The Netizen - Special Report p.5

The Netizen : The Digital Citizen p.5 of 8

Battle of the Bills
Who do you think has a greater overall impact on America, Bill Clinton or Bill Gates?

In Ourselves We Trust
Who should have primary responsibility for regulating the Internet?

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See the full survey results
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Apart from the crowd

Politicians would do well to transcend their current obsession with dirty pictures on the Internet and start talking and listening to this vibrant, new community. A vast, well-educated, communicative, intensely political constituency remains up for grabs. And increasingly they consider themselves a distinct political entity - 39 percent of Connected Americans say they consider themselves members of a "Digital Nation." The Connected constitute a distinct political subculture. They see the world as being driven by decentralized growth and opportunity, rather than a fixed ideology imposed by a central authority. In their eyes, Bill Gates has about as much influence over the fate of the nation as Bill Clinton. By a margin of 58 to 33 percent, most Americans say the president has a greater overall impact on the country than the founder of Microsoft. But the Connected are almost equally divided as to which man will affect the country more.

This should come as no surprise. As Connected Americans have watched Bill Gates become a billionaire, his company has grown into one of the most powerful forces on the planet. They've watched as Gates's corporate culture has quickly - and sometimes ruthlessly - reinvented, expanded, and equipped the world in which we live. By comparison, government seems nearly paralyzed, mired in squabbles and sadly bereft of creativity as Republicans and Democrats endlessly lock horns - often at the expense of the public and its needs.

But the real significance of this finding goes beyond Gates and Clinton themselves. It suggests that for Digital Citizens, entrepreneurs and companies are seen as more effective agents of change than conventional politicians. For this reason, I dissent somewhat from the findings of the Digital Citizen pollsters. Despite the general satisfaction many Connected Americans expressed with the two-party system, the countless online discussions about politics that I've had over the years have convinced me that technologically savvy Americans feel endemic disenchantment with the way our civic institutions perform.

Affection for the two-party system aside, I believe the two political cultures are on a collision course. The Digital Citizens' rationalism, knowledge, belief in the free exchange of information, and passion for change are all antithetical to the political culture of Washington. And as they grow in strength and number, it seems to me that Digital Citizens will inevitably take a tougher look at political institutions which seem trapped in antediluvian models of communication and problem solving. This may make our current crop of political leaders nervous, but in the long run I'm convinced that the US has nothing to fear from Digital Citizens - they are deeply democratic and relatively prosperous, and thus more likely to work within the system instead of trying to overthrow it.

Furthermore, this is an inherently tolerant group - the first generation to truly embrace diversity as a healthy, positive aspect of American life. If there is any segment of the American population that couldn't care less about gender, national origin, skin color, or sexual orientation, it is Digital Citizens. According to the survey, 79 percent of them believe that a diverse workforce is more productive than one in which workers share the same background. Unconnected citizens are far less certain about the virtues of diversity, with only 49 percent favoring diverse backgrounds, while 32 percent say shared backgrounds lead to greater productivity. If Connected Americans occupy greater positions of economic and political influence in the coming decades, then the cherished goal of equal opportunity for all - an American ideal that has been much discussed but only sporadically realized - could become a far more common reality in the fabric of our lives.

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Discuss the survey with Jon Katz and other digital citizens, in Threads.
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