In the digital world, different types of digital devices have become vital tools to register events and news. However, more importantly, they are being used by digital natives to share information about their world, their personal lives, and also to foster participation around public interest issues. In the later, technologies are used to transform a passive consumer into an important source of information and at the same time an active protagonist of social change.
In this new scenario, which is profoundly affected by the digital revolution, present generations eagerly contribute to the decision-making processes that deeply affect our lives. There are critics that state that cyberactivism or the use of social networks is just a way through which digital natives avoid the responsibility of engaging in a more effective form of action. We set out to analyse what in fact is the exact role that digital natives and digital immigrants play in fostering citizen participation through the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), thus clarifying the importance of these practices.
The present article aims to offer a brief conceptual analysis of how the development of the internet and digital technologies can enable different and new ways of participation and share some emblematic examples from Brazil of digital natives’ participation in public issues.
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