Cultural considerations in the Digital Realm

Culture is a topic that fascinates me and is one that I’ve been endeavoring to learn more about over recent years. My interest in the subject comes from a rather belated realization that culture plays an influential role in various different aspects our lives — regardless of whether we are conscious of it, or not.

The original term, first coined in 1871 by Edward B Tylor in the book “Primitive Culture”, suggests that culture is:

“A complex whole, which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, customs, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society”

Tylor describes culture as being a full range of learned human behaviours and everything from our written languages, governments, buildings and other man-made things are each a product of culture. They are not culture in themselves.

From the time the term was first coined, culture has manifested in a variety of forms since, though it wasn’t until recently that my aha! moment occurred and I realized that this was the word to describe how our environment influences our behaviours and perceptions.

Organisational culture, for example, is a product of the collective values, attitudes, beliefs and perspectives of an organisation’s members and can affect how employees act and behave. Information culture is the result of various environmental, national and societal factors that influence the way in which people interact with, use and manage information (Oliver & Foscarini, 2014).

Today, in an increasingly digital world, where the Internet, mobile phones and various other evolving technologies are driving more modern practices, attitudes, modes of thought, and values, new and emerging cultures are also forming as a result. Cyberculture is one such culture that has arisen from the use of computers and technology for business, communication and entertainment purposes.

Over the course of the next several weeks I’ll be discussing the topic of culture from a digital perspective, exploring the effect that IT has on culture and highlighting what some of the key local, national and international considerations are.

An aspect I intend to explore in greater detail is the effect that globalisation and digitalisation are having, and will have, on local cultures. The reason for my particular interest in this area is three-fold;

Firstly, my completed research study explored digital technologies, specifically BYOD, and their impact on the educational outcomes of Māori students in Aotearoa New Zealand Secondary Schools (Bonica, 2015). While the study itself was not focused specifically on culture, many of the key themes that emerged from the findings were clearly the result of different cultures coming into play.

Soon after, I began investigating the digitization of Māori information sources and uncovered some of the threats this introduces to Māori culture and their identity. However, as this study was limited to a local perspective, it is not well understood yet whether these threats are relevant to other indigenous cultures across the globe. I hope to be able to expand this understanding from some of the articles we’ll be reading throughout the coming weeks.

Lastly, during a recent social media course, I explored the cultural considerations relating to social media positioning within an organisation and was severely disappointed at the time (but also not completely surprised) to find that there was little to no academic literature on this subject. I hope to explore this topic further to see whether or not this particular landscape has changed.

In saying that though, my research for that study did uncover some interesting themes relating to culture and cultural awareness, particularly those from Pookulangara and Koesler (2011), which are summarised as follows:

• Culture influences many aspects of business through differences in communication, transactions, negotiations and business,
• Characteristics of cultures can influence the compatibility or incompatibility of businesses with others in the business arena,
• Culture affects how people process, perceive and interpret information
• Cultural backgrounds and traditions may factor into a consumer’s opinion and attitude towards a brand, product or platform
• Social networks are not only a merging of cultures but also the creation of new online cultures.

As mentioned above, these three areas each describe certain facets of culture that I’m particularly interested in exploring further, but I am open to any feedback or suggestions if there’s a subject relating to culture that others would like to discuss in more detail.

On the subject of communication, I came across the following quote during a recent study, which has stuck with me because it highlights what I think is one of the most important cultural considerations… language!

“To learn about yourself in English and to pass it on in English is different from learning about yourself in Mohawk and passing it on in Mohawk.

There are so many things embedded in that language that you would miss in English…Our language expresses our worldview, English expresses a different worldview” Maina (2012)

I look forward to your comments!

References

Maina, C. K. (2012). Traditional knowledge management and preservation: Intersections with Library and Information Science. The International Information and Library Review, 44(1), 13–27.

Oliver, G., & Foscarini, F. (2014). Records management and information culture: part 1. In G. Oliver, & F. Foscarini, Records management and information culture: tackling the people problem (pp. 1–34).

Pookulangara, S., & Koesler, K. (2011, July). Cultural influence on consumers’ usage of social networks and its’ impact on online purchase intentions. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 18(4), 348–354.