Culture

Change in Culture

Uses and Trends

The Internet and social media are very powerful tools that can influence and shape human behavior. The social media has played a significant role in recent outbreaks of social protest and resistance. The mushrooming of Occupy protests, the Arab Spring, the mobilization of resistance against the Government of the Ukraine or in Hong Kong was heavily dependent on the resources provided by the social media. Blogs, wikis, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and podcasts are now common tools for learning in many educational institutions. Social media has contributed to the increase in long-distance online learning. Social media has transformed the culture of dating and initial interaction between a couple usually happens online rather than offline. Moreover, social media can encourage the increasing of intercultural adaptation level of people who are facing different cultural experiences in new communities. A study shows that people use social media to become more adaptable with the new cultures of the host countries and to preserve their connections with home countries. The social media support the effective way to connect a diversity of people, traditions, opinions and places with each other across the world without being restricted by the limitations of time and distance.

Impacts

With the development in technology and social media, people have become interconnected and world has become a smaller place. Social media has allowed people to stay connected to friends and family they might not otherwise have. People in any part of the world are not just a call or message away. Social media even drives some conversations and topics of conversations between two parties. Internet memes are a big part of internet culture and can often come up as casual references in conversations. Social media has significantly impacted how we interact with one another. For instance, the introduction of streaks on Snapchat has made it so the application has become a ubiquitous part of most people’s daily routine. Emojis and internet avatars have replaced so many emotions that were generally a part of face to face conversation. Social media has given a platform to media activism and connective actions. Movements such as black lives matter and me-too garnered millions of supporters due to the use of social media. Social media has helped vertical and horizontal surveillance as well. It has become easier for government and other powerful organizations to keep an eye on people using their social media presence. It has become easier for individuals to keep and eye on each other as well. Since the online presence is public, privacy has become harder to find.

Moving Forward

Due to the constant development of social media, we are challenging the status quo, building things, creating things, connecting with each other, self-organizing around important issues, and changing the world little bit by little bit. People are connecting and being exposed to both comfortable and diverse perspectives. We share our knowledge, wisdom and experiences. Open source forums and sites will continue to be a go to place where you can ask any question in the world and expect a reasonable answer. We will haunt social media waiting for a cause or idea to support. Retweets are our weapon in an effort to expose information and transform thinking. People in the social media space are finally talking more about authenticity and this will help next generations of leaders with devising a plan to bring everyone together. With increasing trends of video sharing on social media, other forms of media will find it difficult to attract consumers.