While face-to-face talks with neighbors remains the primary way people stay informed about their community, one-in-five adults (and 27% of internet users) have used digital tools in the past year to stay connected to their neighborhood. Roughly one-in-ten adults read a blog dealing with community issues (11%) and a similar number exchanged emails with neighbors about the neighborhood (9%). Fewer adults stay connected to their community via text messages (4%), online social networks (4%) and Twitter (2%). In regard to being informed about the community, all of these individual online means of communication still pale in comparison with physical personal encounters (46%) and telephone calls (21%) among adults. Read More

Russell Heimlich  is a former web developer at Pew Research Center.