The Impact of the Internet on World Culture - Essay Example

The Impact of the Internet on World Culture The impact of the internet on the culture of the world is immense. In the past few decades, its impact has been felt on various spheres in the lives of common people. This can be seen in the ways in which the lifestyles of people have changed, right from the way they shop for electronic goods to the manner in which they communicate with each other. The internet has also changed the way in which politicians communicate with their voters and political movements are organized. This means that there is a great economic and social significance that the internet exerts on the lives of people and by extension, on the culture of people. This paper shall look at the different ways in which the internet has affected the lives of people at the level of the individual and larger collectives like the nation. Many thinkers are of the opinion that the influence of the internet on people who are rich enough to afford it is so immense that in the years to come, it would deepen the gulf between those who have it and those who don’t (Hermeking). Apart from increasing the distance between the haves and the have-nots, it has also redefined what it means to be a have in an ever-changing society. To take the case of how people spend their money on shopping, a lot of the shopping for clothes, electronic goods and books is done on the internet at this point of time. There are an immense number of websites that offer goods to be bought online. This has changed the culture of the supermarket and the department store in a massive way. These sites for socialization have undergone changes as far as their social roles are concerned. This argument may be refuted by the claim that most of the perishable items that are consumed by people are still bought in stores that people physically go to. This still, however, means a reduction in the spaces that are available for the socialization of people. This brings one to a discussion of the virtuality of the internet space. Beginning from internet chatrooms to online dating and social networking sites, the space of the internet has changed to that of a virtual one where people meet and talk without being themselves or otherwise. They do not, however, meet each other physically and the contact remains at a virtual level. This has been the subject of many a study and people have often referred to how this has reduced actual human contact in today’s world. This has led to changes in the way in which people approach relationships and human emotions. Shawn P. Wilbur has talked about this phenomenon and attributes to it many changes in the process of the formation of communities and even identities of people and the communities that are formed (5). The importance of this can be seen in the amount of time that the youth of today spends on social networking sites where an alternative reality is built that has the potential to take away a person’s focus off what is really happening in their lives. Apart from this, it can also make people not work hard for constructive activities of their lives. A large part of such activities are fueled by the advertisement industry that needs to grab as many eyeballs as possible. The internet has made the culture of advertising a vicious one where executives are ready to jeopardize the work ethics of an entire generation for the benefit of a few and for the purpose of higher profits. However, one also needs to take a look at the other side of the coin. Social networking sites at time may transcend their virtual nature and make people take concrete action as was visible during the Arab Spring that happened in 2011. Many commentators attributed the large-scale participation of common people to the reach that social networking sites have managed to garner even in countries that are just developing and not yet developed (Huang). Such reports have made it clear that a simplistic understanding of the phenomenon of social networking as a world of virtuality would not suffice when one would discuss the importance of it to the culture of the world. Alternative cultures have managed to thrive on the internet. While some of these have been extensions of the racist and misogynist ideologies that are a part of the society that one lives in, many are also cultures that seek to change the world into a better place with egalitarian ideals. Such cultures exert a constant pressure on the dominant culture that exists in any society and manages to make a change in the way in which people think about others and the society that they live in. The internet is also used by political parties to make statements and to reach out to their potential voters and supporters. This can be seen in the way they have interactive websites and they are also on many occasions a part of social networking websites. This indicates a change from the days when the only means of communicating to one’s voters directly was through the physical presence of the candidates. This change indicates a change in the culture of people where they are ready to consume the internet-created image of a politician, visible in the care that they take in sustaining an untarnished reputation in terms of their extra-political life. The internet has caused many changes to the way in which culture is even perceived. It has created major changes in the ways in which people interact with each other and create communities amongst themselves. This has led to major changes also because the industry that creates culture is at this point of time, dependent for its funds, largely on the advertising potential of major companies. The internet has thus, comprehensively changed the way culture works in terms of the economic, social and political aspects of the lives of people. Works Cited Hermeking, Marc. “Culture and Internet Consumption: Contributions from Cross-Cultural Marketing and Advertising Research” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 11(1). Web. 7 Oct. 2012. http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol11/issue1/hermeking.html Huang, Carol. “Facebook and Twitter key to Arab Spring uprisings: report” The National. 6 June 2011. Web. 7 Oct. 2012. http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-news/facebook-and-twitter-key-to-arab-spring-uprisings-report Wilbur, Shawn P. “An Archaeology of Cyberspaces: Virtuality, Community, Identity”. Internet Culture. Ed. David Porter. New York: Routledge, 1997. 5-22. Print. Read More