a wide range of social science methodologies. Manuscripts that use a sociological perspective to address the effects of local and global systems on rural people and places, rural community revitalization, rural demographic changes, rural poverty, natural resource allocations, the environment, food and agricultural systems, and related topics from all regions of the world are welcome. Rural Sociology also accepts papers that significantly advance the measurement of key sociological concepts or provide well-documented critical analysis of one or more theories as these measures and analyses are related to rural sociology.