Disconnected in the Mecca? Black social media usage and levels of engagement in Atlanta

ABSTRACT

Atlanta’s reputation as a “Black Mecca” is partly due to African Americans’ continued attraction to Atlanta neighborhoods. However, given the widespread usage of social media, we examine whether Black Atlantans are disconnected from their neighborhoods and less engaged in neighborhood activities than non-neighborhood forms of political participation. Using the 2015 Atlanta Neighborhood Study with almost 400 Black respondents in the Atlanta metropolitan area, we find that social media usage does connect respondents more to outside communities than to their neighborhoods. But social media usage is also strongly associated with involvement in neighborhood activities as well as outside political participation. In our conclusion, we discuss the implications of our findings for Black group cohesion and local public policy mobilization.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. We tested various interaction terms between social media usage and community-level and neighborhood-level variables (i.e., non-neighborhood group membership and neighborhood group membership) to see whether they would produce significant effects that better explain neighborhood group activity or political participation. None of these results were statistically significant, and presenting their coefficients and/or marginal effects would not provide a more rigorous set of tests of our hypotheses. But it was important to isolate their possible effects.

2. We performed tests for spatial dependence on our main dependent variables of social media usage, neighborhood group activity, and political participation using the program GeoDa 1.14.0 (Anselin et al., 2020). We created a spatial weight matrix using a Queen’s contiguity rule of those who were their n_1-j neighbors with the FID unique geographic code as the input variable. We then ran unfocused (Moran Is) and focused (Lagrange multipliers, standard and robust) tests of spatial autocorrelation in order to determine the presence of global or diffused (localized) spatial dependence. As advised in spatial econometrics (Darmofal, 2015), we ran a series of ordinary least squares regression equations where we regressed our three main dependent variables against the independent variables of gender (female = 1), age, length of residence, education, income, homeowner, interviewed on cell phone, and percentage of population in a respondent’s ZIP code that was Black in 2014. Because we needed address point locations for this spatial analysis, we were only able to include 350 respondents for whom we had address information. None of the diagnostics have p-values that are significant at the .01 level. This indicates that spatial dependence or clustering is not a statistically significant concern with our sample and thus neither spatial error nor spatial lag variants of our models are necessary. The authors will provide the results of these spatial diagnostics upon request.

3. Model 8 (or the general model) is simply the standard socioeconomic model that is a common reference point for those who study political participation, including African American political participation (Bobo & Gilliam, 1990; Chong & Rogers, 2005; Cohen & Dawson, 1993; Miller et al., 1981b). As expected, education is positively and significantly related to increased political participation, but it is the only statistically significant effect in that model.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation, Sociology Program (EAGER Award Grant # 1402515).

Notes on contributors

Todd C. Shaw

Todd C. Shaw is the College of Arts & Sciences Associate Professor of Political Science and African American Studies at the University of South Carolina. He researches in the areas of African American politics, U.S. racial and ethnic politics, urban politics, public policy, and grassroots participation. He is the author of the Duke University Press book Now Is the Time! Detroit Black Politics and Grassroots Activism (2009). He is coauthor with Louis DeSipio, Dianne Pinderhughes, and Toni-Michelle Travis of the CQ Press book Uneven Roads: An Introduction to U.S. Racial and Ethnic Politics (2nd edition, 2012). He is the lead editor with Robert Brown and Joseph McCormick of the New York University Press book After Obama: African American Politics in a Post-Obama Era (forthcoming). Among other journals, he has published in Journal of Politics, National Political Science Review, Urban Affairs Review, and Politics, Groups, and Identities.

Kirk A. Foster

Kirk A. Foster is Associate Professor and Associate Dean of the College of Social Work at the University of South Carolina. His research includes social capital, urban community development, and resource mobilization through community-based organizations. He is the coauthor of the award-winning Oxford University Press book Chasing the American Dream (2014). Among other journals, he has published in City & Community, Urban Affairs Review, American Journal of Community Psychology, and Social Work. His research has been funded by private foundations and the National Science Foundation.

Barbara Combs

Barbara Combs is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice at Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta, Georgia, and a Visiting Fellow with the James Weldon Johnson Institute at Emory University. She received her PhD in sociology with a concentration in race and urban studies from Georgia State University in 2010. She also holds a juris doctorate degree from The Ohio State University and an MA in English from Xavier University (Ohio). She brings this interdisciplinary background to her study of society. Dr. Combs is the author of  From Selma to Montgomery: The Long March to Freedom (Routledge, 2013). Her current book project,  Blackout: The Continuing Assault Against Black Bodies, is under contract with University of Georgia Press. She has published in a variety of academic journals, including Critical Sociology, Sociological Spectrum, American Behavioral Scientist, and Sociology of Race and Ethnicity.