The Internet. Conceived by the mind of a certain J.C.R. Licklider, it revolutionised the spread of information throughout the world. In almost 40 years, it has completely changed our personal universe as we know it. The internet has in fact, made an incredible impact on our source of knowledge and information.

Today, information about other cultures can be easily found and accessed from the comfort of home or office. The incredible ease and simplicity at which this can be done promotes the usage of the internet toward these means. For example, after acquiring a vague interest in Mongolian Ponies, one would possibly not want to go through all the trouble of taking the bus to the library and attempting to find a book on the subject, which may or may not contain the information relevant to your interest. This would mean that you would not get the information you wanted. So, instead, you would just utilise the power of the World Wide Web and google it.

The publication of material is easy; as such people who wish to spread their culture can easily do so and obtain an audience. A woman in Turkmenistan would perhaps wish to share one of her delightful recipes for the local variety of cupcakes and with the many versions of online publication available today, she could make her very own online cookbook with just a few simple steps. An Australian bachelor who desired a change in his daily repast would then come up with the daft notion of baking some Turkmenistan-ian cupcakes, so he would search for them and voila, there would be the Turkmenistan-ian lady’s cupcake recipes.

Without the internet, culture today would be much different. People would be ignorant of other cultures and all their intricacies. Another example; an American posted to India on business would not know the cultural traditions there, may even grievously (though unintentionally) insult old traditions, like shaking somebody’s left hand. However with the internet he could be forewarned about such occurrences and ‘Faux Pas’ and lead a happier existence there as a result.

Clare the cultural expert!

Labels: cultural globalization