Examine the influence of modern technology in culture change
With BRIAN MAREGEDZE (2016)
The influence of technology in culture change in my society has come with its own positive and negative attributes. Culture is defined as a social domain that emphasise the practices ,discourse and material expressions, which , overtime express the continuities and discontinuities of social way of a life held in common. However, technology has changed all the sectors of people’s lives in politics, economic, religion and all sets of customs and norms. Technology has influenced even the way people think, behave, dress, and many other things as to be examined below.
Culture is a complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, moral, customs, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a number of societies. Todays’ modern technology have changed the traditional people‘s culture across the globe. For instance D.Terrence (1977) points out that the inventions of the twentieth century such as electricity, steel building and infrastructural development have changed the societies of Europe and America. In as much as one appreciates technology, S.Turkle (2012) points out that technology is a blessing and a curse at the same time towards cultural change.
Furthermore, technology also led to globalization of culture and cultural diffusion. In this present law, the western culture seems to dominate other cultures due to their influence and exposure in technology .the technology has changed the way people conduct their businesses, communicate and interact. According to J.D Jackson (2011) he remarked that technology has made people familiarize with other areas they had never been to and also do business with people of different parts of the world without necessarily traveling to their offices. In this regard, the culture of travelling have been reduced, through to a certain extent hence been also improved.
Moreover, technology can produce changes within a society by attiring social dynamics and promoting new cultural models and spurring or enabling generative actions. Technology, in terms of cultural communication have created quiet people .E Griffen (2012) postulates that as we expect less from each other.in other words ,people started to have the culture of sending messages to each other electronically without discussing important issues seeing each other.
Developing, further the essence of human level of communication have been lost, where discussions are open up where feelings, thoughts are exposed to be shared and probed but online communication do not do that. In this regard, technology does not fully experience the culture of disappointment, failure or celebration. This means that technology have derailed our culture to some degree. However, technology gives a culture of comfort and control of course where people are lonely, having friends without companionship.
Moreover, technology has changed the culture of thinking in a society. Societies started to despise each other in terms of advancement in technology and those who are not skilled in technology have become victims and often seen as inferior in the society. According to C.Gitelman (2008) he stresses that publics are compromise d as user, but not all users are entitled or constitutive members of the public sphere. This shows how skills differ in ability of use of technology also changes the culture of general human conduct and often, it has led to isolation. This often do not allow the time to think or listen to each other with constant sensory stimulus of texts, tweets, Facebook updates, emails and more.
Moreover, technology resulted in many changes of culture and promoted new cultural models .for instance as put forward by J.D Jackson (2008) technology created the culture of the desire to develop and catch up with the latest trends of fashion, shopping tourist destinations and so on. This has also led to the development of the city. As much as technology has divided and influenced the culture in that it led to objective culture where culture is seen as a thing and subjective culture is its unique experience.
In addition to that, technology has influenced a lot of dynamics in the political culture especially of Africa. Most African nations have been forced to abandon African traditional politics and adopt the western hegemony had spread throughout the world and continuously in many autonomies of various countries due to this technology. Western governments through technology have influenced how African states especially, the nations which are grouped as third world countries should govern themselves. African states do have a culture of complain towards these big nations that always like to direct course of events in African states.
Furthermore, C. Barker, Further demonstrates that technology have influenced culture change especially in norms, values and customs of a society. Technology has influenced the true language , changed expresions and eradicated some of the social trends wchich had been seen as a threat to the development and implemantations of technology and that many societies had been vexed by technology and their cultural erisoin oe decay . Some societies have tried hard to resist. The negative changes brought by the advent of technology in the morden day society.
As evidnenced by the above essay, one may conclude that technology had been accepted with mixed feelings and contributed or influenced the culture of the morden day societies culture in a member of ways which stretches from economic political social and religion. To holds much water to content that technology have influenced the culture of the modern day societies in a positive was as discussed in the above essay.
Bibliography
Barker. C. (2004) The Sage Dictionary of Cultural Studies, Oxford, Oxford University Press
Gitelman, C. (2008) New media Users, London Haus
Griffen, E (2012) Communication; a First look at Communication theory McGraw Hill, New York
Jackson.J.D (2011) In Media Studies: a critical sociology of media, Oxford, Oxford University Press
Turkle, S. (2012) Connected but alone; The Technological Change, Manchaster, Manchester University Press
Terrence, D (1997) The Symbolic Species; The Lo-evolution of Language and Brain New York, New York Press
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