Modren technology is creating a ...

[Jules Verne]

A few comments

Modern technology has definitely made the lives of millions of people much easier. On the other hand, there are many people who still live behind it and they are not outnumbered. Also, in many senses, modern technology has not created a single culture for people in large parts of the world. As for the arguements you raised: Saudi families do have cars, but women are not allowed to drive it on their own. According to "single culture" terms (as I think they are), a woman is a free person who is allowed to move around anywhere she wants, and on her own. It's not such a big fun to live in a cage of gold. The Saudi regime is indeed a monarchy, but on February 10th, 2005, elections were held for the local councils throughout the country. Women were not allowed to vote. There Moslem women who wear head scarves and tight jeans, but that's because you live (I may guess) in a Western country that has a democratic regime. When Moslems become a majority in Europe for example (and they will, one day), don't be sure they'll keep wearing them. As for British TV serieses - they have been broadcast here for many years and they have not turned Israelis more polite (although there are many English people who can learn some manners from Israelis). The Israeli mentality is very different from the British one: we are warm, open, very sraightforward to an extent that's sometimes considered rude in England. On the other hand, no one is perfect: English people are known as cold and closed... As for America - American culture has greatly penetrated here, and not only because of TV. Many Israelis have toured, worked or lived the States and it difinitely influenced many of us. In my opinion even too much. As for the Far East - there are of course many places in which modern technology has had a great impact on lives of people, but not all of them. millions of Chinese people work like slaves for a tiny salary in factories; the high rate of povery in India and other Asian countries; the developed sex industry in Thailand that exploits women and young girls;North Korea which is a strory in itself. And I have not mentioned Africa, which in many of its area people have not met the term modern technology. To sum it all, the chances of modern technology to influence people depends very much on the regime of their country: if it is open and democratic, it will succeed. If not, things will remain the same until people deccide that enough is enough. In many Moslem countries the situation is different.

 

[רוקד עם שבלולים]

hang on a minute

I think you're misunderstanding something: When I gave all these examples of technology influencing people, I never meant that this influence is always a good thing. Telling me that the chinese factory worker is less happy than twenty years ago is true, but not to the point: he has been INFLUENCED. This is not a moral or judgemental observastion (good? bad?), merely a factual one. Asia is very deeply influenced by modern technology, be it for better or worse. So is Africa, by the way. From good things (vaccines, water purification) to very bad things (pollution, landmines) to other things (cellular phones, for instance, are a very intreguing thing in africa: in some areas there's one to a village, and the owner rents out cell-phone time to people). Israeli mentality is of course, all you say, but: a) it HAS been influenced by outside influences (a lot of it from TV, despite what you say about visits etc.) b) Don't forget the other side: British culture has cjanged radically in the past few decades. They have their outside influences too. I don't know about the future Muslem majority in Europe. I don't live there and don't want to, and I don't know what will happen (you want to talk about the future Muslem majority in Israel, while we'e at it?), but culture changes and I'm not so confident that the Muslim people living in Europe in sixty years' time will still be wearing (or thinking) the same things doday's people are.​

 

[Jules Verne]

You are missing the point

I wrote that modern technology has been influencing millions of people around. Unfortunately, not everyone fully shares it. The original issue of this post was weather modern technology was creating a single world culture. We can discuss and argue about the aspects of culture and its definition for long days. Also, I think that modern technology has indeed made people's lives much easier and it is spreading around the world at different paces with no one able to stop it. However, much of its success depends on the openess and willigness of state regimes to accept it as it is and not to block it or supervise it. Dictatorial or corrupt regimes are doomed to failure in this respect.

 

[רוקד עם שבלולים]

Am not ../images/Emo7.gif

I understand your point about places where technology does not as of yet permeate into the local culture due to heavy-handed regimes etc., and agree with your statement about "no one [being] able to stop it". compare that with the heading of your original post: "some things never change". Things change, even in places where they change slowly. That was my point, as opposed to your "never". Will that lead to a "single world culture"? As I maintain elsewhere in this thread, I don't think so. But the changes do occur and influence, in time, every single person on this planet, for better or worse (or both).​

 

[lol lypop]

that is exactly what i was trying

to say! especially the part about ppl not even hearing about modern technology. good job dude!

 

[רוקד עם שבלולים]

agree and disagree. read this:

While it is true that technology brings together people who would otherwise not have connected, and that technology exposes us all (or at least, those of us who are fortunate enough to afford modern technology) to similiar values, that does NOT mean that the world is becoming unified. Because we humans are tribal being, and we like to create defined groups for ourselves. Nowadays, you can find many people who seem ot operate in one culture but actually feel that they belong in another: the "geek" who lives in beer-sheba and chats for long hours with another Star Wars fan on a forum, and does not know his next-door neighbour's name - what culture is he living in? The Girl from Manchester or Brussles who reads of Britney Spears' life but does neither know nor care what her own Prime Minister's name is - is she a part of her culture? Or is she part of a different, Spears-centered culture that had developed as a result of the possibility of global communication? And net culture is not unified. Is Tapuz a "culture"? There are plenty of fora (forums) that I have no interest in whatsoever (and of course I don't consider them "worse" or "of lesser quality", only not interesting to myself). Am I a part of this culture? the English language is thought to be the great unifier: a huge number of people speak it, to some extent. When an Israeli and a Korean need to talk - English is what they will use. Is that not a shining example of creating a single world culture? But while this unification goes on, so do the splits: within English there appear different "sub languages". Can a London Cockney understand what an L.A. gangster is saying? can a canadian figure out what a person from Glasgow is talking about? Can a seventy year-old man undderstand an SMS that his granddaughter sends to her friends? we unite and split like the tides; over and over again, in an ancient rhythm. Technology is another instrument of this primal beat, not its instigator, not its death.​