Jarábik Barbara considerations on culture and technology synergy these days : For better or worse, we’re living in a technology-driven world. The rapid diffusion of new communications technology and the internet has brought by a drastic global impact on socioculture. Since the internet showed up on the scene in the ’80s and ’90s, it became accessible to the average family in the early 2000s, and eventually began to fit into our pocket with the development of smartphones. Societies around the world have witnessed such a phenomenal proliferation of communication devices that are stimulated by the internet, like computers and smartphones. Most societies are involved in this technological experience, and are very excited about its positive impact.
Technology and society or technology and culture refers to cyclical co-dependence, co-influence, co-production of technology and society upon the other (technology upon culture and vice-versa). This synergistic relationship occurred from the dawn of the humankind, with the invention of simple tools and continues into modern technologies such as printing press and computers. It has always been a matter of topic whether technology is boon or bane for the society. The impact of technology on our culture, tradition and social values is undoubtedly huge and classified as how it effects our society today and how it influence human activities.
In some cultures (African and South Asian), they have a tradition in which people meet and discuss the various factors like visions, dreams and things which influence their day-to-day activities like economics, social and political factors (Zamora, 1990), but in the end of the meetings generally, it was observed that people come up with ideas, but they did not see how these ideas could be implemented. They took mobile phone cameras and documented various stories, traditions and cultural aspects that they were experiencing collectively, later they collectively watch these videos to inspire each others, slowly this use of the technology got spread and people started using the mobile phone cameras to document abuses and by this, they collectively rallied around issues which were documented by the use of such a technology which in social sciences is referred as “collectively call for collective action from below” (Olson, 1965). In this case technology found a new meaning, but to do this you need to trust communities, cultures & traditions.
I would like to discuss in this article whether the ease of access to modern technology holds significant consequences on socio-culture. How does the technology influence in shaping the society thinking, and what are the positive and negative impacts. The nature between technology and socio-culture is cyclical, where each greatly affects the other. Starting with the culture of human societies and resulting in the development of different technologies to meet the needs of the society. Let’s start with the real meaning behind technology and socio-culture. Read additional information on Barbara Jarabik.
In most of the cultures riding a horse used to be a sign of pride, tradition, ease of transport (Clutton-Brock, 1992) but with the advent of the motor engine slowly we see how there is a progress in the integration of technology. In future, the role of technology would not only be to replicate the needs of a culture, but also choose parts from various cultures, integrate them and create a new model of foundation for a future technology. In some of the cultures meeting a person in person was considered to be the right way of communicating, but we observe that nowadays technology has integrated and slowly, people have started adapting different other means of communication like mobile phones, video conferencing etc.
