There were few surprises to the general demographics of internet users in the Social Capital Benchmark data. Access to the internet at home and the number of hours spent on the 'net in a typical week were positively related with younger ages, higher levels of education, and higher incomes across a variety of measures. Additionally, internet access was most common among non-Hispanic whites, although race was not significantly associated with hours spent on the 'net. These results corresponded to the typical picture of internet users as younger, better-educated, wealthier, and Caucasian.

The "traditional communitarians" were not characterized by any single demographic characteristic; indeed, despite Putnam's fears about the decline in social capital over time in America, membership in this group was not related to age. However, the "online communitarians" shared a demographic profile almost the exact opposite of "typical" internet users. Online communitarians tended to have less education and lower incomes, and they were more likely to be non-Hispanic blacks or Hispanic and less likely to be non-Hispanic whites than the traditional communitarians. As such, these individuals were atypical of the groups who had internet access and used it more often.

In the second part of the analysis, measures of attitudes towards civic participation and anomie were grouped into five categories: social trust, racial tolerance, civic participation, political participation, and anomie. These measures were then correlated with four groups of individuals: those defined by time spent online, those who had internet access, the traditional communitarians, and the online communitarians. This produced the following results:

•  The measures of social trust were not related significantly with the number of hours respondents spent using the internet. They were, however, related with whether or not respondents had access to the 'net in their homes in all but two cases. Further, members of the traditional community were more likely to have higher levels of social trust in all eight cases. The opposite result was shown for membership in the online community, which was negatively associated with social trust in two cases, while the five other measures showed a weak negative relationship, and one showed a weak positive relationship.

•  People with higher levels of access to the internet tended to display racial tolerance in five of the six categories. Members of the traditional community showed racial tolerance in all categories. The hours spent using the internet and membership in the online community showed no relationship with racial tolerance.

•  The hours respondents spent on the internet, access to the internet, and membership in the traditional community were all positively associated with higher levels of civic participation. Membership in the online community was negatively related with civic participation.

•  The number of hours spent on the internet was associated with higher levels of political participation in only one out of eight categories; by contrast, those with greater access to the internet tended toward higher levels of political participation in six categories. An important contrast lay in the relationship between the traditional and online communities, with membership in the traditional community appearing to boost political participation: The higher respondents scored on this index, the more likely they were to participate, in six cases. However, membership in the online community appeared to depress political participation: The higher respondents scored on this index, the less likely they were to participate, in four cases (the other categories showed no effect).

•  The hours spent using the internet and membership in the traditional community were associated with reduced feelings of anomie in two out of four categories. Internet access was associated with reduced feelings of anomie in three of the four categories. However, membership in the online community had the opposite result; in two cases, feelings of anomie actually increased as scores rose on the online community index.