We understand by culture all those material, spiritual and ideological manifestations that represent one or several people and that identify them as part of a larger group of individuals. Culture is a creation of the human being if we take into account that the remaining living beings subsist from the use of the medium but not from its creation. Thus, although we share with them the organic functions that cause us to be born, grow, reproduce and die, culture is an exclusive good of man that equals all individuals, since we can all create it, but at the same time it makes us different between each other, because each one creates his own culture, increasing the wealth that the human being composes.
Our behavior patterns, belief systems, principles and ways of life derive from culture, which in a few words is the sum of all forms of art, love and thought, that over time have allowed beings humans to be freer.
Cultural representations such as art, literature, language and religion, together with the values and beliefs of a community, form its essence and are manifested through the lifestyle of those who belong to it. Each culture is special, different and it is that diversity that enriches us the most.
Culture is related to the development of our attitude because our values influence the way we live. According to the behavioral definition, this is the last system of social control where people have mastery of their own norms and behaviors. Values are our fundamental principles, they shape what we think, how we proceed and our way of being.
Technological advances are extremely important, as they connect people around the world in various ways; Knowledge, money, images, music, ideas and information move around the world. Technology is completely linked to culture because the latter changes according to the environment in which it develops, but in turn modifies what is around it.
Origin of digital culture
The paradigm of digital culture is created by the need to explain a series of phenomena and effects that digital technology has developed in different contemporary cultures, somehow changing trends in the social behavior of individuals and groups. Although the knowledge and knowledge required and derived from the different digital tools can also be called “digital culture”, their definition has increasingly diverged from the tools and has focused more on the changes that their uses generate in certain human population.
In the history of humanity, the trend of social and cultural changes has been repeated from the different technological eras: It was agronomic, industrial and information age, but cultural changes have never occurred as dramatic and accelerated as in the last decades, the generation of new means of communication that allow not only instantaneous communication regardless of geographical location, but the possibility of communication between millions of people generating an outline of "global collective consciousness". (Suarez, 2013)
Definition of digital culture
There are various definitions of digital culture, but all of them tend to converge around the creation and use of online digital information. The use of the term "culture" refers to the emergence of new means of interaction, new ways of being and of forming communities of interaction. The addition of the term "digital" is used to contrast with analog media. In other words, the term digital culture can be defined as the evolving use of digital information and as a channel for social and economic exchange mediated by technological devices. (Ferrari)
Digital culture encompasses not only new information and communication media such as the Internet, email, social media, etc., but all traditional media, now digitized, TV, radio, press, cinema. The new communicative communities that are born from the universalization of Internet access presuppose the occupation of new social spaces that are increasingly diversified. (Vilches, 2001)
The technology user is not a simple consumer, the user is someone who interacts creatively with technology, producing and participating in the global sphere. The user is the prosumer. Likewise, digital culture is not just a product, digital culture is the process of creating culture through new technologies. Furthermore, digital culture has the power to create cultural trends that are specific to digital platforms. It is not only the expansion of previous forms of interaction and creation, it is a new way of producing social expressions and of understanding citizenship through the concept of prosumer.
Culture is life and is, therefore, dynamic, in movement and permanent transformation, it has the property of conserving, innovating, discarding and renewing the elements that constitute it in the historical evolution of communities, of peoples. Not being linear or static like the world itself, cultural identity cannot be understood as the immutable, the immovable, but quite the opposite, as what remains when everything is destroyed.
Digital age
The digital age is the name given to the period in human history that is linked to information and communication technologies. The beginning of this period is associated with the digital revolution, although it has its antecedents in technologies such as the telephone, radio or television, which caused the flow of information to become faster than physical movement.
The digital age has revolutionized our way of communicating, of relating to friends and people in our work environment, of obtaining information, has generated new ways and formats of searching for news, and has created new forms of leisure.
Young people (and those who are no longer so) have adopted this language as their natural way of relating to the world, which has created such a demand that each home, each office, each airport, aspires to have an internet connection.
The digital age also encompasses organizations, which have opted for the use of technology for better control of their processes, greater publicity, reach more customers and provide services through the new information media.
Communication and Internet
With the emergence of cell phones and the internet, the way of communicating changed radically, now you no longer need to be at home to receive a call, a text message or search for information on a computer. The cell phone has changed the way in which human beings communicate and this has modified the culture that was in communication. From different parts of the world, a single call can communicate to two or more people and even video calls can also be made and it is no longer just hearing a person's voice, but it can also be seen in real time.
An example of these new means of communication is WhatsApp, which is a digital messaging service that allows millions of people around the planet to communicate daily.
Another way to communicate currently is through email, which has replaced traditional mail, in a matter of seconds a letter can be sent from one place to another compared to the time that traditional mail was carried.
Communities and virtual networks
A virtual community is a social network of individuals that interact with each other through a specific social virtual medium. Virtual communities are not limited by geographic borders and their members can share information, ideas, activities and events without having to leave their home. Unlike social networks oriented from the interaction between individuals sharing their preferences and experiences; Virtual communities are organized around the interests common to a group. In the digital world there are multiple types of social networks with different purposes.
The most important example is Facebook, which is a free service that allows people to connect online. As a registered user on your website, you can manage your own personal space: create photo albums, share videos, write notes, create events or share your mood with other users on the network.
The large number of users available, the acceptance it has had, and the accessibility facilities it offers, such as access to the platform from mobile terminals, have allowed this network to grow very quickly in a short time.
The main use of this page is to share resources, impressions and information with people you already know (friends or family). Although it can also be used to meet new people or create a space where you can maintain a close relationship with the clients of a business.
In addition, it has an important interactivity component. It has a series of mini applications available, such as games that allow you to interact with other users. On the other hand, it allows to develop applications that can be used from the web page.
This social network has revolutionized the culture of both society and organizations, changing the way of communicating and being in contact. In society, people can now form virtual groups of some common interest, whether just for fun or even religion, share experiences, photos, images, videos or even find a partner through this medium. Now it is no longer necessary to be with friends in the same place physically, with just one click, you can have a conversation with someone somewhere else in the world with the only requirement of having an internet connection.
As for companies, they are no longer the traditional organizations that were only dedicated to producing and selling, now they are also interested in customer welfare and satisfaction and Facebook is one of the main means of obtaining the information they need. As for advertising, this social network is now part of the main broadcast media that are used.
Professional networks
The purpose is purely professional, and the treatment is more formal. Although they have common characteristics with social networks - keeping in touch with friends, meeting new people, creating and sharing content - the main essence of professional networks is to be a community where professionals from different sectors and nationalities establish professional relationships.
The main possibilities offered by professional networks are: posting a professional profile, finding and inviting colleagues to join the network, accessing fellow colleagues, sharing knowledge, participating in discussion groups, publicizing a company or a product, search for allies, partners or investors, and access job offers.
Professional networks are revolutionizing job search methods, on the one hand, and candidate recruitment processes, on the other. Fundamentally, professional networks have two practical uses: people who are looking for or want to change jobs, and companies that want to sign a worker. (Gili, 2012)
The largest professional network in the world is Linkedin, which links more than 42 million users from more than 200 countries in the world, of which approximately half are from outside the United States. Professionals from 170 sectors form part of Linkedin, many of them belonging to most Fortune 500 companies.
Digital entertainment
books
The entertainment sector has been one of the most transformed and affected in the digital age, for example, books became digital files and this has modified the way they are read, now it is no longer necessary to have a book physically, since It can be had on a mobile device and it is also necessary to mention that some have become audio books, in which the "reader" only has to listen to it instead of reading it. Of course, this has transformed the culture of reading and has caused the interest in reading to be gradually lost.
Music
Music has also changed and it has been adapting to the digital era, now there are virtual stores to buy songs or digital discs, leaving aside physical discs. And there are also companies that offer the music service, for example, Spotify that gives access to millions of songs through a subscription.
Games
The video game industry has also undergone changes, currently there are millions of games available online, some for pay and most free. They have displaced traditional board games and now people are focused on playing in virtual worlds, although as a consequence, it has caused isolation from other people.
TV
You cannot fail to mention television as one of the most modified in the digital age, they went from being simple devices that only showed the public the signal they received to devices connected to the internet that offer various services, from video games to online, movies to internet searches.
Movies and Cinema
Although it is true that cinema has been transformed into the digital age with the appearance of technologies such as 3D and 4D, it is also very true that it is one of the industries that has seen the most negative effects in this era, since downloading and viewing illegal movies on the network has caused various problems with great consequences for this sector.
Photography
The way of taking photos has changed, now anyone with a mobile device can take a photo and instead of having them physically, they just settle for saving it digitally, those days when the physical photos of each important moment abounded are long gone., now everything is concentrated in a storage device.
It is also worth mentioning that there are social networks of photographs, such is the case of Instagram, in which users publish and share photos to be seen by the rest of the world.
Videos
As with photographs, recording a video is now part of the services that can be found on a mobile device and there are also specific places to share and / or view them. YouTube is the main place to upload and share videos. In it you can find movies, tv shows, series or amateur videos of content such as video blogs among an infinity of things and themes.
Digital culture in society
The digital age produced a complete transformation in the culture of societies, it has transformed the lifestyle of people, although it is true that it has facilitated some things, it is also true that it has brought some problems with it. The new generations are now digital, it is common to see children of 4 or 5 years old handling a mobile device better than an adult.
The digital era has also had an effect on education, students now have new ways and sources to study and in some cases to learn, such as distance education for example.
If you are lost or you do not know how to get there or where a specific point is, just look at the maps on your cell phone and they will be the perfect guide to solve that problem.
The way of buying products and services has also changed, it is no longer necessary to physically go to the store to buy something, simply by simply entering the website of a store you can buy from the comfort of home.
If you want to know something, a news item, learn a recipe or meet people, everything can be done through digital media. The way of communicating and relating is no longer the same as before, now physical contact is no longer necessary.
However, the impact of digital culture is different depending on geographic location, since digital democracy does not yet exist as such throughout the world, that is, not all people have access to new technologies.
Digital culture in organizations
The culture of organizations has also been transformed by the digital age, for example in a company technology has helped to take better control of the different areas.
The emergence of electronic commerce is another way in which a company can sell its products or services and can also buy from its suppliers using the same tool.
For a business meeting, it is no longer necessary for everyone to be physically present, videoconferences have revolutionized the way meetings are held, regardless of the distance or time of the place where they are. To invite people to attend the meeting or video conference, now a sheet of paper is no longer necessary, with an email is sufficient.
Many companies hire remote workers, who are part of the organization, but may be physically located thousands of kilometers.
Definitely the culture of organizations has changed thanks to technology, however sometimes it does not always have positive effects, such is the case of communication, although it is true that companies are now better communicated, it is also true that lack of physical or visual contact, makes communication ties cold.
Advantages of digital culture
- It has allowed us to get closer to man, even if it is virtual. Digital media allow us to take man to spaces of difficult access and favor the development of artifacts that are an extension of the capacities of the senses helping to increase knowledge of the world. Education is a fact that digital tools will not be able to replace the teacher, but well used they are an extension of the educational stimuli, helping to clarify ideas or concepts and allowing to visualize places that will probably never be visited. The digital age and its network environment have allowed the limits of science to be expanded.
Disadvantages of digital culture
- First of all, the digital age implies technological power and that, at the same time, a cultural domination. The population in the cities has consumed digital technology for its apparent benefit; however, men have become a series of numbers and data with which they are labeled or classified. The worst thing is that if the digital age were to slow down, it would create an economic and computer chaos. On the other hand, the excessive use of certain technologies has favored family disintegration. Invasion of privacy. In turn, another negative aspect is certain changes psychological that society has experienced in a drastic way. Another negative aspect of the digital age is that with the increase of technologies the number of users that have assimilated the proposal of the big monopolies in the areas of networks, media, has also increased.telecommunications, hardware and software. Consumers in underdeveloped countries are being cultured. Untouchable figures (such as Bill Gates) have been created, who have managed to raise millions of dollars with companies dedicated to air networks and digital media. It is an elite that determines the products to be used and how they will dominate the culture.
They even offer solutions to problems in the governments of the most powerful nations in the world. Thus, air and network owners use technological advances at their convenience, gradually unveiling their inventions to force consumers to buy new devices to keep up with the latest needs. Although more advanced systems have already been developed, previous or limited versions are given to society in order to recover millions of investments in product research. It has been tried to make of the technological artifacts an extension of the body and the senses and with that the consequences have had to be assimilated. Media such as television have been integrated into everyday life and companies have decided what should be shown. A few make the decision of millions. (Martínez, s.F.)
Future of digital culture
The future of the digital age is uncertain and offers mixed visions. Some good for society and other apocalyptic ones. Within the different approaches, the mass media will play a very important role. Digital culture needs to be for everyone and not just for those who have the ability to invest large sums of money in network-connected equipment. It will take a few decades for digital systems to be cheap enough and to offer global networks with free access and public order.
The new generations will be involved with even more technology, and this will affect their way of living and thinking, which is why the digital culture of the future will cause even greater changes than those that are lived today.
conclusion
The new information and communication technologies have transformed the culture of both society and organizations. While it is true that this change brought many benefits such as better communication and further development, it has also brought negative impacts, for example, the isolation of people.
Every day new technologies appear that transform people's habits, their objective in most cases is to make things easier, however, it seems that bad habits are being created.
As new things or technologies appear, people will continue to change and as this happens, the culture will be transformed.
References
Ferrari, L. (sf). Digital Culture. Obtained from
Gili, J. (May 11, 2012). Professional networks and job search. Obtained from
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Martínez, V. (sf). Digital Culture: Advantages and disadvantages of the global network. Obtained from
Suarez, C. (June 29, 2013). What is digital culture? Obtained from
Vilches, L. (2001). Digital migration. Gedisa.
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