Checking the weather forecast becomes the first carried out in the morning, send emails and search for keywords using Google all day, and watch a favorite television series on the night: For many Germans, the internet becomes a loyal friend and work your spare time.
However, the internet also offers a lot of potential for those who want to be active politically, as emphasized in the Web Index 2013 that was recently published. Arab Spring movements show how social networks, blogs and personal sites can bring people together like-minded people and highlighting abuses.
Internet Web Index calculates the contribution to development and human rights in 81 countries. In this year's ranking, Germany is ranked 16th, far behind Sweden, who won the first rank. The report released by the World Wide Web Foundation was initiated by Tim Berners-Lee in 2009. Berners-Lee is regarded as the founding father of the World Wide Web (WWW).
Lolcat than activism
"Germany is very bad especially in social areas such as environmental policy," said Jeanette Hofmann, director of the Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society. He added that the German political organizations do not take the opportunity provided by the internet.
In the private sphere , the Germans also quite passive in their online activities . " Interestingly , countries such as Indonesia is much more advanced than Germany in this regard , " said Hofmann . According to recent estimates , less than 10 percent of Germans were using Twitter . " It shows that we are still a bit reluctant when associated with new digital applications , " said Hofmann . Twitter - which can also be used as a means of political expression - rarely used for that purpose in Germany .Monika Taddicken , the Institute of Journalism of the University of Hamburg , agrees . " A few years ago , hopes were Internet users can mobilize politically , " he said . Social platforms such as Facebook , Google+ and Twitter are expected to reshape the political dialogue through direct contact with the offer politicians or discussion group . " But this hope proved unfounded , " said Taddicken .Instead of actively engaging with politicians in their respective cities , many Germans chose to see the latest videos of animal or holiday photos . Many also seek direct contact with another person , Hofmann added , for example, prefer to meet directly with representatives of the local party than engage in a discussion on Twitter .
The fear of censorship?
Web Index also raised a number of paradoxes in connection with the surveillance and censorship. According to the study, developing countries are more likely to censor and filter the internet charge. On the other hand, almost all the charge is theoretically permitted in developed countries. Even so, for fear of surveillance, people are generally self-limiting.
Taddicken, on the contrary, does not believe that the citizens of the German censor themselves. Although it appears the NSA spying scandal and disclosure of data by Edward Snowden who dominated the news for months, he convinced the German people still behave the same in cyberspace.
"Concerns about privacy continue to play an important role in the internet, but it is not clear how to avoid espionage," said Taddicken. The public does not know exactly what happens to the data collected - that's why many online activities continue as if nothing has changed.
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