Two Non-Westernized Countries: India and China - Essay Example

? Assignment The internet has been able to weave its way through the globe, helping people connect and share information with each other. This has helped to bridge the distances between people living in different parts of the world, and has even brought people living in remote areas closer to the rest of the world. The internet facilitates sharing resources and has brought about excellent technology that have brought about an immense change in the entire way that different societies live. All countries in the world are faced with an immense number of challenges, and with the advent of the internet they are all able to face their problems because all individuals strive for a better tomorrow which can be brought about with the help of the internet since it helps a great deal in helping people carry out most of their activities. Westernization is the process by which a person, group of individuals or a country is able to advance its thought process in various fields and matters, and try and bring about growth and progression within its economy. In the recent past, all this has been easier with the help of the internet. However, there still are a large number of underdeveloped and third world countries which do not fall under the category of westernized nations. The internet however has brought about a vast number of changes in such areas too as is discussed within the scope of this paper. (Bruce, Richard) A number of western nations had first adopted the use of the internet into their daily framework, however, today, this has spread apart and become a global phenomenon and is helping more and more developing and third world countries to grow and nurture themselves into becoming ready for a powerful future. There are a number of different aspects that every country needs to look into the matters of; they range from culture and politics to business and science and technology. These form the main outlook of what every country needs in order to be at par with each other and the internet has helped in bringing these aspects closer and has made them stronger as well. Internet has been a huge revelation for non-westernised countries to promote their culture. Intermingling of these aspects has been tremendous. Internet has been influential on bringing non westernized countries together. It has been a great medium of communication and marketing. Let us take two non-westernized countries for reference. The countries chosen are India and China. Indian culture has been heavily influenced by the coming of the Internet in the country. More and more people are getting glued to the internet every day, and it’s a growing phenomenon in the country. The rock culture has come up leaps and bounds in the country after the evolution of the internet. This has culminated into a faster way of communication between the audience and the bands themselves, thus helping them serve their crowd in a better way. As far as the diversity in the country is concerned, it is pertinent to note that people from different parts of the country have intermingled with each other through the means of internet, which has thus promoted unity in the country on the aspect of cultural diversity. Islam and Hinduism are the two most important religions in the country. Internet has allowed people from different religions to learn something new about the other religion in a very effective manner. It is such a huge portal of information that knowledge is never limited. Even though in India politics is fought outside on the roads, it is of no surprise that Internet has made a foray into this stream as well. The number of educated people in India has increased, and this has amounted to more people having the understanding to use the technology. Not only this, but the per capita income in India also increased and which has thus allowed more and more people gaining access to internet, apart from the fact that the expense of obtaining and maintaining the connection has reduced. The Government is aware of such developments happening in the country and has therefore capitalized on it in a large scale. One example of Internet being used expansively in politics is when during the 2004 General Elections the ruling Party brought out their entire manifesto onto their website. Apart from promoting their logos and developments plans, political parties have used internet to reach out to people at the most basic level. Facebook is one of the marketing tools for political parties in India. They have Facebook pages of their own and invite people to join their movement. This is from where they take their followers into the nitty gritty of Indian politics and try to sell their ideas. Although China is not a democracy unlike India, and they have a lot of restrictions with regard to the freedom of expression and choice on their people, nevertheless, Internet has been able to make up ground culturally and politically over a period of time. They have their own version of Twitter which is a bit restricted but still allows people to come closer to each other and develop cultural contacts. China is considered to be the fastest growing investment on the internet. (English Preparation) Internet calling has helped the people from the east and west to connect to each other. There are a lot of Chinese websites which are a portal of massive amounts for information for their people. The country has been engulfed in the vastness of this technology and this has allowed the cultural ties to improve between different societies in the country. China is a communist nation. They have a lot of restrictions for the display of public information into the Governmental websites. However, it is of no surprise that China actually uses the Internet to garner support from the people. They have dedicated channels on the internet which impart knowledge about the activities of the Government to the people. The Communist regime has been able to provide a picture to its people with regard to the massive amounts of development work going on in the country. Having said that, it is pertinent to note that China is not doing enough to actually capitalise on the potential of the Internet; There are still a lot of gaps which need to be filled before we can witness an open hub of information and knowledge available for the use of the people, which is unrestricted and at any time of the day. We then move to other fields apart from culture and society to understand the impact of the internet on the non western world: (Culture and Internet Consumption) Business is a very crucial part of every person’s life; it is related to economics and helps people to live their lives by means of production and distribution. Commerce is a growing part of the world and business enterprises are being set up on a very frequent basis in the world today, in even the smaller countries, towns and villages. Entrepreneurship has been given a very important role to play in the development of economies as more and more people are taking loans and opting to open their own ventures. All of this has been possible because of the internet; it has helped to introduce e-commerce and e-marketing by which consumers and producers can interact via the means of the internet. In smaller countries and underdeveloped nations, the internet has given the smaller producers and entrepreneurs a chance to make them known and sell their products to a much larger market. They are now open for sale with the rest of the world as their clientele and do not have to spend much money in trying to set up or establish markets in different countries around the world. (e-OTI) The government in a number of such non westernized countries has also been helping in using the internet to facilitate sales and marketing and help smaller entrepreneurs to go big. Many of them have been able to make their websites go global and become big names in the market, thus helping their economies to subsequently boom a great deal as well. Furthermore, in earlier times, big brands and luxury brands were afraid of setting up their markets and retail outlets in smaller non western countries for fearing of going down because of losses. They were under the impression that the buyers in such non western countries would not be able to afford such luxury goods and thus, the buyers in such areas were not privileged enough to attain of the same. However, with the internet, these brands have been able to ship their goods across to countries where buyers wish to purchase them even though they might not have set up their stores there and this has also helped the style and way of life to rise quite a deal in such areas. (Mother Jones Magazine) In countries like Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh, development has been quite slow and for some time almost on the verge of falling and not growing at all. However, e-business has helped the economies in these countries to increase a great deal by letting small entrepreneurs and businessmen and women to set up their ventures and be open to the world as their consumer base. (Linking Economies) As in the case of science and technology as well, smaller countries that are mostly non-westernized, have undergone major changes with the help of the internet. This resource sharing network has helped non western countries to become aware of technology all around the world and has opened the eyes of the rest of the world to ideas and ideologies with respect to advancement which would lead mankind into the future. Countries like Japan are now leading the world when it comes to technology and science; in earlier days such countries were not even considered to be westernized. However, today they are considered to be so because of the advancement that they have undergone. Rapid expansion of the internet has helped to open up a number of areas in these nations in the field of information, communication and technology. For example, most call centre and BPO jobs are outsourced in the world today, and most of this work is done by people living in non western countries. However, the people living in such places have been able to adapt into the westernized culture and help the developed nations only with the help of the internet which has brought about changes in science and technology. Technology has been brought and outsourced to such nations and in turn, they are outsourcing work to the western nations. (Lockard, Craig) References e-OTI: The Internet Society and Developing Countries. 2011. e-OTI: The Internet Society and Developing Countries. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.isoc.org/oti/articles/1196/sadowsky.html. [Accessed 12 July 2011] Culture and Internet Consumption: Contributions from Cross-Cultural Marketing and Advertising Research . 2011. Culture and Internet Consumption: Contributions from Cross-Cultural Marketing and Advertising Research . [ONLINE] Available at:http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol11/issue1/hermeking.html. [Accessed 12 July 2011]. Bruce, Richard: 3rd World Economies Will Rapidly Develop into 1st World Economies. 2011. 3rd World Economies Will Rapidly Develop into 1st World Economies. [ONLINE] Available at: http://richleebruce.com/economics/3rd-world.html. [Accessed 12 July 2011]. Linking Economies: UN Conference on Trade and Development. 2011. . [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.unctad.org/en/docs/iaosmisc200517_en.pdf. [Accessed 12 July 2011]. English Preparation: The Advantages of Internet in Education. 2011. English Preparation: The Advantages of Internet in Education. [ONLINE] Available at:http://english-preparation.blogspot.com/2011/06/advantages-of-internet-in-education.html. [Accessed 12 July 2011]. Mother Jones Magazine - Google Books. 2011. Mother Jones Magazine - Google Books. [ONLINE] Available at: http://books.google.co.in/books?id=KOcDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA32&lpg=PA32&dq=internet+helps+to+build+politics&source=bl&ots=5EwEgN1NEz&sig=okrcxiY6UwaQqRCzCTebnhbsJRc&hl=en&ei=E2gcTpzkDYvLrQehqPDeCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CEQQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=internet%20helps%20to%20build%20politics&f=false. [Accessed 12 July 2011]. Lockard, Craig: Societies, Networks, and Transitions: A Global History--Volume I. Read More