Effects of Internet on Politics, Youths and Westernization - Coursework Example

Effects of Internet on Politics, Youths and Westernization al affiliation Effects of Internet on Politics, Youths and Westernization Internet is a global interconnection of individual or entity networks run by industry, academia, government, or private parties. Originally, the internet served the purpose of interconnecting laboratories taking part in government researches, and since 1994 it has been widened so serve million users as well as for multiple purposes. However, in comparison to other communication medium, it has within the very shortest period given the world a globalized dimension. Becoming the universal information source, the Internet has significantly led to various impacts on the society at large (Castells, 2011, 42). Over a very short period, the internet consolidated itself to being a very powerful platform with significant impacts on the nature in which individuals communicate and do business. Because of the high internet usage in the world today, the paper seeks to make an analysis of its effects resulting to a westernized homogenous world culture. Internet Impacts on Politics There has been a major shift in the global politics as a result of extensive internet usages via increased political participation (Inglehart & Welzel, 2005, 64). Observably, internet innovation brought along other forms of political participation that initially were absent in the previous centuries and were not perceivable then. It, however, is plausible that some of the new forms into the political sphere by the internet have no links to the non-virtual world. For instance, the internet has made it easier to sending and receiving emails with political contents as well as influencing state decisions through posted comments on different government websites. These notions further clarify the point of internet facilitating westernization of certain countries. This new political participation mechanism apparently advances the total levels on participations in politics. One of the major effects of the internet in the political forum is its provision of substitute undertakings to offline political events. Currently, it is very easy to air your protest against a given government department or common figure by communicating through email with the media stations. An offline activity that equates to the above move would be going to the government office in person and presenting the vital political concerns (Baylis, Smith & Owen, 2013, 51). Observably, the internet appears also to have shortened the totally bureaucratic processes thus saving the already limited resources. In the world today, many individuals are going online and embracing the internet platform, utilizing it as a tool for checking the government and ensuring performance that presents a westernization culture. In consideration of the political fundraisings, advertising, and mobilization, the internet has largely shifted and ease these undertakings. For example, in 2004, former Secretary of States John Kerry raised over eight million dollars via the internet and even more recently MoveOn.Org advocacy group raised close to twenty million dollars. Center for Responsive Politics further documented that the sum of the money contributed to the previous election stood at two point six billion dollars. These funds raised online are frequently useful in facilitating political outreach activities that entail mailings, telephone calls, and television adverts. Various statistics depict an increase in the online fundraising techniques particularly to political activities (Arowolo, 2010, 20). Some scholars have come to the conclusion that internet champion’s balkanization in politics. As per Pew polls, individual opinions counts on issues of national security and personal finances has become strong into the partisan realm. The internet use has ease formation of groups of people with the same ideology, preference in lifestyle and culture, establishing a group partisanship. Recent political campaigns in most countries of the world present an alignment of individuals into different groups and formations. The abilities of the internet in accepting all sought of information, agreeable or disputable, is what results to balkanization in politics. The internet and Youth Culture Another observable impacts effects in the modern society are also in the youth norms and media. Today, a large number of youths take part in the development of distinct web contents. The introduction of Web 2.0 greatly increased the capability of the youths as contributors’ to web content and rather, not passive consumers. The reduced costs in distributing materials as well as synchronizing innovation efforts enable the youthful generations to working together and producing their content on all platforms on the political, social and economic undertakings (Ferdinand, 2000, 31). The changing frameworks of the social media enhance the creation both formal and large scale, ad hoc, online societies, with flourishing user generated contents. Other user-generated contents by bloggers make it easier to share music, photographs as well as trending news. An example of some of the user created websites includes Flickr and Myspace. Further, YouTube, being accounted in the UGC category, is one of the major sites with a lot of information that educate the society today. Besides web developments, the creation of online social relationship also exemplifies about the youth culture. Notably, it is not all the youths who takes part in Internet browsing seems enthusiastic to content productions. A vast majority of the youths use the internet to establish new relationships and to increase their friend base. In every human development, the adolescent is an essential stage, which encompasses creating relationships from without the normal family ties. The skills acquired at the above stage are very vital in refining the socio-economic development of the teen. Apparently, the interactions online do not differ much with the offline interactions. It is clearer that the interactions when undertaken online, are not affected by the geographic locations as compared to the offline interactions. Youths in different societies today may interact with one another, sharing pictures, music and important information with the aid of a social media platform (Howland, 2002, 43). The binge of the American culture dominates the entire universe today through the use of social networks. These notions are reliant on the fact that most social media promotes and are dominated by American clothing, language and music as well. Negative Effects of Internet to Politics and the Youth Similarly, it is also for a fact that the growth of the internet has also contributed negatively to both the youth and politics, and to some extent undermining westernization. Overtly, the internet proliferates spread of the western values and democracies. From the Internet content that we come across, it is notable that it is the western governmental organizations who champion the western democracies. However, they usually do this in a more biased way, tackling only critical issues that can influence other states in the sole name of westernization. The issues are frequently spread via audio or visual medium and the task accorded to individuals with strong public appeals and reputation, so as to win the confidence of the masses. Many individuals who drop by the western beauty tend to appreciate these western democracies. Important to note is the fact that implementation of these alleged Western democracies has not borne fruits resulting to western government criticism (Arowolo, 2010, 22). The basis of this criticism differs as one traverse country to country, including those that had earlier accepted the American culture. For instance, China is one of the major forces that are against westernization. Some countries appear to be borrowing some of the westernization aspects but not the whole of it. Some states such as part of the Arab Leagues have openly refuted the American democracy disseminated via the internet. The internet has also been taken by many as a tool of attacking states, governments and political parties that differ with the western ideologies. Some forums are free for individuals to air their frustrations against other countries and in extreme cases some people moving even a step further to listing the countries by names. For example, China has been attacked by many individuals for exhibiting backwardness while some of the Asian’s countries are on the center stage of being undermined in curbing economic depressions. These attackers have largely used the internet to air their frustrations against certain governments and individuals as well. Regrettably, some of the views presented may turn out to being false or a response to individual’s personal dissatisfactions (Inglehart & Welzel, 2005, 78). The internet has also been visualized as a threat to the sovereignty of a country, and may interrupt the particular country’s domestic affairs. For example, certain websites present Taiwan and Tibet as sovereign states. The United States National Geographic also maps present the states as mentioned above as not being part of Asia, thus raising issues of sovereignty. Notably, websites containing some essence of politics exhibit some levels of deception to trick the masses into adopting the western culture. Given these notions, the internet has to certain limits created disagreements between states. In essence, Information published on the various website presents the western community as an ‘earthly paradise’ with a lot of freedom, devoid of external disruptions and problems. In addition, the internet easily corrupts the minds of the young individuals tainting their moral and ethical principles (Ferdinand, 2000, 45). To conclude, it is for a fact that the use of the internet has been on the rise as days elapse. The effects may both be positive or negative as illustrated in this paper. Since it is very useful and reliable information source, responsible utilization of the internet platform needs to be the mandate of every government with the aim of promoting peaceful coexistence and harmony. References Arowolo, D. (2010). The effects of western civilization and culture on Africa. Afro Asian Journal of Social Sciences, 20-23. Baylis, J., Smith, S., & Owens, P. (2013). The globalization of world politics: an introduction to international relations. Oxford University Press. Castells, M. (2011). The rise of the network society: The information age: Economy, society, and culture (Vol. 1). John Wiley & Sons. Ferdinand, P. (2000). The Internet, democracy, and democratization. New York: Routledge. Howland, D. (2002). Translating the West: language and political reason in nineteenth-century Japan. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press. Inglehart, R., & Welzel, C. (2005). Modernization, cultural change, and democracy: The human development sequence. 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