Discuss The Impact Of Technology On Culture And Culture

Effects of Technology on the Cultural Identity of the Third World Countries

Dr. Arinze S. Nwaeze

Dept. of Computer Science & Info. Tech.

Caritas University, Amorji-Nike, Enugu Abstract

Culture determines the way in which individuals identify and recognize one another within their own social construct. In the process of social evolution and change which emanate from the introduction of values and models of external behavior inspired by the advent of foreign technologies, the cultural system in its entirety can be attacked. Today in many developing countries insufficient progress in science and technology is considered to be the chief reason for general backwardness. On the contrary, many in the industrially advanced societies insist that

From primitive stone implements to fairly sophisticated and specialized tools, prehistoric humans developed technologies that allowed them to increase their control over the natural world. In return, the tools that they used increasingly changed their way of life. After the industrial revolution, Western cultures reconstructed the material world and reconceived their relationship to nature, and people believed that they had the creative technological power to make a world according to their own blueprints. Technology is developed and used to serve a purpose. The consequences and ramifications of using the technology are not always anticipated. In a very broad sense, the twentieth-century cities could not have existed without the inventions of electricity, steel buildings, elevators, railroads, and modern waste-treatment technologies. In that sense, we can say that technology created the modern cities and transformed the lives of several generations of rural people who migrated to these cities. All technologies develop in a particular cultural context as a result of changing needs. Once there, the technology begins to change the culture that gave birth to it. As technology spreads to another culture, the cultural context begins to shape the way in which the technology is adopted and how it is used.

Technology is the ubiquitous medium by which we are increasingly getting things done. It is in this way that technology shapes culture. It is naive to think otherwise. Think about it this way; if your tool to build a house is only a hammer, then that will radically determine how you approach building that house. Contrastingly, if you have a hammer, a saw, and a drill your approach will again be informed by these media. If you look at technology as content, like a cell phone, which reminds you of prayer time and holds calls for 20 minutes, then yes culture shapes technology. Even if you look at technology as a process that defines and nurtures the way you make contact, then technology changes culture in a very particular direction. We cannot though give up on technological fixes but think in terms of an eco-technological environment where nature and the man-made implements interpenetrate. For example, mobile phone manufacturers have developed popular phones for Muslim users that support their religious practices by reminding them when it is time to pray, disabling incoming calls during prayer time, and orienting them towards Mecca. In the end however, it is not possible to put technology on one side and social context on the other. Instead, the technology and the society develop together as prevailing aesthetics and cultural preferences influence the direction of technology. Technology is a means for change in the environment in