Essay: Impact of Digital Technologies on National Culture

This essay examines the significant impact of digital technologies on national culture. It explores the correlation between technology, culture, and scientific advancements, highlighting how digital tools and social media influence cultural aspects, behaviors, and beliefs. The essay discusses both the positive and negative effects of technology, including its influence on communication, healthcare, education, and employment, while also addressing concerns about creativity, social behavior, and the evolution of culture. It emphasizes the role of science in technological development and cultural change, from communication to online retail. The essay concludes that while digital technology presents both challenges and opportunities, its impact on national culture is substantial, and its influence will continue to shape societies worldwide. This analysis is a key resource for students on Desklib.

Running Head: Science, Technology and Culture
Science, Technology and Culture
Essay
System04104
12/11/2019

Science, Technology and Culture
1. Impact of digital technologies on national culture
Digital technology is a now an essential part of human life and strongly associated
with the culture of people in every society. One way technology affects the global culture is
through media globalisation. Media technology is one of the most popular and effective way
that affects the culture of people in most part of the world. People now a day can access any
information on their fingertips through the mobile phones and internet (Sunny, Patrick, &
Rob, 2019). Apart from this, social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube,
Instagram etc. are providing immediate and clear picture of the world when people want to
seek information about that. The increasing use of technology and technological advancement
in the every part of the world somewhere affected the culture of people, which is described in
this essay, and shows how digital technology is directly related with national culture. The
essay also shows the correlation between technology and culture and role of technology in
cultural development.
There has always been a strong correlation between technology and culture. As
technological advancement and human invention directly associated with the human culture,
one cannot ignore that culture is also responsible for evolution of technology as well. As most
of the people are addicted of digital media and social networking sites, it is very easy for
them to see and adopt the culture of other society of country. Even most of the people believe

that technological advancement make the world truly globalised in the 21st century (Jasanoff,
2015). People see, learn, and adopt the culture of other people and adopt the changes in their
daily lives as well. Thanks to modern global communication and use of digital devices, that
makes the world as a globalised world where distance is no longer relevant for the people in
their daily lives (Ellis, 2019). The advancement in technology almost changed the culture of
every society and country. It has been noted that digital technology also has a positive
influence on the culture, art, business, law, healthcare, education, mobility, enforcement, and
religion. For example, in healthcare sector, it is easy for the patient to provide treatment or
advices to the patients on the video conferencing calls and advised them proper treatment.
Apart from this, the video conferencing can also play a vital role in law and enforcement
industry. The technology helps the judges to listen the case on the video conferencing of
those criminals or victims who cannot enter in the court because of security reasons. This
shows that how technology affects the various part of culture and how it helps the people to
make improvement in the life standard as well (Crowley & Heyer, 2015).
The technology has lot of positive impacts on the human culture, but it has some
negative impacts as well. The major drawback of technology is that it negatively effects the
creativity of people in any country. People take the help of digital technology in every small
work in their daily life and it leads to destruction of creativity among people (Ellis, 2019).
Apart from this, technology can also have some negative effect on the daily life of people and
especially children because it make them addicted of digital devices that limits the thinking

capabilities of people and raise unsocial behaviour in youngsters like hacking, cyber-bullying
or theft. Although the long term impact of digital technology on national culture is generally
not foreseeable but it can be said that digital technology have large numbers of positive
impact on the national culture rather than negative impacts (Jasanoff, 2015).

2. Change in cultural aspects due to technologies
The cultural aspects generally include behaviour, objects, beliefs, and other
characteristics, which are common among the people within a society. The use of technology
somewhere affects these factors of a culture because technology is now widely used by the
people in every society in various field of their life (Zhang, 2010). Digital technology is
responsible for many changes in cultural aspects of people. Digital technology helps the
people to reimagine the way of living and way of communication in the global world. The
use of mobile phones helps the people to contact with anyone without caring about the
distance all over the globe. Apart from this, every nation adopts the technology, which is a
part of their culture, and if anything changes in technology, it will directly affect their culture
too (Di Pietro, Mugion, & Renzi, 2014). The use of technology not only related to the daily
life of people rather it also effect the life standard of people, their culture, and thinking about
other people and culture. Each invention in the field of technology has affected the culture
how people relate to one another and how cultures have expanded or ended. People care
about the cultural aspects of other nations and then adopt the suitable one, which can be
useful or beneficial for their own culture. For example, people in Asian countries adopt the
culture of western countries in their dressing style, communication style, or something that
attracts people towards the western culture people. Use of technology helps the people to
create a new point of view and thinking style of people that further leads to the cultural
change in the society (Cascio & Montealegre, 2016).

Technologies have also a strong relation with the manufacturing and employment
sector. When technologies used in manufacturing sector, people who are dependent on the
small domestic business or manufacturing are facing extreme issues due to technologies.
Apart from this, people lost their jobs and it affects the overall economy of the country
(Veblen, 2017). Large numbers of people who are unemployed in rural areas are seeking jobs
in urban areas where mass production is going on with the help of technology. People living
in urban area from rural areas also adopt the new culture of their new society in which they
earn money to operate their family. Although, it can be said by various scholars that
technology and culture both influence each other because there is a positive correlation
between technology and culture. Technology is one of the most vital and important factor in
industrial revolution and created the industrial society. Technology often leads to numbers of
positive change in the people’s culture but it has some negative impact on the culture as well.
Technology directly effects how cultures evolve, thus when culture evolves, they tend to
create a new technological as well (Henson, Cantor, Dawson, Noakes, Shuttleworth, &
Topham, 2017).

3. Correlation between science and culture
Science is generally related with the human development because it provides various
inventions and technological development for the people to improve their life style and
finding the cause and effect relationship. Human development can be described that it is the
development of mind, body, and culture of people and science plays an important role in it.
Same as technology, science is also part of human culture and determines the way of life and
cultural change among the people within a society (Kirs & Bagchi, 2012). There are many
physical science methodologies and rules applied on daily life of people that determines the
culture of people. Science in some way serves the culture and also helpful in forming new
cultures in the society. For example, using laptops, computers, and mobile phones has
changed the way of communication, which was earlier based on letters and large numbers of
days for delivering a message to one place to another place. Science deals with cause and it
helps in improving the life style and culture of people. Another example of use of science in
the human life is that people love to buy products through online sources, which is the magic
of science. Today nobody wants to use physical shopping method due to their busy life, but
science helps the people and now they can buy anything through online retail channels. The
culture of buying and selling has been automatically changed with the invention of
technological devices and Internet. The science has great impact on the culture of people
because it provides knowledge and learning to the people and help to change their views and
opinion about any particular perception of unconventional myth. As science is the integral

part of global culture and societies, it always interprets the reality and provides the solution of
existing problems (Yang, Sun, Zhang & Wang, 2017). It also helps in raising new problems
and through this approach; it can change the root of culture that is though and belief of
people, way of life, set of values, and points of interest of people. It has been seen that the
most obvious effect of science has been seen in the field of healthcare, technological
applications, lifestyle, and creating a new type of social structures in the society. However,
science is always correlated with the culture of people from the invention of wheel to
invention of mobile phones and Internet, science helped the humanity to improve the life
style of people and change their culture as per the modern needs and necessities. Sometimes
this happens with the increasing or growing needs of people because people invent the things
when it is necessary of understand the importance in their life. However, science has lot of
significant contributions in the culture change of people and makes the people more advanced
with changing time. At last, it can be said that science and culture are correlated with each
other and have a great influence on each other (Zhang, 2010).

4. Scientific inventions and developing technologies
The scientific inventions are generally related with the need of people and changing
life style of people. The invention of communication devices was done to smooth the
communication process between the people but it needs updating with increasing demand and
growing need of people. The use of 5G networks and VOLTE (Voice Over Long-Term
Evolution) technological development make the communication more smooth and easy for
people over Internet (Yashkova, Sineva, Semenov, Kuryleva, & Egorova, 2019). The use of
internet over mobile phones changed the culture of communication among the people all
around the world. It is importance to know that scientific inventions are just makes the thing
easier for people. It might be possible that invention may be useful or may not be useful for
the people, but developing technology somewhere help the people to use the invention for
their use and benefits that can help the society to change their culture as well (McMahon,
Seaman & Lemley, 2015).
Technology has a great influence on the culture of the society. The inventions
somewhere force the people to look for advancement in technologies and developing new
technologies to make the life easier in future. Technological development and scientific
interventions are strongly related to each other and provides a foundation for the cultural
change in the society. Science is a broader term and it is more comprehensive than culture.
Although every science is a culture but not every culture is science (Yang, Sun, Zhang &
Wang, 2017). However, the developing technologies assist the culture to evolve and grow as

per the future needs and requirements. It is also necessary to understand the scientific
inventions are responsible factors for developing technology that will further help a
community to change and grow their own culture and old beliefs as per the changing world.
People feel the requirement of new technology to communicate, getting better healthcare
services, and widen their social linkage with other community and in all that scientific
inventions and technological development helps the society and people to do so (Säljö, 2010).
However, the major thing that is noticeable here is developing technologies also helpful in
other science intervention. It means the developing technologies make the life better and
provide some useful benefits for the people that will help them to change their culture and
belief about other culture or people. The scientific intervention in itself is a helpful tool for
creating new interventions in the future and the developing technologies helps the science to
do more invention as well. However, both interventions and developing technologies have
great positive impact on the life of people and society. Technology not only helps the people
rather it also creates a cultural change among the people to protect their values, norms, and
beliefs with changing approach. The developing technology helps the people to do the work
in more comfortable and in easiest ways (Bell, 2005).

5. Cultural aspects of development of technologies
Technology has a great influence on culture and it not only influence the cultural
aspects of a society rather it also provide the foundation of cultural development in the
society. It is clear that society uses the technology and scientific inventions to solve their
problems and it helps the society to learn about the other culture as well and develop the
existing aspects of culture such as beliefs, trusts, values, or moral etc. Technology not only
helps the people to adopt the other culture rather it helps the people to understand the moral
values and avoid those acts that hurt other people or culture. It can also be said that
technology shapes the culture and also differentiates one culture from another culture.
However, the impact of technological development can generally be noticed in positive
aspects because it helps people to learn and grow in society and adopt the culture that
encourage people to make their life better than past. The technological development
especially in the field of social communication brings dramatic change in the culture and
provides facilities to the people to interact with other nation’s people (Tian, Deng, Zhang &
Salmador, 2018). The facility to communicate with rest of the world provides a major
platform for cultural development because people learn and get knowledge about different
culture ad adopt those values and beliefs, which is suitable for their modern living style.
Culture is generally determined as an essential factor that creates a sense of belongingness
and identity for every person in every society and technology assist in this cultural
development of people. The change in technology not only affects the belief or interest of

people rather provides a clear picture to the society to live a better life. The introduction of
new technology helps the people to learn new things from other culture, bring the appropriate
aspects of other culture in their own culture, and make the life of people better than the past
(Veblen, 2017).
It can be said that technology, science, and culture all three are interrelated and effects
each other in both positive and negative ways. Although the impact of technology on culture
cannot be foreseeable in long terms, but it can be said that technology has more positive
impact on culture rather than negative impacts. The scientific invention gives the birth to
technologies and technologies advancement further helps in scientific invention to support
the people and their culture. However, it can be said that science, technology, and culture all
are interrelated and are responsible factor for the human development and growth.