The Internet as Means of Communication All over the Globe - Essay Example

Westernization Effects due to Internet Prevalence Client Inserts His/her Name Client Inserts Name of Institution 31/07/2012 The Effects of the Spread of the Internet to the Political and Cultural Aspects of Non-Western Societies Introduction The use of the internet has taken over other means of means of communication all over the globe. In developed countries, the use of the internet services has been in place even before the middle of the 20th century (Recabarren & Leiva 2007). Western countries fall under this category. In these countries, internet services have been used in virtually all sectors of their societies as an important tool of for communication. Starting with computer based internet, the internet use was later accomplished through the emergence of mobile phones (Recabarren & Leiva 2007) that, through their spread, they have solely become the main way in which internet services are accessed worldwide. Bearing in mind that this technology originated in the developed world and later spreading into the rest of the world, the effects of the very technology has taken a similar route of spread. There are many positive implications of the prevalence of the technology in any country or region that uses internet basically for the ease, reliability and flexibility qualities therein, of the technology (Stanley 2008). Similarly, the negative effects especially on the receptor countries are quite evident depending on the perception of the country in question (Levitt & Jaworsky 2007). Many a times though, many people only focus on the positive impacts and forget the reality of the negative impacts on various aspects of various societies across the globe merely because these negative effects are rather gradual and their full gravity is only realized later (Recabarren & Leiva 2007). This study will mainly focus on the impacts of the use of the internet on the cultural and political aspects of receptor societies, most of which are in the developing stage. The study also attempts to analyze the awareness index of these societies about the reality of social changes and change of politics faces that are related to the use of the internet. Effects on Culture Internet service has been one of the major tools used to open the globalization window (Recabarren & Leiva 2007). There is a belief that in the near future, the whole world will be a small society what with the simplified channels of communication globally. However, this proposition comes with major irreversible changes on the cultural aspects of different societies. In fact, taking the cultural dynamics as a reference point, globalization has taken the form of westernization (Zheng & Heeks 2008). Most of the developing countries have a belief that the developed world (Levitt & Jaworsky 2007), the maiden source of the internet technology, is perfect all round. For this, many societies have taken to adopting western cultures for the mere belief that they are on the verge of searching this perfection. This has become real due to the ease of access of information about the practices and the cultural affiliations of the West via the internet corridor (Recabarren & Leiva 2007). This has seen many of the aspects of cultures of societies in the developing world drain away and being gradually replaced by those of the Western world. Some of the impacts are direct while others take indirect paths. Among various effects on these cultures, here are a good score of examples; Effects on Eating Habits Through various trade sites and commercial advertisements on the internet, many people have become aware of different brands of foods eaten in the western world (Zheng & Heeks 2008). This leads to emergence of similar foods production and consumption locally (Zheng & Heeks 2008). People leave their traditional foodstuffs and take to the using of fast foods including alien delicacies that are associated to various health adversities. A good example is the risk of becoming obese for naively consuming fast foods whose nutrient composition is often ignored (Zheng & Heeks 2008). Effects as a Result of Change and Socialism It is now evident that most people, even in the developing world, are able to access internet services due to possession of internet enabled mobile phones. This comes hand in hand with the emergent of various social networks (Zheng & Heeks 2008) such as Facebook, Twitter and Skype among many others. Thus many people are able to communicate globally with as many friends as possible and some even become internet fanatics. The ability to exchange information opens a wide range of internet options. For example, through social networks, people have been able to find spouses through what is commonly known as ‘internet dating’ and some of them end up marrying. This one phenomenon thus allows people to establish long distance relationships. Whether a romantic relationship or mere friendship, people exchange cultural values and ethical lines across borders (Zheng & Heeks 2008). The resultant generation especially after intercultural marriages often assumes both cultural values. In accordance with specific societies, such intermarriages are a bad omen but of late, this has not been an enough barrier to restrict such relationships and the attractiveness of the internet relationships has actively torn apart these barriers (Zheng & Heeks 2008). Effects on Ceremonial Occasions and the Nature of Public Places Most websites are virtually accessible to any person across the globe (Zheng & Heeks 2008). As a result, most people come across various advertisements and profiles about public functions. The descriptions of the ceremonial and public places leads to modification of the way such happenings are held in the developing countries in an attempt to simulate those of the western nature (Zheng & Heeks 2008). Coupled with other issues like online international tourism advertisements, public places such as discotheque clubs and restaurants are modified to accommodate or to assume the western values (Zheng & Heeks 2008) to attract not only international tourists but also local personalities that have become alienated or assimilated into the western way of life (Zuckerman 2008). Without the internet, many of these cultural changes would not have been as rapid as they currently are. People in the developing countries have gone as far as acquiring Westernized naming of people, trade names and other phenomena with names of famous such phenomena on the internet. Change on the Moral Setting As reiterated above, internet has become a reliable source of information to anyone irrespective of the web content (Zuckerman 2008). Many young people use internet as a major source of information for their studies due to its reliability and affordability (Sunstein 2003). However, among the information sources, there are millions of websites with especially sexually immoral contents of different nature. Although some of these sources are recently originating from the developing world, the main origin has been the Western settings (Zheng & Heeks 2008). Many young people are enthusiasts of say pornographic sites that disorient (Zheng & Heeks 2008) their moral foundation at tender ages. Effects on Political Segments In appreciation of the more developed economies of the west, societies from the developing countries engage themselves in search for similar developments in their own countries and more specifically, on the concept of human rights (Lunat 2008). The capacity and readiness of the internet to provide diverse political information to all civilians make them potential political elites and activists (Sunstein 2003). The leaders of the developing countries are thus compelled to accept that the public in general is aware of the operating political mechanisms including their implications and potential impacts thereof (Lunat 2008: Zuckerman 2008). This way, the political divide that used to be between the supposedly elites of governance of a particular country and the public is actually diminishing gradually. The political analysis processes have taken internet services tools where the politicians popularize their aspirations online. This opens politicians for public critiquing (Zuckerman 2008). However, some of the countries are democratic while others are not (Lunat 2008). Most of non-democratic countries are characterized by limited channels of communication to the public. This includes low or no mobile telephony (Levitt & Jaworsky 2007). An example of this is the Papua New Guinea (Stanley 2008). In a much similar rate, important information for political revolution remains covered (Stanley 2008). Through the internet corridor, the public gradually becomes aware of the benefits of human rights activism that particularly changed the face of politics in most of the developed western countries in yester years (Lunat 2008). In an attempt to find change in the political landscape of the developing countries, activism has emerged with full force (Stanley 2008) in most of these countries. Where the political captains oppose these forces, there emerge conflicts and/or distrust of the operating political mechanisms by the public (Levitt & Jaworsky 2007). It is thus evident that letting the public access and control the politics (bottom-top governance (Lunat 2008)) by granting them access to information sources and the capacity to use the information to control governance and fight for human rights is a simpler task what with the use of the internet. Conclusion The use of the internet has both positive and negative impacts on the development of any society. The positive role of the internet is portrayed by providing information source for various purposes (Lunat 2008). One of them is the steering of the political mechanisms by allowing the public to discover some political hitches (Sunstein 2003) and attempt to fix them by comparing with the much accessible information about the developmental strategies being employed in the developed world among others. However, cultural values of the societies in the developing world are at a speedy rate being drained and adopting the values of the Western including disorientation of moral setting. Unfortunately, it has become evidently difficult to control this change (Zheng & Heeks 2008) partly because most effects are indirect and firmly put and partly because every person has a right to make choice (Zuckerman 2008) independently. List of References Levitt, P. & Jaworsky, N., 2007. Transnational Migration Studies: Past Developments and Future Trends. Annual Review of Sociology 33, pp. 129-156. Lunat, Z., 2008. The Internet and the Public Sphere: Evidence from Civil Society in Developing Countries. The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries, 35. Pp315-26. Recabarren, M. & Leiva, C., 2007. Cultural Illiteracy and the Internet. Cyberpsychology and Behaviour, 10:6. Pp853-856. Stanley, L., 2008. Regulating the Telecommunications Sector in Papua New Guinea. Paper presented at the Pacific Telecommunications Conference in Apia, Samoa in 2008. Pp5-17. Sunstein, C., 2003. Why Societies Need Dissent Sunstein. NY: Harvard University Press. Pp19-31. Zheng, Y. & Heeks, R., 2008. Conceptualising Information Culture in Developing Countries Working Paper 34. University of Manchester: Development Informatics Group. Pp17-22. Zuckerman, E., 2008. Meet the Bridgebloggers. Public Choice 134, pp47 – 65. A Highlight of Arguments in the Essay Title: The effects of the spread of the internet to the political and cultural aspects of non-Western societies. (Argument – despite the positive implications of the internet prevalence, negative effects are also evident. Body: Political and Cultural Effects Cultural effects Eating habits Socialism Public functions and public places Moral disorientation Effects on Political Landscape Public awareness and activism through access of wide variety of information Simulation of Western governance Implication of allowance to information access Conclusion Resultant cultural adversities due to prevalence of internet are evident There positive impacts of internet are equally evident, however. It is hard to control the virulence and presence of changes due to individual rights to make choice Read More