New Technology and Social and Cultural Change - Essay Example

New Technology and Social and Cultural Change Introduction The level at which members of a society share information is an essential determinant of social and cultural change experienced among such group of people. In almost all cases, social and cultural change is always because of new information that informs the values and beliefs of the people. Introduction of new technology provided a contemporary avenue for societies to enhance their knowledge levels, therefore affecting the rate of social changes based on increased rate of spreading information across diverse cultures. When studying the importance of new technology in social and cultural change, internet applications based on Web 1.0 emerge as important avenues for dispersing information among particular groups of people. The main motivation for the developed of the new technology based on the web was to ease information sharing among users from different locations with subsequent web tools created to enhance the ease of searching, accessing and utilizing accurate information. This essay provides a critical discussion of the ways in which new technology facilitated social and cultural change while focusing on earlier development that was based on early internet or Web 1.0. Social and cultural change based on new technology The Internet as it is known today has gone through tremendous evolution. From a tool used in academic research to existing in many homes across the world, this evolution reflects the importance of the internet in the contemporary. Introduction if the internet as an essential part of the domestic setup provided ground for social and cultural change as homes became increasingly mediatised. Internet use at home provided households with an opportunity to increase their levels of interaction based on technologies that increased participation of the population at large due to usage by diverse user groups. Widespread internet usage can be attributed to privatisation efforts and emphasis on addressing daily concerns and social needs that made going online a mandatory for vast populations.1 Introduction of the internet into households took relatively short distance when compared to other forms of communication that are based on new technology. For instance, the radio was accessible to approximately 50 million users after about 38 years of existence in the market. Likewise, television sets took about 13 years for access to reach the 50 million users mark after release to the public.2The internet achieved similar level of usage as radio and television after only four years, demonstrating the high level interest it generated among world population with the willingness and financial capability to access the services. Consequently, members of the society are forced to continually search for new information in order to remain updated on current development in their societies. Continued access to the internet demonstrates the social and cultural willingness of the world population where technological advancement attracts “higher priority than the need for security of the individual. While traditionally, everyone was accorded relatively air share in access to information relating to values and beliefs of the people were being upgraded was slow. Introduction of the internet has led to a situation where individuals have to search for relevant information to avoid the potential danger of becoming obsolete.3 Therefore, the introduction of new technology based on early internet led to transformation of avenues for access information while the pace of updating such information has also increased tremendously. Web 1.0 also referred to as Syntactic Web, was the first of a three-phase evolution that transformed how people share information.4The greatest contribution of early internet towards social and cultural change is in making it possible for people across the world to publish and access digital information. The development of early internet therefore increased the ease of information sharing and worldwide accessibility as the technologies provided tools for enhancement of information sharing necessary for social and cultural interaction among people from different geographical locations. 5However, the level of interaction using Web 1.0 was greatly constrained by the fact that available technology only facilitated read-only communication due to the fact that people could only search and read information without accessing other options such as commenting. However, Web 1.0 perfectly suited the needs of websites owners, as they mainly required an online platform that would make information accessible to anyone at any time. Although these websites do not provide visitors with the option to contribute, they have facilitated significant social and cultural change due to accessibility of information. Among the examples of Web 1.0 concepts with greater impact on how people conduct their affairs is the shopping cart applications adopted by different organizations dealing with ecommerce.6The shopping cart application, which is a form of catalogue system, provides for customers across the world to access different gods and services. This platform has resulted in diffusion of different social and cultural attributes as people gain access to cultures practiced in distant places. The way of life practiced by people in terms of food, clothing and other aspects that define a culture have been transferred in this manner as consumers gain access to them regardless of their geographical location. Acceleration of culture diffusion Therefore, new technology has facilitated social and cultural change by creating an avenue for escalation of the rate at which information is shared among individuals and various interested groups7. There are two general ways of spreading social and cultural norms: passing previously learned behaviour from one generation to another, which usually takes a long period and spreading particular experiences and patterns of behaviour among particular group of people. The discovery of new technology has resulted in increased rate of cultural evolution as contact with other societies has been accelerated by the introduction of new platforms such as the internet.8 Additionally, change was one-way because it was only the elders and grown-up members of the society who had the skills and knowledge required to educate the society about different ways of life. However, introduction of new technology has changed this aspect in most communities as younger generations have taken advantage of new technology to affect change in their society. New technology based on Web 1.0 provided an opportunity for cultural change driven by a younger generation with greater access to information than those of past generations as groups interact with peers located in different geographical places. New media has also made it possible for older members of the society to learn from younger members of the society characterised by flexibility in absorption of new ideas. Given the role of every individual as a change agent in his or her culture, new technology based on the internet created an important platform for members of the younger generation to have a greater influence in the determination of how the society progresses into the future.9 Development of a global culture The internet has led to the development of a global culture with societies tending to practice system that are comparable to others regardless of the geographical distance shared. In this case, new technology is identified as the main catalyst in social and cultural changes that result in unification of various cultures. The unification of different cultures can be assessed based on a study of what Castells refers to as “cultural globalisation”, which focuses on existing of set of global values and beliefs with common characteristics.10Mass media is the main source of information and the platform through which it flows perpetuated from one source to another in a global scale. The media contributes to globalised culture by providing a platform where brands such as Coca-Cola and McDonalds have penetrated most societies as they attempt to adopt various attributes of the western culture. E-business and e-commerce are two popular internet applications that business organisations across the world have continued to apply to teach societies in multiple regions. The spread of various cultural icons throughout the world indicates a commercialisation of culture with various international business organisations seeking to capitalise on the economic benefit to be gained by influencing the type of social uptake adopted by members of particular societies. Unification of culture is therefore because of new technology that makes it possible for different values and beliefs of a popular to spread across the world for the purpose of influencing the way people from other cultures live. New technologies supported by the World Wide Web provided an avenue for advertisers to extend their reach into new global territories to ensure their products consumers from different geographical location acquire goods and services that were previously limited to a specific society. Apart from spreading global culture through commercial campaigns such as international advertisement, new technology has facilitated social and cultural change through other avenues. These avenues include existing community networks, internet installations by educational institutions and existing public access points.11The contribution of these avenues to social and cultural change can be attributed to the fact that human culture is an evolving and developing phenomenon with the new technologies functioning as points for increasing access to new ideas and concepts in life. Using new technology provides an opportunity for users to access information that was previously not immediately accessible to them as they continue to publish and access content on the internet. Increased access to information on different societies and their cultures provides a learning opportunity for users as they seek to increase their awareness and respond to progressive values and beliefs with positive contribution to their particular societies. The impact of development of global culture has been experienced on how societies have continued to indicate a willingness absorb new ideas from other neighbouring societies creating a situation where it becomes difficult to differentiate between some cultures. Individual differences among societies have continued to reduce as communities increase their level of contact through information sharing avenues existing on the internet. Erosion of cultural differences among different societies seems to be because of a pre-packaged commercial culture that seeks to increase global consumption of particular goods and services. Effect on interpersonal relations New technology also facilitated social and cultural change by transforming the nature of interpersonal relations. The advent of new technology based on the World Wide Web was coincided by a period when people increasingly demonstrated tendencies to rely on the internet for almost all of their physical needs. The internet provides a platform where users can access a range of services including making consumer goods, medical information, entertainment, education among other essential information that make interpersonal interaction a secondary factor in meeting various human needs. Therefore, increased usage of new technology as a communication platform has resulted in reduced interpersonal engagement as most of the interactions are mediated by the internet. Web 1.0 platforms provided people with an opportunity to complete these tasks with minimal interpersonal contact therefore encouraging limited avenues where people are forced to undertake a face-to-face communication. Traditional social and cultural ties were cemented by increased level of face-to-face contact that was seen as important in sustaining relationship between people. However, introduction of the internet changed this aspect of human communication as it made it possible for fast communication without the participants having to meet personally. Although the internet increased the level of access to information, individuals have continued to feel less connected and supported at a personal level. This has negatively affect aspects of the society that depended on the connection and support in order to enhance the level of happiness and engagement within families, organisations and communities.12 The outcome of access to the internet was people increasing the time spend online than offline leading to weakened social ties as people increasingly find it unnecessary to leave their homes for various services including working.13Diminishing social contact is an essential aspect of social and cultural change, as people increasingly feel less obliged to follow certain social norms as long as they do not interfere with the levies of others in the community. In this case, the internet is seen as perpetuating individualism as members of the community feel self-sufficient due to having access to a wide range of information even without interpersonal interaction. Therefore, the discovery of early internet, though having positive contribution towards enhancement of society also had negative implications. Conclusion Early internet provided an opportunity for enhanced level of access to information as therefore speeding the rate of information sharing among people. New technology based on Web 1.0 enabled publishing of static information that could be accessed by users who had access to internet. Although the information did not provide an option for users to contribute, it was still important in improving and transforming social and cultural lifestyle of users. This transformation has been attributed to the variety of information present in the World Wide Web even at his early stage. New internet improved the rate at which information became available interested individuals. Users could easily access large volumes of information from websites therefore increasing their awareness and lifestyle. Development of a global culture was also enhanced by the early internet, which provided avenues for companies to market various products and services worldwide. The internet has made it easy for multinational corporations to increase contact with societies across the globe as they aim at distributing products and services to every community in the world. Through concepts of e-business and e-commerce, social and cultural change has continued to take place across the world as societies as seen as markets for the multinational corporations. Therefore, access to early internet was critical to development of a global culture as people from various geographical locations adopted global brands entering markets from outside cultures. Lastly, the role of new internet on interpersonal interaction has also been discussed with the new avenues for information sharing creating alternative sources for users who no longer needed face-to-face interaction to remain updated on various social and cultural norms. Bibliography Bazán, N, M, Execution environments for distributed computation issues, Lulu, Raleigh, North Carolina, 2008. Bilandzic, H, G Patriarche & PJ Traudt, The social use of media: cultural and social scientific perspectives on audience research, Intellect Books, Bristol, 2012. Carey, J & MC Elton, When media are new: understanding the dynamics of new media adoption and use, University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor Digital Culture Books, 2010. Castells, M, Communication power, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2013. Elon University of Communication, Imagining the internet: a history and forecast, n.d. retrieved 10 January 2015 < http://www.elon.edu/e-web/predictions/early90s/internethistory.xhtml >. 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