What is the impact of digital forms of communication in a global context?

Identity

Technological advances have made it possible for there to be a much greater capacity of information passed to individuals in their own homes, workplaces and during their leisure time. This means that people have a greater range of choices and information on different lifestyles and cultures all over the world.

This has without doubt given rise to a much wider range of resources through which to develop identity.

For example, if a person wished, they could easily discover religious practices from other areas of the world and share these traditions with people all over the globe, without needing to find a group nearby.

Globalisation and the proliferation of technological advances coupled with other wider changes in society such as increasing affluence in some parts of the developing world have also meant that traditional sources of identity such as social class in the UK have become less clear.

Poountney states that globalisation and technological advances have, in some ways, made traditional influences such as social class less pertinent to the formation of identity

She argues that the greater access to information that is gained from digital communication has provided more opportunities for people to choose their identity

The blurring of lines between different social classes by no means results in a more equal society: inequalities still exist.

However ethnicity or gender may have become a more important factor in defining a persons’ identity than social class, for example.

Of course, many of the changes linked to identity are increased by the increase in migration or population movement that accompanies globalisation.

Identity as chosen and not given

The emergence of online identities or avatars as they are sometimes known provides people with the opportunity to decide which kinds of identity and appearance that they might like to choose, as opposed to certain characteristics such as gender and class, which are often (but not always) given.

The kinds of identity that people want to take on and the ways that they represent themselves reveals important information about the individuals and attitudes in wider society.

In online settings such as social network sites, chat rooms, or discussion groups, identity processes are complicated because many identity cues (such as gender or age) are masked and can be selectively shared, withheld, or misrepresented.

In these and other online contexts, identity is essentially constructed by the user.

Individuals can adopt multiple online personalities, and online activities often leave visible traces which can be captured, tracked, packaged, and shared (Ellison, 2013).

People’s online identities continue to overlap with their offline lives, sometimes with positive or negative effects.

For example, the UK’s first youth police and crime commissioner, Paris Brown, resigned from her post following criticism of messages she posted on Twitter.

Police investigated Paris Brown following investigations into tweets she posted between the ages of 14 and 16 which could be considered racist and anti-gay.

She argues that the greater access to information that is gained from digital communication has provided more opportunities for people to choose their identity

Social network platforms such as Facebook have become the most important infrastructure through which people organise their lives and interact with others in the 21st century.

In particular, Facebook has become the major agency for packaging, promoting and presenting the self for public consumption.

People use Facebook (and other social media platforms like Twitter, SnapChat and Instagram) to project their identity out into the world, to show who they are.

Virtual world sites such as Second Life enable people to choose alternative identities.

All in all, then, new forms of digital communication have given people greater choice in selecting and constructing the identity that they want to present to the wider world.

Bjorklund argues that Facebook allows people to construct an ongoing autobiography online. Facebook is essentially a record of how people see their lives.
Hart argues that people use social media platforms in order to construct both their social identity and the self that they want to project out into the social world.
Identity is therefore a social product constructed by members of social networks for consumption by others in return for admiration and social approval.
According to Turkle, internet-based social networks free people of the burdens of their physical identities and allow them to present ‘better’ versions of themselves.
In a 2010 TED Talk, Amber Case claims that humans are evolving into cyborgs who are increasingly reliant on their ‘external brains’ in the form of mobile phones and computers. In particular, she argues that people are now more able to select and develop different aspects of their identity in a global rather than a local context.

Case believes that is mostly beneficial but it can be dangerous too because identity now involves a digital ‘trail’ which may be used to cause harm, for example, by adolescents to cyber-bully their peers

We are all cyborgs now, Case (2007)

According to Amber Case (2007) because people’s use of technology is so embedded in their daily lives, they are becoming cyborgs.

By this she means that people are part human part machine.

She argues that the way that people interact with technology defines their identity.

In her study of the effects of mobile phone use, Case argues that people are now in a post modern era much more able to select and develop different aspects of their identity in a global rather than a local context.

Case regards this as potentially beneficial, but warns about the dangers of digital communication which results in a trail of information about someone that can be difficult to remove.

For example, the usual mistakes made in adolescence (such as saying the wrong thing, or acting inappropriately) are recorded through digital media, whereas in the past such errors were not as visible

The Impact of digital forms of communication

Social inequalities

Digital communication relies upon various devices through which the internet can be accessed. These devices are expensive, need maintaining and regular updating.

For example, tablets can cost over five hundred pounds and monthly internet connection fees are on average £15, a month.

Further there are areas of the country where access to high speed broadband connection is possible whereas in other parts of the country it is not available.

There is considerable consumer choice and competition, for example, owning the latest phone or tablet has become seen as important by many.

For those who cannot afford these items, known as the digital underclass, this results in even greater disadvantage and less social capital.

This is because:

Social networks are largely dependent on digital communication.
Education for children now relies a lot on digital communication, thus disadvantaging many children who cannot afford to have smartphones or access to the internet.
A knowledge gap is created between those who have access to the internet and can quickly access information, services and ideas and those who cannot
People may feel inferior or lacking because they are not sharing in digital forms of communication.
Information shared through digital communication can shape cultural ideas and if excluded from this people may feel removed from what is happening in society.

There have been a number of studies around the world which have found evidence of a digital divide based along the lines of social class.

Digital communication may be less available to the poor because of its expense.

It has been argued that digital communications are dominated by middle-class usage because this social class can afford to invest in the most recent digital technology.•

It is argued that the revolution in digital communication has created a digital underclass because the poor lack the resources to join in with this new media usage.

It has been claimed that this digital underclass is characterised by unemployment, lower education levels, a smaller range digital skills and lack of social capital – networks of people or contacts that can provide essential support, guidance and advantage.

Mertens and D’Haenens in their study of digital users in Belgium, found that 94 per cent of the middle class used digital forms of communication, compared with 81 per cent of those from working-class backgrounds.
Those from working-class backgrounds tend to use digital communication for the purpose of entertainment via game consoles, while middle-class users used it mainly for education and to accumulate information.

The digital divide, Mertens and D’Haenens (2010)

Mertens and D’Haenens (2010) found in their study of the digital divide in Brussels that lower social class was linked with lower internet use (81 per cent are users, compared to 94 per cent of middle class).

Moreover, individuals with low social class tended to focus their technology use on entertainment rather than knowledge and information (79 per cent owned game consoles, compared to 65 per cent for higher social class).

While they originally sought to measure digital inequality by ethnicity and gender, they found that social class is the most powerful social variable.

In reality, this relationship between social class and use of the internet and digital media may be even greater than the research suggested because of embarrassment to admit low status, although the questionnaire was anonymous.

Similar results are found in digital access divides in Latin America (Brazil and Uruguay), which showed that social class was more important than other factors such as age, gender and education level.

Some sociologists are concerned about what has been described as a digital divide, that is the inequalities are apparent in terms of who has access to digital forms of communication mainly computers, broadband and internet access and smartphones

Access to and use of digital communication and being regularly and positively connected to others in netwroks bring bout social capital

Conversely some groups may be denied access to such social capital

The Generational Divide

Quick-moving nature of digital world means that younger users come of age in a vastly different media envrionemnt than those who were born just a few years apart and this makes it difficult to ascertain whether there is a generational divide in the use of digital communication

When digital technology first took off in the 1990s, it was probably true that the older generation was left behind by a so called net generation

However in the 21^st century, micro-generation gaps are now apparent with each group of children uniquely influenced by the lastest digital tools available in their formative stages of development

Prensky refers to these young people as digital natives as the internet is a natural environment into which they are fully integrated

Fluency in digital culture Is second nature to them and they feel a strong sense of communicity when online

The most of them are confident users of multiple devices on which they multitask

Research suggests that those in the net generation who are now in their mid 30s and early 40s still spend time talking on their smartphones still watch television and use email frequently

However, the micro-generation of the early to mid 2000s is called the iGeneration so they spend considerably more time texting than talking on the phone, tends to communicate more over instant messager networks such as uploading, blogging and networking

It may be the case that the next mirco-generation of digital communication users will be very different from their older siblings as the technology is evolving swiftly

In thw 2015 Ofcom survey syggests that the mirco-generational divide between young and middle aged or elderly users mya now be in decline as older age groups increasingly engage in online activites such as social networking via smartphones and tablets

Digital Class dividie

Helsper argued that digital communication are dominated by middle-class usage as this social class can afford to invest in the most recent digital technology

It is argued that the revolution in digital communications has created a digital underclass as th poor lack the resources to jin in with this new media usage

Helsper claims that this digital underclass is characteristic by unemployment, lower education levels and low digital skills

Evidence suggest that although the digital class divide has narrowed in recent years – still exists such as survey demonstrate the so-called digital underclass has increased in useage of the internet access rate than other social groups

In 2015, Ofcom survey also found that 95% of the AB socioeconomic groups use of a range of new media devices to go online in any location compared to 75% of DE socioeconomic and 86% of all socioeconomic groups

Three-quarters of Abs own a smartphone compared to only 54% of Des

Gendered Digital Divide

Li and Kirkup (2007) found significant differences between men and woman in UK in their use of digital communication

Attitudes towards the internet and computers, Li and Kirkup (2007)

Li and Kirkup (2007) investigate differences in use of, and attitudes toward the internet and computers generally for Chinese and British students, and gender differences in this cross-cultural context.

Using a sample of 220 Chinese and 245 British students, they carried out a self-report survey questionnaire.

They found significant differences in internet experience, attitudes, usage, and self-confidence between Chinese and British students.

Most significant however, were the gender differences that were also found in both groups.

Men in both countries were more likely than women to use email or chat rooms.

Men played more computer games than women.

Interestingly, men in both countries were more self-confident about their computer skills than women and were more likely to express the opinion that using computers was a male activity and skill.

Gender differences were higher in the British group than the Chinese group.

The study illustrates the continued significance of gender in students’ attitudes towards, and use of computers, within different cultural contexts

Men are more likely than woman to use e mails or chat rooms and men played more computer games on consoles such as the Xbox than woman

Ofcom (2015) reported that in 2014 adult males in the UK accessed the internet for an average of 23.3 hours per week compared with 17.8 hours for adult females

Woman (67%) were slightly more likely than men (60%) to go online and to use social media sites

Gender differences reveal interesting patterns about the different ways in which men and women engage with digital communication.

Earlier in the chapter we discussed some feminist theoretical interpretations of the gender divide in relation to digital communication

Statistics reveal the following about gender and digital communications in the USA:

Younger women are much more likely to use digital forms of communication to maintain social relationships: 42 per cent of women use social media to stay in touch, compared with 34 per cent of women age 18–34.
Younger users (particularly men) use social media for a wider variety of reasons other than maintaining relationships, particularly entertainment (28 per cent).
Younger women spend the least amount of time using social media to find information (16 per cent).
Women have an average number of 394 posts on Facebook and 69 per cent of Facebook gamers are women, again outnumbering the men.
In each month in 2014, 40 million more women visited Twitter than men and among the top 50 brands followers on Instagram, 53 per cent were woman.

Google+ was 64 per cent male user based and 25 per cent of men watched a video daily on YouTube.

Global Divide

World bank in 2012 about three-quarters of the world’s population had access to a mobile phone

There are 6 billion mobile subscriptions in use worldwide and nearly 5 billion are in developing countries

The west still has greater access to mobile broadband and the internet than the less developed world

Mobile phone use has spread particularly quickly in Africa

In 2014, it was estimated that 72% of Africans use mobile phones

There are regional disparities in access to mobile phones such as in Eritrea only 5% of the population owns a mobile phone while over 70% og people in south Africa, Nigeria and Kenya have phones

Smartphones are less widely used

Only 18% of Africans had access to smartphone in 2014 although significant minorities own these devices in several nations including 34% of south Africans and 27% Nigerians

Only 7% of Africa inhabitants are online

Mobile connectivity in Africa is limited

Digital connectivity is highest in south Africa and Nigeria

Difficulties of access to the internet are also compounded by the fact that most of the language of the world wide web is English and a fairly large proportion of people in African countries are illiterate

Peoples Identity

Social networking platforms like Facebook have become the most important infrastructure through which people organise their lives and interact with others in the 21^st century

Facebook has become a major agency for packaging, promoting and presenting the self for public consumption

People use Facebook to project their identity out into the world so they show who they are

Virtual world sites such as second life enable people to choose alternative identities

New forms of digital communication have given people greater choices in selecting and constructing the identity that they want to present to the wider world

Van Dijk argues that people have a vested interest in what castells calls mass self-communication as they subscribe to the view that disclosing information about their identity is closely associated with popularity

According to turkle, internet based social networks free people of the burdens of their physical identities and allow them to present better versions of themselves

Interesting dimension of digital media is millions of people like to construct new identities for themselves in online virtual worlds

Boellstorff has conducted research into second life, which is most popular of these worlds and found that the experience of virtual worlds can reshape ideas about people’s identity

Carters research another virtual community, Cybercity, observes that users see their online identities as just as important as their offline identities and friendships made online often migrate into real world

Age and digital communication

Young people, in particular, have taken advantage of digital technology to engage in frequent on-the-run communication with friends.

In the UK, over 90 per cent of 16-to 24-year-olds send at least one text per day, while 73 per cent also use social networking sites to send messages and maintain relationships.
The average UK person sends 50 texts per week, although this number is small compared to the 60 texts per day sent by the ‘typical’ teen.

There are a number of reasons suggested by sociologists for this high uptake of digital communication by young people:

Boyle argues that each successive generation is more proficient with and dependent on digital media.
Boyle argues that young people are more receptive to learning the new skills demanded by the newer forms of digital technology and communication.
Socologists argue that young people’s involvement in public digital networks helps them to manage the transition from adolescence to adult society and assists their understanding of how to successfully negotiate public life.

This is possible because sites like Facebook mirror and magnify both the positive and negative aspects of public everyday life.

Young people have greater access to the means of digital communication because parents are now spending more money on their children.
Children and young people have more time on their hands to use digital communication because they generally have fewer responsibilities.

Turkle suggests that young people are mentally ‘tethered’ to their digital devices.

This can be seen in their frequent need to track and check their connections.

She argues that this has weakened their ability to develop an autonomous sense of self.

They are too dependent on how other people react to them online.

It is as if their thoughts and feelings are not real until they have been digitally validated by others.

The way that digital communication is used by older people contrasts vividly with the way it is used by the young.

Nearly four in five households have an internet connection compared with less than two in five households of pensioners.
However, a survey conducted by Ofcom in 2015 suggests that older generations (silver surfers) are beginning to use digital forms of communication more frequently, because older people are more affluent today compared with previous generations of the elderly

Digital communication devices also have practical appeal to the elderly, for example, online shopping.

Berry found that older people who did not regularly use digital communication mainly blamed lack of skills and interest or psychological barriers rather than reasons of cost.
There are signs that the greater take-up of digital communication by older people may have benefits for their self-esteem and identity.

Researchers who carried out a study of elderly people’s use of social media in Britain and Italy found that training older vulnerable people to use social media improves cognitive capacity, increases their sense of self-competence and could have a beneficial overall impact on mental health and physical wellbeing.

Researchers found that the majority of their elderly sample who had the hardware and the know-how, reported feeling less isolated because of the digital connections they could make with relatives, friends and people with shared interests.

The Ofcom Report (2014) revealed the following patterns.

More UK adults, especially older adults, are now going online, using a range of devices.
Privacy and security attitudes and behaviour continue to vary considerably by age group.
Over eight in ten (83 per cent) of adults now go online.

Nearly all 16–24s and 25–34s are now online (98 per cent), and there has been a nine-percentage point increase in those aged 65+ ever going online (42 per cent vs. 33 per cent in 2012).

The number of adults using tablets to go online has almost doubled; from 16 per cent in 2012 to 30 per cent in 2013.

While almost all age groups are more likely than previously to use tablets, the use by those aged 35–64 has doubled, while use by 65–74s has trebled; from 5 per cent to 17 per cent.

This undoubtedly means greater use of digital communication.

Six in ten UK adults (62 per cent) now use a smartphone, an increase from 54 per cent in 2012.
Gaming has grown in popularity, driven by older age-groups and mobile phones.
Compared to 2012, those aged 45–54 are twice as likely to play games over the internet (18 per cent vs. 9 per cent).

65 per cent of men and 48 per cent of women age 18–34 use Wikipedia, compared with 40 per cent of men and 28 per cent of women age 35+.

Two thirds (66 per cent) of online adults say they have a current social networking site profile.

The sociologist Boyle (2007) argues that with each successive generation, the greater the reliance on and use of digital communication.

So much so, that this has contributed to the idea that there is a ‘digital generation divide’ between the old, who are less likely to use digital communication and the young, who are very proficient and reliant on it.

Boyle argues that the generational divide is not particular to digital communication, but can be seen within the media more generally, with younger generations taking an interest in different forms of music such as rock and pop while adults prefer alternative types of music and taste in art and so forth.

Boyle also suggests that young people are more receptive to learning new skills demanded by new forms of technology and communication.

It may also be because young people are perhaps keener to explore and assert their emergent adult identities and digital communication can be the most effective way to do this. Young people are likely to place greater importance on their peer group and social networks, which are highly influential in their lives during their adolescence, which may be another reason why they are more likely to use digital forms of communication.

Another factor to consider is that some (but by no means all) is that parents are spending more money on their children.

For example, it now costs on average £230,000 to raise a child to the age of 21 (Centre of Economic and Business Research with London Victoria, 2015).

Therefore, young people today have much greater access to expensive phones, tablets and laptops which enable them a wide range of ways in which to engage with digital forms of communication.

In the past, not only did people have less money to spend on their children, but there were simply less technological devices available.

The other obvious reason why younger people are more likely to be users of digital communication; they have more free time on their hands as they generally have less responsibilities such as jobs, caring responsibilities and duties and therefore the immediacy of the communication means that it is possible for them to communicate with many different people in a highly effective way.

It is also true that adults are spending increasing amounts of their free time on new forms of social media, but their free time amounts to proportionally less than that of young people and teenagers.

Youth and Identity

Gardner and Davis observe that young people are the most frequent users of social media

Van Dijk claims social networking sites have replaced email and the phone as the preferred mode of interaction for teenagers

Gardner and Davis research indicates that young people take a great deal of care in how they present themselves online for public consumption. They identify three trends in this presentation of self:

young people construct a socially desirable and polished self-online. This ‘glammed-up’ online identity generally exaggerates the more socially attractive aspects of the person’s personality but downplays less ‘cool’ traits. This generally means that a young person’s online identity may be more outgoing and extroverted than their offline everyday identity
adopt a range of fictitious identities because they want to represent themselves in different ways on different sites. They are responding to different audiences who may have different expectations.
self has been constructed on a social networking platform like Facebook, there is evidence that young people then engage in identity performance in that free time is mainly taken up checking phones in order to manage the online impressions others have of them by ‘liking’ what others upload as well as updating their own profile and status

Some observers have suggested that young people’s obsession with their digital or virtual identity has created a number of modern-day problems.
Gardner and Davis argue that this constant self-projection and self-tracking online reduces the time teenagers have for self-contemplation and real-life interaction with others. They observe that the maintenance of virtual identity means that teenagers are more narcissistic compared with previous generations
They observe that the maintenance of virtual identity means that teenagers are more narcissistic compared with previous generations
Twenge argues that fear of negative reaction to their identity performance is producing rising levels of moodiness, anxiety, sadness and isolation among teenagers.
Turkle suggests that young people are mentally ‘tethered’ to their digital devices, as symbolised by their need to constantly track and check their connections.

She argues that this has weakened young people’s ability to develop an autonomous sense of self. They are too dependent on how other people react to them online.

She claims that it is as if their thoughts and feelings are not real until they have been validated by others online.

Elderly and Identity

There are signs that the greater take-up of digital communication by older people may have benefits for their self-esteem and identity
Researchers who carried out a study of elderly people’s use of social media in Britain and Italy found that training older vulnerable people to use social media improves their cognitive capacity, increases a sense of self-competence and could have a beneficial overall impact on their mental health and physical well-being.
Researchers found that the majority of their sample who had the hardware and the know-how reported feeling less isolated because of the digital connections they could make with relatives, friends and people with shared interests

Older users of the internet, Berry (2011)

Berry carried out research on secondary data focusing on the way older people use the internet.

His research findings reveal that among those who do not have access to the internet, most people cite non-material reasons such as lack of skills or lack of interest to explain why they are not online.

Other research has highlighted the psychological barriers preventing older people from accessing the web.

These reasons appear to be more significant than material factors such as cost or lack of physical infrastructure.

Older people who do use the internet tend to do so less frequently than younger people.

The ONS data shows of all internet users log on every day, while only 59 per cent of older users (above 65) do this.

Berry notes that there has been content designed specifically to encourage older people to use the internet, based on the use of accessible web design.

For instance, the website Finerday is a social network designed to encourage older people to use it: it has a number of the functions of other networks such as Facebook, but with high contrast colours, large font and a simplified format.

According to recent research findings, 79 per cent of households below the state pension age have internet access, while only 37 per cent of households above the state pension age do so. This difference gives rise to the notion of the digital divide, between those who enjoy access to the internet and those who are excluded (Berry, 2011)

Evaluation

Things are changing, and older generations are beginning to use digital forms of communication much more frequently.

This may be because they may have taken longer to acquire the skills which are necessary to use them.

It might also be because people are becoming aware of the need to use digital forms of communication for work, for example, as a way to create social networks.

It might also be because of increased affluence, that some people can afford to buy various devices today which they may not have been able to previously.

Another reason might be that the wide range of ways in which digital communication is being used means that there is greater appeal for older people, for example, online shopping, lifestyle applications and so forth, meaning that they have more practical appeal.

Disability and Identity

Ginsburg argues that interactive digital technologies provide powerful platforms for people with disabilities because they enable them to engage in first-person discussion of their worlds and experiences
There are three broad ways in which disabled people have used digital media to establish online identity:
1. Digital video activism — there has been an explosion of YouTube blogs featuring people with a range of disabilities encompassing autism to wheelchair use
The net sum of this has been to create a community in which those who have difficulty in face-to-face conversation and those who may be restricted to a particular identity can speak to an audience about their experience of disability.
2. Miller observes that Facebook has been used by people with disabilities to create support networks such as Disability Rights UK, Dancing Giraffe and Ableize, which aim to provide the 50,000 diverse disabled people in the UK with a voice and political influence by connecting them to each other online
3. Many people with disabilities use virtual-world sites such as Second Life or Virtual Ability. Boellstorff observes that Second Life enables disabled people to take control of identity and their interactions with others by adopting virtual identities that are denied to them in real life.
Virtual Ability has been designed by people with disabilities as a virtual community of support. It provides opportunities for disabled people to virtually experience a range of activities that they are excluded from in the real world

Participation in the digital world by disabled people has considerably increased, the design of most digital media can also be disabling.

Relationships

As a recently emerging phenomenon, digital forms of communication are having a range of effects on people’s relationships, yet much is to be learnt about what these effects are and if there are any general patterns emerging.

There are two issues worth thinking about here: how do new forms of digital communication affect both the quality and also the quantity of relationships.
consist of social ties, which are the connections between individuals that link them together, which vary in strength.

According to Granovetter (1973) the strength of ties between two individuals can be measured as follows:

The amount of time spent together.
The emotional intensity of the relationship.
The level of intimacy.
The degree of reciprocity (how much the other person responds in a similar way back).

Granovetter observes that digital forms of communication are advantageous because they allow instantaneous communication with others, provide an opportunity to expand the number of social ties, especially with people such as celebrities with whom ordinary individuals would not normally come into, and overcome barriers to communication such as distance, social status, disability and shyness.

Granovetter distinguishes between two types of social ties.

Strong social ties originate in family and friendship while weak social ties are those people have with work colleagues or acquaintances.

Granovetter observes that digital ties via social media are weak ties compared with friendships but these are in many ways more important because they create connections between members of networks that are important in evaluating the identity of oneself and others. For example, people may judge themselves and others on the basis of how many Facebook friends or Twitter followers they have.

Some sociologists argue that accumulating connections or online relationships is empowering and enriching because it produces social capital.

Social capital broadly refers to the resources accumulated through the relationships among people.

This means that it has collective value for all concerned because connections and the opportunities which result from them are shared and reciprocated.

Finally people’s offline relationships may suffer as a result of the time they spend online.

Both Miller and Clayton found that time spent on Facebook and Twitter could cause damage to relationships and marriages.

The quality of online relationships or ‘friends’ has been questioned.

As a result, the ‘post-familial’ family in which family members spend more time interacting with their gadgets than with each other is becoming the norm.

Granovetter argues that weak ties are in many respects more important than strong ties.

The strength of weak ties is that they create connections between members of the network. Weak ties connect an individual to people with whom he or she has little in common and would likely not be able to connect with through strong ties, such as a celebrity.

Therefore, the removal of an average weak tie would potentially do more ‘damage’ to the person’s social network than the removal of an average strong tie

Relationships with other people are typically broken into two major categories: weak ties, or individuals who are considered mere acquaintances, are differentiated from strong ties, such as close friends and family members.
This can be directly applied to the social networks created online where weak and strong ties may be equally as significant.

With the rise of the internet and digital communication, much recent research has looked at the impact of online forms of communication on social ties.

Activities that connect individuals directly to one another (such as email, chat) tend to have positive correlations to social ties, meaning that they strengthen relationships, while those activities that are more solitary in nature, such as surfing the internet, tend to have more negative correlations to social ties (Zhao, 2006).

Research from the 1990s found negative correlations between internet use and social ties, but these findings were later disproven, especially as most individuals using the internet for social purposes also maintained their offline relationships (Kraut et al. 2002).

In addition, Kraut argues that online social ties tend to be weaker than relationships formed and maintained offline.

Feld (1981) suggests that people use social networks to evaluate both themselves and others. In other words, an individual’s identity is, in part, determined by the network of friends he or she maintains.

Much of the research on friendship networks has focused on how people make friends or how many friends individuals have (Feld, 1981, 1991).

One’s social network is directly linked to the number of strong and weak ties a person can maintain.

We will now turn to some of the potential positive and negative effects of digital communication on relationships
Positive effects

Another opportunity to meet people
Immediacy: people can be contacted instantly
An opportunity to meet people who you would not normally come into contact with
Having to come into contact with people that the person may not want to
A way of people overcoming traditional barriers to meeting people such as disability, shyness, geographical distance

Negative Effects

A lack of privacy or differing ideas about privacy between people resulting in conflict
Hard to switch off
People’s offline relationships suffer as a result of the time spent with online relationships

Digital social media in all its forms facilitate human interaction and relationships by constructing a participatory culture.
Turkle (2011) refers to new-media users as ‘cyborgs’ because they are always connected to one other, regardless of where they are, via their laptops, tablets and smartphones

Turkle observes that people boast about how many people they have ‘friended’ on Facebook, but research on the nature of friendship in the USA concludes that Americans say they have few real friends.

Digital technology can diminish the quality of face-to-face interaction if people are always focused on their phone and constantly checking for texts and social network updates.

Turkle points out that, although digital forms of communication connect users to more people, it has also resulted in greater anxiety.

She notes devotion to checking the mobile phone is almost religious.

When mobile phones are misplaced, anxiety levels rise.

People feel cut off from reality. She argues that this is unhealthy behaviour.

Digital technology is disruptive because it may reduce family time and closeness.

Turkle has argued that the proto-communities of social network sites and online fantasy gaming such as Second Life are increasingly replacing real communities composed of family, extended kin and neighbours.
Gardner and Davis also observe that internet-enabled digital devices have enabled relationships because they transcend geographical and temporal barriers.
They allow for immediacy of communication with others
Young people, in particular, have taken advantage of digital technology to engage in frequent on-the-run communication with friends.
in the UK over 90% of 16–24 year-olds send at least one text per day, while 73% also use social networking sites to send messages and maintain relationships.

The average UK person sends 50 texts per week although this is small compared to the ‘typical’ teen, who sends up to 60 texts per day.

Gardner and Davis suggest that young people now ‘hang out’ at Facebook
Several advantages of online relationships have been identified by Van Dijk as well as Gardner and Davis
Accumulating connections or online relationships is empowering and enriching because it produces social capital.
Social capital broadly refers to the resources accumulated through relationships among people
This means that it has collective value for all concerned because connections and the opportunities which result from them are shared and reciprocated.

Membership of an online community may provide opportunities for people with similar interests to fi nd and interact with one another.
This type of capital is known as ‘bonding social capital’ and produces shared information fl ows that may throw up opportunities for jobs or mutual aid.
Membership of a particular online community may lead to relationships being established with others who are very different.
this is known as ‘bridging social capital’
This may lead to political alliances which increase the potential for social change.
Online texting and Facebooking function to micro-coordinate activity among friends.
Gardner and Davis suggest digital communication is used as a ‘virtual tap on the shoulder’, establishing and maintaining links between friends who are physically separated

Cummings found that e-mail, instant messaging and social networking sites helped students stay in frequent contact with friends and family when separated by geography.

Tales from Facebook, Miller (2011)

Facebook was once seen as a media site for the young, however more recently the largest increase in usage is amongst the older sections of the population.

Until recently, no major study of the impact of these social networking sites upon the lives of their users had been carried out.

In his book, Tales from Facebook, Miller (2011) demonstrates that the impact can be profound. The tales in this book reveal how Facebook can become the means by which people find and cultivate relationships but can also be instrumental in breaking up relationships and even marriage.

Each chapter reveals how Facebook can bring back the lives of people isolated in their homes by illness or age, by shyness, but equally Facebook can challenge people’s ideas about privacy and create social problems and scandal.

For example, exposing people being unfaithful in relationships.

Miller found that some people believe that the truth of another person lies more in what you see online than face-to-face.

Miller’s research demonstrates how Facebook has become a vehicle for business, the church, sex and remembering people who have passed away.

Miller concludes that after a century in which we have assumed social networking and community to be in decline, Facebook has suddenly hugely expanded our social relationships in a global context

Miller observes that critics of Facebook suggest that ‘friending’ represents a ‘kind of inflation’ of superficial and weak relationships that diminishes the value of true friendship.

It is argued that the quality of Facebook relationships can feel inauthentic because they lack the intimacy, vulnerability and physical closeness that characterise real relationships.

Miller observes that, thanks to Facebook, people can maintain friendships over distance with less expenditure of time or money.

He argues that use of social media extends existing relationships which may be weak because of distance or because they have lapsed over time and develops them into more meaningful relationships

Texting and social networking may function simply to fi ll time and alleviate boredom.
Sites like Facebook may be a social lifeline, particularly for isolated, shy or disabled individuals, to stay connected to other people.

Bargh and McKenna found that social platforms can help those with low self-esteem relate to others because they lower barriers to interaction (for example, it is not face-to-face) and this may make it easier for some people to disclose their feelings to others.

Similarly, Gardner and Davis suggest texting and instant messaging is more private, intimate and less risky for sharing information about oneself.

social media enable minority groups that have traditionally been denied a voice in the traditional media — known as ‘muted voices’ — such as those with disabilities or ethnic minorities or tribal groups to create supportive communities that can highlight their everyday experience and coordinate activism
Online relationships may compensate for the fact that youth today have limited geographical freedom, enjoy less free time and are subject to more parental rules.
Social media can positively change how people work. For example, thousands of people including this author use digital technology to work from home. This practice may benefit family life.
Boyd argues that young people’s involvement in public digital networks helps them to manage the transition from adolescence to adult society and assists their understanding of how to successfully negotiate public life.

This is possible because sites like Facebook mirror and magnify both the positive and negative aspects of public everyday life

The positive effects of the internet, Shaw and Gant (2002)

According to Shaw and Gant (2002) as more people connect to the internet, researchers are beginning to examine the effects of internet use on users’ psychological health.

Previous studies had concluded that internet use is positively correlated with depression, loneliness and stress, which led to public opinion about the internet has often been negative.

In contrast, Shaw and Gant’s study was designed to test the hypothesis that internet usage can affect users beneficially.

Participants engaged in five chat sessions with an anonymous partner.

At three different intervals they were administered scales measuring depression, loneliness, self-esteem and social support.

Changes in their scores were tracked over time. Internet use was found to decrease loneliness and depression significantly, while perceived social support and self-esteem increased significantly.

Shaw and Gant (2002) found that internet use significantly decreased loneliness and depression while perceived social support and self-esteem increased.

However, negative consequences might include conflict caused by others violating privacy, for example, via sexting or revenge pornography, coming into contact with people who are only interested in spouting hate, for example, trolls, and exploiting young people, such as those who ‘groom’ young people.

Anonymity makes it easier for some to bully, abuse or threaten others online.

Criticism of social Networks

Critics of social networks suggest that the costs of this online revolution may outweigh the benefits.

It is argued that digital forms of communication are actually bad for relationships for the following reasons:

Marxists such as Fuchs argue that it is the powerful who control digital communication and social media, and this undermines the concept of a participatory digital culture.

Fuchs argues that as a result connectedness is less important than connectivity.

Fuchs argues that friendship and connectedness have become commodified.

Van Dijk illustrates this when he observes that the algorithms developed by social networking sites like Facebook for commercial reasons increasingly determine what people like, want, know or find.

The aim of these algorithms is not to connect people but to keep them online as long as possible and to maximise the possibility that they will click on and connect to other commercial sites
Social media activity is not as voluntary as people believe it to be.

Algorithms shepherd people towards making ‘choices’ that benefit capitalist agencies such as advertisers.

Social media content may therefore simply reflect capitalist ideology

There are concerns about how the data collected by sites such as Facebook might be used.

Facebook has already been accused of violating the privacy of its users.

Other sites have used cookies to keep their users under surveillance.

There is also evidence that criminals are targeting social media and/or using digital media to commit cybercrimes such as identity theft.

It is becoming apparent to politicians and lawmakers that new forms of social media (as well as their content) are very difficult to police

The quality of online relationships or ‘friends’ has been questioned.

Miller observes that critics of Facebook suggest that ‘friending’ represents a ‘kind of inflation’ of superficial and weak relationships that diminishes the value of true friendship.

It is argued that the quality of Facebook relationships can feel inauthentic because they lack the intimacy, vulnerability and physical closeness that characterise real relationships.

Gardner and Davis argue that ‘friends’ may be connected but they may not always be connecting.

It is suggested that social networking sites may cause alienation and loneliness because they create the impression that other people have more friends and are therefore having more fun.

Moreover, looking at other people’s achievements may make young people feel inadequate and even encourage them to ‘stage’ happiness and success.

Kross and Verduyn found that frequent use of Facebook leads to people becoming less satisfied with life.

Digital technology can diminish the quality of face-to-face interaction if people are always focused on their phone and constantly checking for texts and social network updates.

Turkle points out that although digital forms of communication connect users to more people, this has also resulted in greater anxiety.

She notes devotion to checking the mobile phone is almost religious. When mobile phones are misplaced, anxiety levels rise.

People feel cut off from reality.

Turkle argues that this is unhealthy behaviour

Digital technology is disruptive because it may reduce family time and closeness.

Turkle has argued that the proto communities of social networking sites and online fantasy gaming such as Second Life are increasingly replacing real communities composed of family, extended kin and neighbours.

As a result, the ‘post-familial’ family in which family members spend more time interacting with their gadgets than with each other is becoming the norm.

Livingstone (2009) in a similar analysis argues that children today communicate more with the virtual outside world than with adult members of their own family.

Parents often have to text or Facebook their children to gain their attention at mealtimes

It is argued that digital media have had a coarsening effect on young people. I

in particular, it is suggested that they have had the effect of making young people less empathetic and therefore ‘meaner’ online than they are in person.

Online bullying, sexting, grooming and sexual harassment are now recognised as problems of the digital age. Other studies have documented the emotional effects of easy online access to pornography and have expressed fears that adolescent boys’ attitudes towards sexual relationships are consequently being shaped by deviant and unrepresentative sexual role models.

All of these issues are difficult for sociologists to investigate and for the authorities to police.

Despite greater connectivity, some groups are still unable to access or participate in social media

Gender and Identity

Ofcom (2015) reported that in 2014, adult males in the UK accessed the internet for an average of 23.3 hours per week compared with 17.8 hours for adult females

Younger women use digital forms of communication to maintain social relationships, especially social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Li and Kirkup (2007) found that males were more likely than women to use email or chat rooms and played more computer games on consoles such as the X-Box than women.

Location and Identity

In 2015, the UN announced that 4 billion people – 57 per cent of the world’s population – and 90 per cent of those who live in the 48 poorest countries, have no access to the internet.

Furthermore, only 7 per cent of Africa’s inhabitants are online. This is because mobile connectivity in Africa is limited.

In Africa, digital connectivity is highest in South Africa and Nigeria.

Difficulties of access to the internet are also compounded by the fact that most of the language of the world wide web is English and the fact that a fairly large proportion of people in African countries are illiterate.

Impact of Digital Forms of Communication on Culture

Conflict and Change

Some sociologists argue that digital forms of communication have contributed to both social conflict and positive social change.

Howard’s study ‘Digital Jesus’ found that the internet played a key role in creating an online network or web of Christian fundamentalist groups in the USA.

Howard describes this as a ‘virtual church’ which differed from conventional religion in that there was no physical leader or place of worship to attend.

Castells argues that in the digital age many people have moved away from expressing their political and social concerns through hierarchical and bureaucratic organisations such as governments, political parties, pressure groups, trade unions, religions and so on.

The easy availability of digital forms of communication now means that people can organise themselves into non-hierarchical and non-bureaucratic digital networks of like-minded individuals who can mutually share information on the web and organise collective action
Castells argues that this civil society approach is now an alternative source of political power that is challenging the power of both the state and the market.

Itzoe observes that the internet and social media have been extensively used by the anti-globalisation movement (also known as the global justice movement) to successfully organise large worldwide protests against global organisations such as the World Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund, which are seen as partly responsible for global inequality and injustice.

Murthy claims that Twitter has the potential to shape many aspects of people’s social, political and economic lives.

Digital activists such as the hacker group Anonymous have also engaged in cyberattacks on government and corporate websites.

There is also evidence that global communication systems and social networks can assist local cultures to rid themselves of repressive political systems such as dictatorships.

Both Castells and Kassim argue that the so-called Arab Spring movement that occurred between 2010 and 2013 succeeded in removing totalitarian dictators in Tunisia and Egypt because of global social networks.

Kassim argues that these global networks helped Arab people in Egypt and Tunisia to overcome their fears and to take to the streets.

However, critics argue that the role of social media in the Arab Spring has been grossly exaggerated.

Curran argues that the Arab Spring was caused by deep-seated economic, political and religious factors, while Wilson and Dunn found that face-to-face interaction, television and print media were more important than social media in getting people onto the streets.

Curran concludes that social media played a role in the build-up of dissent and the coordination of protests, but they did not cause the uprisings — they merely facilitated them (along with other forms of traditional media). ideas about the ability of digital communication networks to construct an alternative civil society that can bring about real social change are undermined by the global divide in access to and participation in digital networks.

There is a growing tendency in the digital corporate world for power to be concentrated in fewer and fewer more powerful hands.

Martell argues that digital technology therefore gives a false impression of more power being given to a greater number of people.

He suggests that digital technology may be only a quantitative rather than a qualitative improvement since political information could be obtained before the internet, albeit more awkwardly and slowly.

Martell concludes that technologically the internet is revolutionary, but it does not necessarily follow that it will have a revolutionary impact on cultural or political life.

Keen is also critical of the idea that the internet and digital technology have the power to politically change the world.

He argues that the internet is too chaotically organised to be effective in bringing about change.

Moreover, he argues that social networking sites such as Facebook and blogging do not contribute to the democratic process in any way because they are merely vehicles for shameless self-promotion.

He further argues that the content of Twitter and blogs often goes unchecked and, consequently, uninformed opinion, lies and trolling are the norm, rather than considered political analysis and expertise.

Hader too argues that the power of Twitter to change the world is grossly exaggerated when he described Twitter users as ineffectual and pseudo laptop and iPad revolutionaries

Religious Fundamentalism

The recent concerns over the activity of religious fundamentalist groups such as Islamic fundamentalist group ISIS have been linked to the rise of digital communications. Fundamentalist religious groups often want to interpret their religious text literally, and in many respects want a return to a more ‘traditional’ way of life.

Despite this, they often use modern day technologies to gain support, plan and share their activities.

There is evidence that Islamist fundamentalist groups such as the Taliban, Al-Qaeda and ISIS (Daesh) are also using digital forms of communication to recruit jihadists and to disseminate propaganda.

The role of digital communication in fundamentalist religious groups, Howard (2011)

According to Howard (2011) in 1999 it was already clear that the internet was playing a key role in Christian fundamentalist groups, he found in his study of online network of Christians, a virtual church built around those who embraced a common ideology.

Howard’s study entitled ‘Digital Jesus’ shows how like-minded individuals created a large web of religious communication on the internet, in essence developing a new type of new religious movement—one without a central leader or institution.

Based on over a decade of interaction with figures both large and small within this community, Howard offers the first sustained ethnographic account of the movement as well as a realistic view of how new communication technologies can both empower and disempower the individuals who use them.

Southern California Wildfires, Sutton, Palen and Shklovski (2007)

Sutton, Palen and Shklovski argue that new forms of digital communication are becoming increasingly used for dealing with disasters.

Social media supports informal communication, allowing for wide-scale interaction that can be collectively resourceful, self-policing, and generates information that is otherwise hard to obtain. Results from their study of members of the public during the October 2007 Southern California Wildfires suggest that community information resources and other backchannel communications activity enabled by social media are taking an increasingly important role in the disaster arena, despite concern by officials about the legitimacy of information shared through such means.

The researchers argue that these emergent uses of social media suggest the beginnings of broader future changes to the institutional and organizational arrangements of disaster response.

Cultural Defence

Mohammadi argues that cultural homogenisation is exaggerated and fails to acknowledge that interactions between the global and the local are complex and often unique to particular localities.

Giddens argues that the global homogenisation argument neglects reverse colonisation where powerful cultures may be infiltrated and influenced by less powerful cultures such as the Mexicanisation of parts of the USA such as California and Arizona.

Many societies have been able to defend their cultures against both globalisation and cultural imperialism, a process that has been termed cultural defence.

For example:

France introduced quotas which limit the distribution of cultural products such as films.

French cinemas by law are only allowed to show a particular number of American movies and must also show a certain number of French films.

In China, citizens’ access to digital media is controlled by the state.

For example, China has blocked all references to the word ‘democracy’ on its most popular search engine and denies its citizens access to websites such as Wikipedia.

All internet use is closely monitored by the authorities.

This censorship and surveillance is referred to as the ‘great firewall of China’.

The Muslim world has developed internet websites, political blogs and satellite television channels such as Al-Jazeera to provide an alternative interpretation of what is going on in the Arab world, so resisting and opposing the western interpretation of that world.

Digital media can be used to defend local tribes, customs and practices from globalisation.

For example, Culturalsurvival.org documents the diverse range of ways in which indigenous tribes and isolated communities are starting to use digital technology to gain a voice that can help defend their cultures from exploitation by corporate interests and other threats.

Refers to societies attempt to protect their local cultures from globalised culture and the way digital forms of communication are used to support and enhance local culture

There are a number of ways in which societies and cultures have attempted to protect their domestic media and cultural industries
– some countries, for example France, protect their domestic media and cultural industries against the cultural homogenisation brought about by globalisation
– Some countries have taken control of their digital media.

All internet use is closely monitored by the authorities.

This censorship and surveillance are referred to as the ‘great firewall of China’.

The Muslim world has developed internet websites, political blogs and satellite television channels such as Al-Jazeera to provide an alternative interpretation of what is going on in the Arab world and elsewhere, thereby resisting and opposing Western interpretations.
In Africa, the expansion of mobile phone technology has had a number of positive effects for local cultures and economies.

Greater access to smartphones and social networks has empowered young people to organise themselves online and demand better leadership of their societies.

Moreover, there is evidence that mobile phones have had a signifi cant effect on African economies by connecting young consumers over vast distances.

Culture too has been enhanced by digital technology.

Literacy rates are improving because young people have access to e-books and digital libraries.

Healthcare has been improved because it is now possible to access internet medical service providers

There is evidence that social networking sites such as Facebook are being used by migrant populations to facilitate connections with their homeland.

These connections help them to preserve and defend aspects of their culture, especially language, customs, traditions and religious rites.

McKay found when examining the digital experience of Filipinos living and working in London that they used social networking sites to insulate themselves from the individualism that they claimed dominated Western culture.

Social networking with relatives and friends in the Philippines meant they could digitally return to the comfort of the types of cultural relationships that they had physically left behind — relationships characterised by obligations to the extended family and ancestors, involvement in the local community from which they had originated, and religious traditions

Culturalsurvival.org documents the diverse range of ways in which indigenous tribes and isolated communities are starting to use digital technology to gain a voice that can help defend their cultures from exploitation by corporate interests and other threats.

However, ISIS is also utilising social media in a very sophisticated fashion — to defend and disseminate its version of Islam.

Since 2014 ISIS has posted (mainly on Twitter) photos and statements to highlight details of its operations, including the number of bombings, suicide missions, beheadings and assassinations it has carried out.

The group also produces professional promotional videos and urges support for its ‘one billion campaign’, which calls on Muslims to post messages, photos and videos on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube in support of ISIS.

In April 2014, the group even developed a free internet application called The Dawn of Glad Tidings, which automatically posts tweets — approved by ISIS media managers — to the accounts of the application’s subscribed users

Social Movements and new Social media

The Facebook Effect (Kirkpatrick, 2010) starts with a story about how a Facebook site became a catalyst for a popular movement in Colombia, mobilising 10 million people in street demonstrations, which curbed the violence and kidnapping by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

Kirkpatrick observes that digital communication can play a major role in mobilising profound and widespread social change because it:

enables instantaneous communication
allows individuals to come together in online social movements
provides anonymity in sharing sensitive information, such as reporting human rights abuses• provides the oppressed and exploited with a means of being heard.

It may provide the only means by which protests can be heard, especially if governments are cracking down on free speech.

Kirkpatrick has documented what he calls the ‘Facebook effect’ in Colombia – he argues that a Facebook site mobilised 10 million people to take part in street demonstrations which pressurised an armed revolutionary movement to enter into peace negotiations with the Colombian government.

Other sociologists have argued that the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ movement that occurred between 2010 and 2013 succeeded in removing totalitarian dictators in Tunisia and Egypt because of global social networks.

For example, Facebook was used in Egypt to schedule public protests, Twitter to co-ordinate and YouTube to show the world how the authorities had reacted.

Kassim argues that these global networks helped Arab people in Egypt and Tunisia to overcome their fears and to take to the streets.

However, critics argue that the role of social media in the Arab Spring has been grossly exaggerated.

Curran argues that the Arab Spring was actually caused by deep-seated economic, political and religious factors, while Wilson and Dunn found that face-to-face interaction, television and print media were more important than social media in getting people onto the streets.

Curran concludes that social media played a role in the build-up of dissent and the co-ordination of protests but it did not cause the uprisings – it merely facilitated them (along with other forms of traditional media).

Digital media and social platforms have proved extremely useful in terms of co-ordinating social protest movements such as the Occupy protests in London and New York in 2011, while websites such as WikiLeaks have challenged the power of both the state and large corporations by publishing leaked documents alleging government and corporate misconduct.

This is not an isolated case, indeed there is a growing awareness of the role that new social media plays in contributing to and shaping the course of major social movements.

There are several reasons why new forms of digital communication are able to mobilise change including:

Immediate communication with others which can warn them/prepare them of an occurrence;
Information can reach a huge number of people simultaneously;
Information about, for example, human rights abuses can be shared anonymously
Groups or individuals who are usually unable to speak out or act through conventional means are able to speak to a wide range of people through digital forms of communication.

For example, women in countries where it is forbidden for them to speak out publically, such as in Syria;

News presented about events that may be inaccurate or biased can be actively challenged and possibly changed;
Where political activism is suppressed, digital communication offers a way for people to speak out against the regime.

Conflict and Change in the middle east

One interesting emergent areas of sociology is the exploration of the effects of social media on social protest in the Middle East.

Before the recent revolutions in the Arab World, the use of social media could be described as limited and largely limited to the social elite, mainly due to the fact that access to the internet had been so restricted by the state.

This was mainly because there were fears by the ruling groups that western ideas were damaging to traditional ideas.

However, the events across the Arab world in 2011 brought social media to the forefront, with many claiming that Facebook, weblogs, Twitter and YouTube, had an important role to play in the revolutions that have taken place there.

It is quite difficult to clearly understand or measure the ways in which social media have affected events, either through actual protest on the streets or through influencing mainstream forms of media.

Sociologists and journalists are not clear why social media was particularly effective in mobilizing protest in some contexts and not others.

These events present a real challenge to sociologists trying to research the relationship between events and the role of social media.

The very nature of social media means that it is private and there are not necessarily ways to record interactions that take place online.

In the well documented case of Egypt, through the spread of information online, internet activists were able to establish networks of resistance within Egyptian political society.

Despite the relative weakness of the ties between members of these networks, social media emerged as an effective tool to facilitate collective action.

Through being permanently connected to each other, activists were able to access a huge number of networks of trust and multiply the impact of social protest through the creation of an uprising, protesting community.

Internet activism made political action easier, faster and more universal in Egypt.

Social media sites became a place where many could express their anxieties and vocalise their feelings.

But it was not, of course, in any way a complete solution to the problems there

It is important not to over emphasise the role of technology in the revolutions in Egypt or indeed anywhere else.

Political activists use new forms of communication, especially digital and online social media, such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube as a means of highlighting the government abuses of their citizens, promoting citizen interaction and participation in reporting of events, shaping public opinion, and organising and mobilising people to protest against repression.

Activists integrate these online activities with offline activities, such as staging demonstrations and protests and launching on-the-ground campaigns.

The regimes in both Egypt and Syria also use communication tools to protect their interests and to counter the political activists’ efforts, whether via traditional, state-owned media avenues or new media tools.

cultural homogenisation

It is clear that the developed world has the greatest use of the internet and therefore digital communication.

This is reflected in the fact that the majority of information written on the internet is written in English

This means that many ideas and the content is driven by an English speaking, western cultural perspective.

Because the developed world has the greatest use of the internet and other digital communication, the majority of communication is in English.

This suggests a process of cultural homogenisation is occurring whereby western culture dominates all other cultures, so creating one culture that is dominated by capitalist neo-liberal ideology which stresses the free market, individualism and consumerism, patriarchal ideology and secularism.

However, some sociologists think that this suggestion is too one-sided

Some argue that this means that a process of cultural homogenisation is occurring, whereby western culture threatens to dominate over other cultures, creating one culture that is characterised by the following world view:

Capitalist ideology – a specific economic system whereby there is a distinct ruling class who extract profit from the workers, where people are driven by the need to make profit.

This comes with a particular set of ideas about relationships, inheritance and ideas about education all of which are shaped to perpetuate the economic system.

Patriarchal ideology – a set of ideas which support the view that men dominate over women in all areas of life.
Consumerism being central – people’s identities are increasingly shaped by the products they choose to buy, with an emphasis on buying expensive items as a signifier of status.
Secular ideas – western society has significant rates of secularisation and an increasingly rational scientific world view.
Increased individualism – increased emphasis on individual wishes and priorities over societal or communal expectations

The fact that much of the internet is written in English has important cultural implications; language reflects cultural assumptions which are being spread around the globe.

This is known as cultural homogenisation. In other words, western cultural practices begin to influence other non-western cultures.

However, there is some evidence to suggest that in response to the threat of loss of local cultures through cultural homogenisation, a process of cultural defence has emerged, through which local cultures are being protected and promoted.

There have been challenges to the claims that cultural homogenisation is occurring.

These are based on the idea that they ignore evidence against this view.

For example, Sreberni Mohammadi (1996) points out that the simple image of western media and cultural domination over all of the rest of the world is exaggerated and ignores important complex interactions that occur between different cultures.

Giddens (1991) points to a process of ‘reverse colonisation’ where it is not the western powers dominating over less powerful groups culturally but the other way round.

For example, the recent ‘Mexicanisation’ of California.

This has resulted in Mexican food, dress and music becoming increasingly part of Californian culture.

This is interesting because Mexico is significantly poorer than America.

This suggests that it is not simply the powerful who impose their culture on the less powerful. Clearly in this example, it is the poorer culture which has influenced the richer cultural group. More generally it is argued that global digital media companies have been forced to take into account local practices and adapt their material, accordingly, linking with local partners or people in order to make sure that their companies grow and succeed (Croteau and Hoynes, 1997).

There has also been some evidence of resistance by American media and digital forms of communication.

For example, people using the internet to promote their own language and cultural characteristics.

Glocalisation

Refers to how local cultural products are combined or fused with globalised cultural products to produce unique cultural forms or hybrids

Glocalisation refers to how local cultural products are combined or fused with globalised cultural products to produce unique cultural forms or hybrids.

It can also refer to how local cultures adapt and use global social networks in ways that reflect the cultural priorities and eccentricities of a particular society.

Martell observes that glocalisation has two elements to it.

First, Western media and cultural producers often adapt their products so that they appeal to local markets and audiences.

Secondly, local cultures select and appropriate elements of westernised global culture that please them, which they then modify and adapt to their local culture and needs.

In other words, they localise the global to produce a hybridised popular culture.

Miller argues that there is no such thing as Facebook from the perspective of cultural relativity.

Facebook is only the aggregate of its regional usage; for example, Facebook in Trinidad is not Facebook in London because two very different cultures, Trinidadian and British, use Facebook in very different ways which reflect their cultural priorities.

Miller’s research on Facebook use in Trinidad reflects aspects of Trinidadian culture.

He observes that locals refer to it as ‘Fasbook’ or ‘Macobook’.

These terms are not accidental — they deliberately mirror the cultural inclinations of Trinidadian society, especially the characteristics ‘to be fas’ and ‘maco’
So activity on Fasbook in Trinidad is mainly geared to getting to know somebody of the opposite sex but once people become friends with one another, they constantly meddle in one another’s lives.

Fasbook, then, is a good example of glocalisation because it has taken the Western idea of a digital communications network but Trinidadians’ use of it reflects their local culture.

Held argues that this flow of digital culture is not just one way.

Western culture has also been enriched by inputs from the popular culture of other societies.

Miller argues that Facebook is a good example of glocalisation.

Facebook in Trinidad is not the same as Facebook in London because two very different cultures – Trinidadian and British – use Facebook in very different ways which reflect their cultural priorities. Miller’s research on Facebook use in Trinidad shows how it reflects aspects of Trinidadian culture.

He observes that locals refer to it as ‘Fasbook’ or ‘Macobook’.

These terms are not accidental – they deliberately mirror the cultural inclinations of Trinidadian society, especially the characteristics ‘to be fas’ (to try to get to know another person rather too quickly) and ‘maco’ (to be nosy and wanting to constantly pry into other people’s business).

So activity on Fasbook in Trinidad is mainly geared to getting to know somebody of the opposite sex, but once people become friends with one another, they constantly meddle in one another’s lives.

Fasbook, then, is a good example of glocalisation because it has taken the western idea of a digital communications network but Trinidadians’ use of it reflects their local culture.