Broadband Internet and Social Capital

TL;DR

This study investigates how broadband Internet diffusion in the UK led to a decline in offline social interactions and civic engagement, highlighting a potential negative impact on social capital due to technological adoption.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence linking broadband access, determined by historical telecommunication infrastructure, to reductions in social capital and offline social activities.

Findings

Broadband access caused a significant decline in offline interactions.

Civic engagement decreased with increased broadband penetration.

Results suggest broadband crowded out social capital.

Abstract

We study how the diffusion of broadband Internet affects social capital using two data sets from the UK. Our empirical strategy exploits the fact that broadband access has long depended on customers' position in the voice telecommunication infrastructure that was designed in the 1930s. The actual speed of an Internet connection, in fact, rapidly decays with the distance of the dwelling from the specific node of the network serving its area. Merging unique information about the topology of the voice network with geocoded longitudinal data about individual social capital, we show that access to broadband Internet caused a significant decline in forms of offline interaction and civic engagement. Overall, our results suggest that broadband penetration substantially crowded out several aspects of social capital.