Elsevier

Computers in Human Behavior

Volume 24, Issue 5, September 2008, Pages 1776-1789
Computers in Human Behavior

E-empowerment: Empowerment by the Internet

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2008.02.002Get rights and content

Abstract

This article focuses on the concept of empowerment and the ways in which the Internet is being utilized as an empowering tool. This analysis ranges from the personal to the global levels and the consequences of that empowerment are also discussed. We propose a four-level model that serves to explain what we term E-empowerment and the effects that can be observed at each of the four levels, ranging from (1) the personal; (2) the interpersonal; (3) group; and (4) citizenship. The potential for future development of E-empowerment is also discussed.

Section snippets

Introduction: What is Empowerment?

Empowerment is a concept that links individual strengths and competencies, natural helping systems and proactive behavior to social policy and social change (Rappaport, 1984). In other words, empowerment links the individual and his or her well-being to the wider social and political environment in which he or she functions. From a psychological perspective, empowerment links mental health and well-being to mutual help and to the creation of a responsive community (Perkins & Zimmerman, 1995).

Empowerment on the Internet

This paper suggests a model that may serve to explain what we term E-empowerment and the effects that can be observed at each of four levels, comprising (1) the personal; (2) the interpersonal; (3) group; and (4) citizenship levels. Below, we discuss each of these levels in turn:

Final word

Victor Frankl (1963) argued that what man actually needs is not a tensionless state, but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him. What he needs is not the discharge of tension at any cost, but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him (p. 166). As the examples discussed above indicate, the Internet is an especially apt tool for people wishing “to search and find meaning”.

The Internet offers abundant means through which individuals can, and do, empower

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