Culture Changes As Technology Changes

Technology.

When I say that word, what comes to your mind first? Your smartphone, your television, your computer even? Maybe the way your phone and car connect through Bluetooth. While those are all true examples of technology - they're not the only ones. Technology encompasses all different part of the human experience and culture from food, travel, art, and government. Fire and stone were technology during the stone age because they helped our early ancestors be able to protect & feed themselves differently - thus changing the culture. Machines that harnessed the power of water and steam were technology that changed the culture of the time too. It's the same with today and our immediate thought on what technology is, the more knowledge of culture along with media helps us to understand the world around us and expand our own knowledge and culture. One could say it's as important as an education in Literature.

As technology advances, especially in this day and age, walls are being broken down that allow us to learn more about other cultures and our own. Think about how life changes when socio-economic walls are broken down so that lower-income communities can access the same information as wealthier ones. Technology also has been seen to start changing the way we look at many of our relationships to the people around us; romantic, platonic, networking, and more. As we break down these more local effects of technology on our culture, we can see the more global effects too. We are able to see into other places and peoples that before would require a vacation trip to know. This increase of available knowledge of other cultures and people can lead to higher acceptance and understanding of those different from you.

To focus on the culture of food we can see how the US compares to France. In the United States eating is for the most part seen as a way to get from A to B, one activity to the next. We need to eat quickly so that we can continue what we were doing before or a new task that needs completing. Just look at how many microwave meals & drive thrus are in the country. Some of those TV dinners even directed specifically at kids (looking at you Kid Cuisine: as much as I loved your blue tray as a kid I'll never understand why we had to put PUDDING in the oven!). With France on the other hand, they take eating as a whole social event, taking hours at a restaurant to catch up. There are fast food restaurants and drive thrus, but nowhere as many as in the US. The French want to focus on who they are with while eating, or eating itself, than what they need to do afterwards. Before the invention of the internet, most people would only be able to learn that by traveling there - and that itself was a cultural change on who was able to purchase tickets to be able to fly out to another country.

As we shape technology, so does technology shape us and our cultures.

Resources

1. Epstein, C. (2018). Technology Shapes Cultures. Colby Community Website. Retrieved from Technology Shapes Cultures – ST112 WA2018 

2. Tatarnikova, A., Oleshko, A., Voronovska, L., Shvets, N., Sushkova, O., & Sbitnaia, D. (2022). The Impact of Media Culture on Future Professionals’ Training. Journal of Curriculum and Teaching, 11(1), 117–128.

3. Tolić, M. (2011). Media Culture and Media Education in Modern School. World Journal of Education, 1(2), 89–97.

4. Media sources: technologies | Kid Cuisine | family meal