Culture can be defined as beliefs, values, attitudes, and code of conduct that are shared among a group of people. Every group of people has a unique culture about rites of passage of life such as marriage and initiation, dressing code and even the type of meals they take; it is hard to change these people beliefs. However, an interaction with other societies helps people to identify what may be wrong with their own culture and hence rectify and also to acquire other positive cultural aspects. Traditionally the means of communication that existed only enhanced local interaction. An Interaction was even a challenge between people located in short distance geographical location (Goldfarb, Greenstein " Tucker, 2015). Some of the modes of communication mode used during those days included the use of drums and smoke, where they signified that a meeting needed to hold or something important was happening or needed the attention of the entire community. The exchange of culture was therefore very difficult, people of different cultures only interacted in museums. With the development of technology exchange of lifestyle, aspects have become possible not only across different tribes in the same country but also between people living in different countries.
Impacts of digital culture
Adaptation of digital culture also leads to eradication of a culture that was constructive and valuable to the society which is a negative impact. Example a community may feel discriminated and ridiculed by practicing a given cultural aspect may make the group feel as if it is outdated and end up dropping it. Such a case is a negative impact of cultural interaction and defined as exploitation or abuse through technology. Some people do not appreciate cultural differences; cultural interaction would only be positive if people learn to recognize the beliefs and way of life of others. They should not discriminate what they do not value rather they should avoid adopting it.
Globalization is one of the main factors that have enhanced digital cultural exchange. Through globalization, the governments of different countries have agreed and allowed to collaborate. Digital networks make communication globally have been installed enhancing interaction (Fuchs, 2015). People from different cultures post photographs on their social media wall where others get to view and learn different cultural aspects. Example, the African people, have imitated a different dressing code from the white people through social media. Although this has impacted them negatively, example people do not understand the white people dressing that way due to the hot climatic conditions in their country they end up adopting this yet in their country it is indecency.
Today communication has been enhanced through different devices example there are worldwide communication channels such as the CNN and BBC which help to transfer information all over the world. Besides this television channels, there are smart phones which have been made that facilitate communication between people located in different countries. The phones are very cheap and affordable to almost everyone, they have digital media platforms that are used to enhance real-time communication. Some of the media channels include Facebook, What Sapp, Instagram and twitter they help people interact irrespective of their geographical location.
One of the positive impacts of cultural exchange is the eradication of the negative aspects, an example in Africa traditional society there used to be female circumcision. Based on health findings this was found to have negative impacts on the victims, and through the efforts of global organization this cultural practice was eliminated and declared as illegal in most of the countries. Other positive benefits of digital culture include innovations and entrepreneurship. Through interactions and sharing on the media, people can exchange ideas and develop them into successful inventions. Some countries are highly skilled in the technological sector example in China even very young people are highly knowledgeable in the manufacturing of equipment such as mobile phones and watches. Through interaction in the social media they can teach other youths on how to make such things.
Interaction over the social media can also help in sharing of entrepreneurial ideas. An individual may have implemented a plan in their country of origin and proved it viable. Therefore they may be willing to try it in other countries (Fuchs, 2015). However, due to the bureaucratic procedures required to go global, it may be a great challenge to undertake it, through digital interactions they can share it with the residents of other countries who are in a better position to implement it.
Besides the positive impacts, digital culture also has some detrimental effects, example some people become used to interactions via the social media their superficial interactions, therefore, become loose. They spend countless hours chatting over the internet hence failing to interact with those surrounding them. Some also become addicted to it and waste a lot of time that they could have spent doing more constructive things.
Digital culture and economy
Digital culture not only affects social interactions but also the operations of the economy; this includes what gets produced, bought and sold. In digital economies, they do not only deal in physical or tangible goods but also in intangible products. It includes the exchange of products such as property rights that give access and usage. Example companies are currently trading their trademarks and trade name to other company enabling them to conduct business globally through entry strategies such as franchising, licensing and foreign direct investments. Traditionally companies only dealt with tangible products which they transported through traditional means of transport such as the use of ships and trains which would take too long to get delivered. It is only through digital media interactions that companies have managed to cooperate through such contracts and hence transforming the global economy.
Other intangible products that traded include knowledge, through the internet people can now transfer knowledge. Book authors acquire property rights which give them to a right to sell the knowledge; by availing the book to anyone who needs to use it in exchange for money. However, there is limited access. For an internet user to access the contents of the book, they are required to make payments and then they are availed with the log INS, unlike in the past where one would only access a book in the library. These digital interactions have therefore completely changed the products being traded in the market.
The market places have also been changed by digital interactions. Traditionally markets were physical, people would only meet physical to trade, today markets are virtual, and transactions take place online. Almost every company have a company website where they post every information that a potential investor may need to know regarding the company. Some companies even post the available stock on the internet and the prices of the commodities and all the customers have to do is to make an order, pay for the goods and have the goods delivered (Goldfarb, Greenstein " Tucker, 2015). The modes of transactions have also changed, traditionally barter exchange existed where people would exchange a physical product for another, today there is an exchange system that helps to acquire the type of currency required and there are modes of payment that enable one to transfer money irrespective of the geographical location of the person receiving the payment.
Besides the use of websites, other digital media platforms have acted as a market for companies and businesses. Almost every organization have a page on Facebook which they use to interact with the buyers, to undertake market analysis and to get market feedback. This is a very cheap way of marketing a company products as it is easy to access a large market proportion within a small time period unlike using other marketing strategies. It is also more advantageous because the buyers can easily give their opinions to the company through the comment section where they can easily air their views. The digital markets are also more available, unlike physical markets they operate 24/7 and hence one can buy and sell at any time without restrictio (Fuchs, 2015).
The means of product distribution have also changed, unlike traditionally where the supply chain was lengthy, today the technology enhances direct interaction between the manufacturers and customers making it easy to supply the goods. Even when a buyer purchases a product online they only need to give directions on their geographical locations and the products will be delivered to them by the company.
Theories of digital economies
Several theories explain how digital economies operate and this includes the network economies, attention economies and long tail economics.
Long tail theory
The long tail economies refer a strategy that is currently being used by companies where they sell commodities that are hard to find in low volumes to a large number of customers rather than selling a large amount of a few brands (Goldfarb, Greenstein " Tucker, 2015). The concept view products that are less popular and have a low level of demand to be more profitable than the other products because the consumers are usually avoiding the common goods. This concept is supported by the existence of online markets which helps to overcome competition for physical markets where products compete for space in the shelves; online markets have adequate space for a large volume of products to be sold (Langley " Leyshon, 2017). The mainstream products has a lower profitability because they have a high initial costs while the long tail products are sold through off the market channels hence reducing their distribution costs and also has a high production costs.
Attention economies theory
According to this theory, human attention is a scarce resource, and hence there is a great need for filtering of information (Harsin, 2015). Attention is the engagement of the mind into a particular part of information; human beings receive a lot of information we decide on what to attend to so that we can decide on whether to act. It is applied to filter and to acquire the most valuable part of the information from a pool. Information is abundantly available however the human mind has become a limiting factor in consuming it.
For this reason software applications have been developed to explicitly or implicitly take attention economies into consideration through user interfaces (Harsin, 2015). If the user spends a period before locating a piece of information that is required the interfaces usually find it through use of another application. Example by creating filters to ensure that the first item that catches the attention of the user is relevant.
The theory of digital economies
Digital economies refer to an economy that is based on use of technology, this is usually perceived as conducting business transactions over the internet. This kind of an economy comprises of digital infrastructure such as networks, telecoms, software, and hardware and human capital. It is also characterized by e-commerce which is not only limited to the transfer of goods but also online services, example the sale of a book online (Langley " Leyshon, 2017). The digital economy provide an infrastructure through which organizations and people communicate, share information, interact and collaborate globally. It also provides a platform through which people can find business partners, employees and resources. It also enables the sharing of knowledge and the creation of innovations.
Conclusion
Digital culture has more positive impacts than the negative ones on the social life and even the economies. It should therefore be upon the society to choose on what cultural aspect they should acquire from the other communities. They should also be bold enough to prevent the erosion of their own culture.
References
Fuchs, C. (2015). Culture and economy in the age of social media. Routledge.
Fuchs, C. (2017). Social media: A critical introduction. Sage.
Goldfarb, A., Greenstein, S. M., " Tucker, C. E. (Eds.). (2015). Economic analysis of the digital economy. University of Chicago Press.
Goldfarb, A., " Tucker, C. (2017). Digital economics (No. w23684). National Bureau of Economic Research.
Goodrich, K., " De Mooij, M. (2014). How ‘social’are social media? A cross-cultural comparison of online and offline purchase decision influences. Journal of Marketing Communications, 20(1-2), 103-116.
Harsin, J. (2015). Regimes of posttruth, postpolitics, and attention economies. Communication, Culture " Critique, 8(2), 327-333.
Langley, P., " Leyshon, A. (2017). Platform capitalism: the intermediation and capitalisation of digital economic circulation. Finance and society., 3(1), 11-31.
