By: kikaru kung
Submitted: 2010-07-04 22:51:26 | Word Count: 829
But, although in theory, the sharing of knowledge is supposedly to be beneficial towards the event of humanity, the Internet conjointly provides a pathway to homogenizing culture and creating an unequal taking part in field for developing nations. This argument can be clearly seen in case studies of Asian nations, especially in Thailand. Hence, the utilization of Web and the growth of businesses on the Internet have increased, the query raised is that although technology has advanced communication and information, has this profit affected individuals living in developing countries, or has the gap between the made and the poor widened?
The Internet is a unique type of media. It's the power to reach several however this can be suffering from factors like monetary status, technological ability, knowledge, and the will for the medium. The Internet is not essentially acceptable or doable for everyone to have, and in a very country like Thailand, it can be clearly seen that the less fortunate have been marginalized, particularly the uneducated and people from rural areas. As an example, seventy p.c of Thailand’s Net users are concentrated in The Bangkok Metropolitan Area (Hongladaron, 2003) and only four to five p.c of Rural Thailand has access to the Internet.
In a few of his articles the scholar Hongladaron has conjointly discussed the marginalization of rural Thai citizens. Hongladaron states the advantages of the Net, but then confirms from his analysis that as a result of these edges are solely accessible by the rich, hence, because of the poor being marginalized, the Net can be considered to be a discriminatory form of medium. However, Hongladaron conjointly argues that the Net does not homogenize cultures. He states that “the relation between computer-mediated communication technologies and local cultures is characterised neither by a homogenizing impact, not by an erecting of barriers separating one culture from another.” (Hongladaron, 1998).
Hongladaron came to a conclusion about the Web homogenizing culture, however only to a limited extent. With restricted information being available on the ways that Thai people interact on the Internet, or read the Web as a medium, it’s onerous to conclude whether the general impact of the Internet is homogenizing. However, it can be clearly stated that the Net will marginalize people who are unable to use this medium.
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As usage of the Net becomes a lot of popular, the controversy of homogenizing culture is fiercely debated. Some teachers argue that as a result of the Net advantages the wealthy and therefore the educated, those that can use the Net usually have a level of mental capability, so, the homogenizing of culture is only applicable to a restricted extent. As an example, the Bengali tribes in Bangladesh follow sustainable living and don't value the information that's presented on the Internet. They view the Internet as a very negative type of communication, as personal contact is not made. Members of the Bengali tribe live by the Hindu religion and everybody within the tribe includes a bound role.
So, the tribe as a full is self-sufficient and members do not feel the necessity to adopt the values and the ‘teachings’ of the Internet. Furthermore, indigenous Tibetans are another example where the information of the Web will not reach the people. Thanks to their belief of the Buddhist teaching of the Livelihood, they believe in living in harmony with their surrounding land. Members of these indigenous communities do not believe within the Internet as they might argue that the pc is a wish and not a need. Hence, in considering the difficulty of whether the Internet is a tool for the homogenization of culture, though some would say ‘yes’ due to developing Asian nations becoming westernized thanks to propaganda on the Net, others would argue that only Asian communities that have already been westernized use the Internet. These academics would argue that some Asian communities, particularly those in indigenous tribal communities, would not use the Net as a result of of their cultural paradigm, hence the Internet community is already focused on simply one group of culture with one cluster of folks sharing a standard belief: ‘that the Web is a helpful tool’.
Finally, it is not disputed that the Web could be a place of ‘data sharing’ and this sharing of information may lead to certain ideologies being additional outstanding and modification the thoughts and practices of different cultures. But, many would argue that though this is inevitable on the Internet, the Internet cannot management the lifestyle of an individual’s life and beliefs, therefore the Net can solely present another person’s discourse, however cannot force a person’s ideology to change.
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Barbara K Howard has been writing articles online for nearly 2 years now. Not only does this author specialize in Internet, you can also check out his latest website about:
