Technology Use Differences In Different Cultures

In today’s globalized world, people around the globe use technology for their needs on a daily basis. Technology is supposed to make the life easier and more entertaining and fun for us. It offers numerous opportunities to make labor less difficult or hard, to get connected with those who are far away, to travel in far distances quickly, to access previously inaccessible information in different ways, etc. In terms of cultural exchange, technology makes peoples closer to each other, and numerous travelling opportunities intensify globalization and minimize cultural differences by making local cultures more open. At the same time, the influences, acceptance and use of technology still varies in different cultures. There is a number of reasons for that, starting from values and beliefs which enable or prohibit technological advance and progressive thinking, and ending with the level of economic development of a country and corresponding opportunities to finance technological development.

This topic is important because, technology’s limitations are a sort of cultural characteristic, too. Technology affects the life style and life quality of people. Studying technology and the degree of technology use across different cultures helps understand the way of thinking which is unusual to a culture of interest, as well as help us follow a particular culture more easily and communicate with its representatives. Personally, I am interested in studying the impact of technology and culture on one another because it is essential to know to what level do some cultures can get controlled and ruled by technology, and in other cultures, how limited technology they have. We should be aware of the influence of technology on culture and the other way around, and whether it benefits or harms us.

Technology refers to “a body of knowledge devoted to creating tools, processing actions and the extracting of materials” and is a rather wide term [1]. Technology is not science but it is related to science; technology can deal with material things, information, communication, business, etc. It is a dynamic thing offering potential for improvement and change. Those who use technology are usually effective, competitive, creative and innovative. Besides, technology relates to culture in that it fulfills the aims of cultures, it completes tasks more efficiently and anticipates the improvements in the lives of the next generations. Technological advance is one of the ways of how a culture develops.

Culture is a set of characteristics of a certain social group which is united by their beliefs, values, traditions, patterns of behavior, and cognitive constructs [2]. Societies are usually defined by culture. When a society starts using technology widely, its culture becomes affected by the degree of its common use. Both technology and culture are present in our daily life, either we notice that or not. Examples of technology include a wireless Bluetooth headset which is an example of communication technology, a combo kit of tools which is an example of construction technology, an off-road wheelchair which is an example of assistive technology, MRT equipment which is an example of medical technology, a Wi-Fi router which is an example of information technology, Sony PlayStation and VR glasses which are examples of entertainment technology, 3D printer which is an example of business technology, e-reader which is an example of education technology, etc. [1]. There are not so many scholars who compared technology use across cultures and who show certain patterns in the way technology penetrates the cultural dimension.

In his article for Productive Flourishing, Charley Gilkey studied how technology and culture influence each other. He found that not only culture creates technology but also technology affects culture [3]. For example, the mass production of vehicles led to creation the mass consumption culture as well as created communities of commuters, vacationers, and the suburbs. In other words, technology both derives from culture and creates it. This interconnection and influence makes cultures dependent on technology. In conditions of intense global rivalry of today, a culture may become more civilized or just collapse due to its technology level. In their article entitled “The Impact of Culture on the Adoption of High Technology Products,” Slowikowski and Jarratt also studied the way how technology and culture are interrelated. The authors reveal that culture affects consumer behavior and defines what people want and like to buy and to use. Thus, for example, such factors as “traditions,” “religion” and “fatality” affect people’s buying behavior and buying decisions. The study revealed differences in degree of technological innovation adoption between Vietnamese and Polish migrants to Australia because of their previous cultural background, values and beliefs [4].

The ancient history of Egypt and its civilization demonstrates that technology has been used since the earliest age of humanity development. During Egypt’s Old Kingdom, about 4,500 years ago, people built great huge pyramids of Giza which are famous and standing complete till today. Archeologists spent much time to reveal how Egyptians were able to build such large constructions because the stones used to build pyramids were very big and heavy. Khufu, the largest of the Giza pyramids, is 481 feet of massive, breathtaking stonework [5]. For a long time, it is considered the world’s wonder because ancient people had only rudimentary tools but still succeeded to make very accurate work.

According to Goldfarb and her study, the technology used to build Egyptian mechanisms applied the principles of fluid mechanics as well as water transportation system [5]. It means that the Egyptian culture, as we now know it, was much about scientific development and advanced education and research which allowed ancient constructors apply their knowledge to build great things which make Egypt famous around the world, till today. We strongly associate its culture with the pyramids nowadays and respect the level of the civilization’s development as well as get amazed of it. Other examples of profound technology use in the ancient history of humanity include the construction of Great Wall in China, wind-powered organs used in Ancient Greece, hydraulic and drainage systems invented and used in the Roman Empire, and many others. Even the artists of the Renaissance were masters of technology in the chemistry of coloring materials and canvas, because their paintings still exist and colors don’t disappear so that we can enjoy their creative works even now, after hundreds of years have passed [6,7]. With regards to the American history, the most noticeable era of technological advance was during the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century when machinery has first replaced people in production and agriculture and when mechanical transport was invented [6]. All in all, the modern scientific and technological advance would not go so far if we would not have the previous experience of cultural revival through technological advance in ancient and medieval times.

In different cultures, different technologies were invented. From the history of humanity, we see that some cultures invested more efforts and time into arts, while others invested into construction and manufacturing, or military technology, or agriculture-related technology. The context and geography as well as the strategic targets of the country defined the development direction. At the same time, the culture organically developed along with the inventions and degree of adoption that technology brought. Thus, ancient Egyptians have always worshiped their gods and made burials in the pyramids, while modern teenagers communicate using their smartphones and social media as well as entertain themselves by playing videogames remotely with their friends from all around the globe. Minding that in developing countries people are poorer and have less access to portable devices than in developed countries, for instance, the degree of smartphone use adoption is logically lower in Africa than in Europe. Thus, according to the Pew Research Center, in 2016, the penetration of smartphone use reached 71% in some European countries (like Spain), while it was as low as 4-37% in African countries such as Uganda, Nigeria and South Africa [8].

Today, the notion of culture has become much wider. There are such notions as corporate culture, popular culture and consumer culture. These are also by-products of certain technological advance. For example, mass consumption was created due to mass production and assembly line invention, as mentioned above. Popular culture is usually born in relation to a certain ready product which comes out of technology use, and corporate culture is what shapes the context of business-related technologies. Information technology also creates the new era of virtual communication and active social media use. Because technology allows doing something better, it is a good way to create competitive advantage. Companies can organize their corporate cultures around the values of progressive creativity, innovation, continuous research and development, continuous quality improvement, and active technology use to enable all these. For example, technology use in supply-chain business processes can make a company more effective and efficient and increase its profitability, thus, making it more competitive on the market [10]. As a result, the company will be able to implement the price leadership strategy and beat its rivals with low prices while gaining more loyal consumers. Another example of how a company can use technology to become more competitive is implementing an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and monitoring and managing its ratios better. What unites these examples is the corporate culture which enables technology use. Without all people thinking that technology is good (not evil) and aid at their work, its wide adoption will not be possible and the company will not become the market leader.

Yet, technology does not always have positive impact on culture. Its influence can also be harmful. Thus, for example, active use of information and communication technologies made people go online and minimize their live communication and real contacts as well as spoiled the way people build relationships. Technology overload for modern people at work also known to increase the degree of stress. Thus, the modern urban culture is associated with anxiety, rush, stress and informational overload. In particular, children and teenagers demonstrate warning symptoms. According to a recent study, young generation is the most vulnerable to suffer from active social media and internet use. Thus, they experience cyberbullying, “Facebook depression,” sexting, and exposure to inappropriate content [9]. The negative impact of information and communication technology use also includes problems with sleep, frequent tiredness, lack of concentration, memory and learning issues, etc.
In addition, the predisposition to virtual communication and networking makes teenagers and youth unable to develop soft skills such as communication and relationship building [9]. The culture of “always being connected” destroys families and raise people who prefer entertainment and leisure over realization and joy from simple, real life. It is hard for them to be happy and to maintain high level of satisfaction with their life.

The mass impact of technology on whole generation cannot be easily limited or managed and requires societal level of influence. Thus, in some countries where governments care about the life quality of their citizens, nations’ plans include measures to be taken in this area. For example, in the United Arab Emirates, the so-called National Program for Happiness and Positivity was introduced in 2016. It does not aim at developing and introducing tools to measure happiness nationwide but also tries to promote positivity and happiness as a lifestyle in the community [11]. In particular, this culture of nation-wide happiness is implemented via social advertising and education.

Concluding the above, both technology and culture are broad notions which are closely interrelated. They influence and shape one another, and common technologies don’t exist without surrounding cultures, the same as cultures rarely exist without some type of technology. Sometimes, cultural values can be barriers to technology adoption, while in other cases they may be the factors that attract and encourage technology use. Different cultures have different technology acceptance level. Those cultures, which have low level of technology use, should think of values, beliefs and ideas which create constraints to technology adoption. For example, religious values may consider technology use as a sin or kind of unacceptable behavior. In cases when technology affects culture considerably or creates a new one, the technology owners should be aware of the characteristics and mind managing these cultural traits by promoting certain values of technology use as well as warning about its undesired use, such as crime, and preventing corresponding actions.

On the social level, governments should remember about harmful use of technology on a daily basis and invest into education and social advertising to increase awareness about negative impact and risks for health. To increase life quality in a country, it makes sense to pay attention to promoting values that outbalance excessive technological dependency and artificial living instead of live communication with one another. Countries (with their national cultures), businesses (with their corporate culture) and other competing entities should use technologies to become more efficient and competitive. Yet, they should use them wisely and stick to their moral values and ethical code of conduct. Lastly, scholars should continue studying impact of culture and technology on one another to help people and organizations have more control over technology use in their life as well as over values and beliefs of their mother culture.