The term also commonly implies an interest and active engagement in improving the internet, making it an intellectual and a social resource,[5] or its surrounding political structures, especially in regard to open access, net neutrality and free speech.[8] The term was widely adopted in the mid-1990s as a way to describe those who inhabit the new geography of the internet.[9] Internet pioneer and author Michael F. Hauben is credited with coining and popularizing the term.[5][10][11][12][13]
In general, any individual who has access to the internet has the potential to be classified as a netizen. In the 21st century, this is made possible by the global connectivity of the internet. People can physically be located in one country but connected to most of the world via a global network.[12]
There is a clear distinction between netizens and people who come online to use the internet. A netizen is described as an individual who actively seek to contribute to the development of the internet.[14] Netizens are not individuals who go online for personal gain or profit, but instead actively seeks to make the internet a better place.[15][12]
A term used to classify internet users who do not actively contribute to the development of the internet is "lurker". Lurkers cannot be classified as netizens, as although they do not actively harm the internet, they do not contribute either.[16][17][18]
Besides, lurkers seemed to be more critical of the technological elements enabling communities whereas posters appeared to be more critical of users who hampered community creation by making rude or unpleasant comments. Additionally, discussions indicate that both lurkers and posters had distinct motives for lurking and might modify their engagement behaviours based on how they understand the community from various online groups, despite the fact that engagement between those who post and those who lurk was different in the communities studied.[19]
You can help expand this section with text translated from the corresponding article in Chinese. (April 2024) Click [show] for important translation instructions.
Machine translation, like DeepLorGoogle Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia.
Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article.
You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Chinese Wikipedia article at [[:zh:網路用戶]]; see its history for attribution.
You may also add the template {{Translated|zh|網路用戶}} to the talk page.
InMandarin Chinese, the terms wǎngmín (simplified Chinese: 网民; traditional Chinese: 網民, literally "netizen" or "net folks") and wǎngyǒu (simplified Chinese: 网友; traditional Chinese: 網友, literally "net friend" or "net mate") are commonly used terms meaning "internet users", and the English word netizen is used by mainland China-based English language media to translate both terms, resulting in the frequent appearance of that English word in media reporting about China, far more frequently than the use of the word in other contexts.[20][21]
With time, more and more people have started interacting and building communities online. The effect it has on human psychology and life is of major interest and concern to researchers. Several studies are being done on netizens under the name Netizens’ Psychology. [25][26] Problems are internet addiction, mental health, outrage, and the effect on kids' development are some of the many problems netizen psychology tries to focus on.[27]
Digital citizen – citizens (of the physical space) using the Internet as a tool in order to engage in society, politics, and government participation[28]
Digital native – a person who has grown up in the information age
Netiquette – social conventions for online communities
Cyberspace – the new societal territory that is inhabited by Netizens
List of Internet pioneers – those who helped erect the theoretical and technological foundation of the Internet (instead of improving its content, utility or political aspects)
Participatory culture – a culture in which the public does not act merely as consumers and voters, but also as contributors, producers and active participants
