19 Jun Culture Every culture has a reaction to the changes that occur

Culture

Every culture has a reaction to the changes that occur over a period of time. The effects can be felt or seen through the people that have existed in those societies bond by a common culture. When human beings get exposed to new elements in life, they will start aligning new habits and end up modifying the previous order. For example, with the introduction and advancement of technology, human life has changed and readjustments have been done to align life with the growing technological inventions. Working, acquisition of knowledge and relationship between different fields have changed in this order. Technological inventions have been seen as Cultural Revolution where oral culture has changed to written culture. The role of technology in a society shows the indissolubility of the factors that bind together the technology with the society and individuals (Barnes, 2003, p).

Technology is viewed as a collective relationship between human beings, tools and fields of knowledge. New technology modifies time, space, relationships and types of communication that exist in other fields of knowledge that are inherent in a culture. Technology has broken physical barriers and the world has become a global village. The more exposure people have globally, the lesser it is to defend local identities. Learning of new information from diverse communities all over the world brings an embrace of different set of cultures which on adoption threatens local cultures. Cultural changes are greatly influenced by internet and any society that has access to it will always be undergoing different changes in perceptions and ways of life (Barnes, 2003, p.).

The transitioning of cyber culture in the 1990’s and early 2000 when internet and the digital era was setting will have effects on the generation born and raised during this period. This is because the generation will never know of an era when internet was not a component of life, however on the positive side cyber culture is likely to undergo more changes at the hands of young people. Further from that, parents will complain of skills and experiences that this generation has missed as an effect of cyber culture. More importantly is that with the constant growth in technology, the internet will become intertwined in life and its daily activities to the point that there is no distinction between cyber culture and local cultures (Corn & Sinclair, 1988, p.).

One of the biggest influence that cyber culture has dotted in is the work culture. With advancement in technology, people are no longer working in the traditional designated places of work. For instance, people are working remotely in their homes with most of the cyber cultured companies doing away with physical models of work. Telecommunication has been enhanced to great lengths where employees have the liberty to fix schedules to their own convenience and at the comfort of their homes. Telecommunication has therefore allowed greater flexibility to workers and minimized cost of operation to companies. Although there has been great strides taken, critics have argued that telecommunicating invades the privacy of worker’s personal lives because the distinction personal time and work time is very thin. Internet and cyber culture has also created a model of living where employees are one call away or always on call which potentially reduces the quality of their personal time.

The adoption of cyber culture and Embracing of internet technologies can be disorienting to existing traditions. Therefore care must be taken to avoid confusion and disharmony if functions at work. For example, adoption of E-commerce to achieve efficiency and foregoing the old supply chains might run the risk of incurring losses or being cut out of a supply chain if not well thought out. Internet also favors a more complex interaction of departments, workers and managers that moves away from the traditional top to down communication. Through the internet there is a bigger dispersal of information in an institution different from the traditional means where information was withheld by managerial employees. This provided a more interactive working environment than a dictated environment where the managerial staffs communicated in a manner that demeaned the junior staffs. Another important element of having technology in an institution is that it promotes innovation from employees who come up with new ideas of improving the current operations. Through innovation, a company has the flexibility of solving current issues and projection of future in a dynamic market.

Cyber culture has also enabled the use of anonymity in social media platforms. Individuals are able to create profiles and names that are different from their true identity in pursuit of issues that may compromise their status if their real identity was revealed. However has both its positives and negatives? On the positive side is that it gives space to persons who may feel isolated to access information or take part in an activity that they would be practically barred in real life. On the other hand, anonymity builds a culture of mischief where persons in anonymous identity engage in unwarranted social behavior that are either illegal, punishable or unaccepted in the real world. However it is worth noting that even under the emergence of anonymous communication in the internet, religion, ethnicity, nationality, sexuality and ideological divisions of the world. Cyber culture therefore takes a dive into another complex cultural matrix that taints the social fabric globally.

In summary of the cyber personalities, it is arguable that individual’s persistence in the cyber space would lead to loss of identity in a community. This is because of the cyber space dissolution of time, space and excess simulation of the world’s reality. Cyber culture will also not resolve the problem of identity crisis that is prevalent across the world.

As mentioned earlier cyber culture is credited for breaking of physical borders that existed between nations and people who are physically located in different locations. It is therefore justified that the cyber space built relationships that had never existed before the internet era. However critics worth noting have contended that the internet creates a rift between those who use it and those who don’t.

The rift grows wider especially when the internet is moving away from a space that was predominant with technology experts to one that is controlled by influencers in the social, political and economic arena. Therefore the shift provides an energy that drives social changes, policies in politics, economic relations and cultural life. With such increasing power of cyber culture setting agendas in the domain culture then those people who happen to be on the other side will be isolated (Corn & Sinclair, 1988, p).

References

Barnes, S. B. (2003). Hacker culture (review). Technology and Culture, 44(1), 194-196. doi:10.1353/tech.2003.0002

Corn, J. J., & Sinclair, B. (1988). New perspectives on technology and American culture. Technology and Culture, 29(4), 968. doi:10.2307/3105085

Daley, B. E., & Ovitt, G. (1988). The restoration of perfection: Labor and technology in medieval culture. Technology and Culture, 29(4), 913. doi:10.2307/3105052

Hobson, W. K. (1985). Technology in culture; Culture in technology: California American studies association Conference-California state Polytechnic University, Pomona, April 27-29, 1984. Technology and Culture, 26(1), 77. doi:10.2307/3104532