The internet has connected cultures, founded social organisations and has become a part of our identities. The fast pace that information is spread has allowed people to see different perspectives and has made the new generation have a better awareness of each other’s cultures. The internet helped make information more widely available, meaning that people’s worldviews are constantly changing and being influenced by the media we consume. The internet has helped the younger generation more socially responsible on a wider scale and has made more and more people realise they have more in common with each other than their own governments.
The internet has shown us something we have never seen before - the collection and action of ideas on an international level. It has impacted the way the newer generations look at religion, science and politics. Many conversations have become more mainstream, such as Blackfishing, cultural appropriation and microaggressions. These are important first steps to decolonise our current societies and to see the realities of others’ identities and not the imperialist and orientalist versions people have imagined in their heads. In addition, the internet has also allowed first-generation immigrants who can't travel, to see segments of their motherland over the internet. There isn't that separation or dissonance anymore - we are not just limited to one location’s culture and politics. We are forced to face our country's involvement on a wider scale, good or bad.
According to Chen and Zhang (2010) in ‘New Media and cultural identity in the global society’, “The compression of time and space, due to the convergence of new media and globalization, has shrunk the world into a much smaller interactive field.” Rebecca Sawyer builds on these ideas in ‘The impact of new social media on intercultural adaptation’ and says, “these differences can be understood through Hofstede’s five dimensions and the Diffusion of Innovation Theory. Hofstede’s cultural dimensions are power distance, individualism/collectivism, masculinity/femininity, uncertainty avoidance, and long-term/short-term orientation.” The internet has developed our ideas surrounding these categories and allows us to be more morally intuitive and question the policies around us in our current society.
Penny Laurie says in ‘Tea,Biscuits’ and Empire: The Long Con of Britishness, that “Every nation-state is ninety percent fictional; there’s always a gap between the imaginary countries united by cultural coherence and collective destinies where most of us believe we live, and the actual countries where we’re born and eat breakfast and file taxes and die.” This excuse for ignorance has been taken away from us because with a quick google search you can see what is happening beyond your bubble.
A downside to this could be the overwhelming nature of this information and nihilism that follows. In addition, sensationalism has made many of us desensitised to this information, however, on the other hand, there is a growing trend of youths organising protests and strikes online, which could show that rather than becoming desensitised many have become empowered to demand action. Internet culture transcends borders, we are now measuring our values by how it impacts people outside of our reach too.
One very important moment that shows the power of social media is the Black Lives Matter Movement that was founded by Alicia Garza, Opal Tometi and Patrisse Cullors in 2013. The death of George Floyd, an African American, sparked outrage when a video showed Derek Chauvin, a cop, kneeling on Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. The community planned protests and shared their experiences of injustices in their everyday life. Petitions and donation funds were shared and all of this put pressure on the law to punish the police and to redo George Floyd’s autopsy, revealing that the “pre-existing cardiovascular disease” that was said to cause his death, was, in reality, a murderous hate crime. The movement has exposed the true nature of policing to people who have had the privilege not to notice. Younger generations are very aware that voting is not enough to save them and that is shown through the thousands that turned up at protests and how Kpop stans and teenagers on TikTok reserved fake tickets for Trump’s Tulsa rally - leaving rows and rows of empty seats. The Black Lives Matter Movement is by no means the only movement that has been spread by social media but I personally think it is one of the movements that demonstrated the magnitude of power social media has for transformative justice.
Even the way Generation Z uses platforms is really telling. Instagram has turned into a really viable way to share education posts; we see this in anti-racism posts, how to be an LGBTQ+ ally and the list goes on. Twitter has become the news for many young people - one tweet can be retweeted to share information on current affairs and for many, this is a lot more active than seeing a headline from the comfort of your sofa. A large number of youths are using TikTok as a marketing tool to campaign for certain candidates and many trends like “This Is America” have allowed people to be critical of their own countries.
In a way, the internet is filling a gap where education has failed to do so. Oxfam Education has listed benefits of global citizenship on their website, this list includes things like; develop an argument, see that they have the power to act and build their own understanding of the world events. However many would argue that through the ethnocentric lens we learn in school, the curriculum does not meet these criteria in practice. The reality is that children and adults alike are learning more about the world online when it comes to culture. The internet is more than a copy and paste of what we are taught in real life. It develops on ideas, tells you contrasting opinions and leads you to several sources. Thanks to the internet now you can diversify your culture; Like Donny Miller said, “in the information age, ignorance is a choice”.
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