Technology and Culture

Technology has had an outstanding effect on traditional cultures through out the world over the last century. The development of technology due to the globalisation has a major impact on the world especially it has changed the traditional culture and methods of communication, transportation and education. Different types of technologies are used for various reasons in day to day life. The developments of technology break up the international limits and open up a new path to culture altering globalization to occur. New technological advancement has a greater impact on education in a traditional culture and it has opened the doors not only to education but also on employment opportunities as well (Musawi 2011). He also stresses that the people around the globe have become much closer due to the technological development over the past decades. It is a true fact that invention of new technologies such as digital media brings everyone closer together around the world. Even though due to the technological development has changed the way of thinking and life patterns of the people through out the world.

However the outcome of the development of technology affects traditional way of people’s lives in both negative and positive ways. Early era people used to spend their glorious time with their families and now people spend more time on internet and social networking such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. Gilyarewskii (2007) states that modern day children are totally different than pre computer age children. Unlike pre computer age children who were creative with their work and had hobbies like collecting stamps, pass the leisure time with their peers but the modern day children spend more time on computer games, social networking and internet. In fact technology plays a vital role in development of communication, transportation and education on any culture.

Due to the globalization the world has shrunk in to one global village. The main reason for this is the technological advancement in the world. This has a huge impact on communication methods in today’s world. People all around the world can know what’s happening in the other corners of world in the light of speed due to these advancements. The traditional methods of pre historic humans were mainly dependant on signs drawings and animals hence the traditional methods were slow and undependable. Modern communication systems have changed the way that people communicate with one another (Vijaylakshmi et al 2006). These new technologies allow people to communicate in effective and innovative ways. Nowadays most people spend their time on internet and mobile phones, which that they used to spend on reading news papers and gathering with their family members. Trends towards internet activities and mobile phone usage have also resulted in dramatic down slope in traditional media usage such as newspapers and social gathering.

Earlier day’s people used to communicate through letters and telegrams, even pre historic age people used to communicate by using animals such as birds. Nowadays computers are dominant in everywhere, even in developing countries such as India whose average income is far less than developed countries (Vijaylakshmi et al 2006). In the present situation, Internet is becoming the main communication method that is increasingly becoming more deep rooted into day to day life and impacting upon the traditional culture. However the development of technology it has some down side effects on traditional cultures. As stated by Madzingira traditional communities in Africa they mainly relied on oral, face to face type of communication (Madzingira 2001). This mode of communication is very effective than electronic relationship because it is more emotional may not cause the social isolation. Secondly, the development of transportation has also effect the culture in many ways. During the 20th century rapid growth of transportation creates lot of benefits for people through out the world. Transportation affects every aspect of people in any culture.

It has a fundamental impact on life patterns, growth of economy in a nation. Over the past decades, automobile industry and road constructions were highly developed in some developing countries such as in India. As a result it creates more environmental pollution, traffic over crowding and high energy consumption. According to Baidya et al (2009) they have stated that India is the biggest cause of environment pollution due to its modern system of transportation. However everyone has not received the same benefits from the advancement of transportation and investments, as an example having a highway next door is not beneficial to someone who does not own a vehicle (Baidya et al 2009). However, the development of transportation creates more benefit for the economy and growth of the cultural aspects. As an example due to the new transportation methods such as air transportation it helps people to travel around the globe without any hesitation. Olubomehin (2012) states that the development of road transportation in Nigeria helps to increase the economy, agricultural production and impacted positively on urbanisation process. He further states that it creates lot of employment opportunities for the people and also boosted commercial and trading activities. Nevertheless development of modern transportation system makes life so much easier than early days. It brings everyone around the world much closer.

Finally, technology has a greater impact on development of education in traditional cultures. Today, although children are using computers, laptops, and other various technologies that allow them to explore and research their studies more easily. Over the last couple of decades technology has become less expensive and more reliable method in education. For instance online education plays a vital role in higher studies. Musawi (2011) stresses that technology is changing the way the teachers teach and students learn. Earlier day’s students spend more time at the class room and the library for researching and studying. With the development of technology they are away from class rooms and more in to the online education (Gilyarewskii 2007). She states that most children cannot survive without mobile phones and internet. As a result young generation is facing a lack of physical communication with others, personal issues, and descending social skills. It can be argued that the children who are using modern technology are more educated and knowledgeable than others. Chinnamai (2005) argued that the effects of new technology on education bring rapid development in learning systems across India.

The rise of new technology is shaping the future children into intelligent people with a wide range of skills and knowledge to apply to competitive, information based society (Chinnamai 2005). She further states that the developing countries and third world countries face a grate difficulty to implement these new technological methods due to the lack of infrastructure and inadequate of funds. Although the new technology has many advantages to the student it also degrades the social bonding of one another. The students have no creative skills and ideas since everything can be found on internet. This is contradictory to the past traditional methods of education, where students mainly relied on books, reading, teachers and their elderly family members. Students at present spend more time using internet on social media and scholar websites than engaging in day to day activities with their family and friends. This affects them physically as well as mentally. On the other hand these methods are faster, more reliable and efficient.

Consequently, the developed technology has greater impact on traditional cultural methods of many day to day activities and there are advantages and disadvantages due to this. Yet one can argue that the new technology is the most important thing in a highly globalized world which basically has the whole world relies upon that. It is a fact that the development of technology has had a significant impact on traditional cultures through out the world.

References

Baidya, S, Kleefeld, B 2009, Atmospheric emissions from road transportation in India, Energy policy. www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol

Chinnammai, S 2005, Effects of globalization on education and culture, University of Madras, India.
http://www.openpraxis.com/files/Article%20252.pdf

Gilyarevskii, R S 2007, Information culture in higher education, Scientific and technical information processing, vol.34, pp. 40-43. DOI: 10.3103/S0147688207010066

O’Donoghue, J, Caswell, S, Singh, G 2008, A study in to the effects of information technology in education, Technology in education, pp.1-10. http://auc.uow.edu.au/conf/conf00/papers/auc2000_odonoghue.pdf

Vijayalakshmi, P, Bhavani, V 2006, Internet use, Indian culture and gender variations, Media Asia, vol.33, pp.202.