Editing Virtual community (section)

===On civic participation===
[[File:Civic Engagement.jpg|alt=An image of young citizens involved in civic engagement|thumb|Young citizens involved in civic engagement]]

It was found that young individuals  are more bored with politics and history topics, and instead are more interested in celebrity dramas and topics. Young individuals claim that "voicing what you feel" does not mean "being heard", so they feel the need to not participate in these engagements, as they believe they are not being listened to anyway.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Rheingold|first=Howard|date=2008|title="Using Participatory Media and Public Voice to Encourage Civic Engagement." Civic Life Online: Learning How Digital Media Can Engage Youth.|url=https://www.issuelab.org/resources/881/881.pdf|journal=The John D. And Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning.|access-date=18 November 2022|archive-date=27 October 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221027153406/https://www.issuelab.org/resources/881/881.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> Over the years, things have changed, as new forms of civic engagement and citizenship have emerged from the rise of social networking sites. Networking sites act as a medium for expression and discourse about issues in specific user communities. Online content-sharing sites have made it easy for youth as well as others to not only express themselves and their ideas through digital media, but also connect with large networked communities. Within these spaces, young people are pushing the boundaries of traditional forms of engagement such as voting and joining political organizations and creating their own ways to discuss, connect, and act in their communities.<ref>{{cite web|last=Carvin|first=A.|date=1 December 2006|title=Understanding the impact of online communities on civic engagement|website=[[PBS]]|url=https://www.pbs.org/teachers/learning.now/2006/12/understanding_the_impact_of_on.html|access-date=17 September 2017|archive-date=2 January 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150102081959/http://www.pbs.org/teachers/learning.now/2006/12/understanding_the_impact_of_on.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Civic engagement through [[online volunteering]] has shown to have positive effects on personal satisfaction and development. Some 84 percent of online volunteers found that their online volunteering experience had contributed to their personal development and learning.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.unv.org/annual-report-2014/index.html|title=UNV Annual Report 2014, Innovation and Knowledge|access-date=28 June 2015|archive-date=24 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150624015400/http://www.unv.org/annual-report-2014/index.html|url-status=live}}</ref>