Internet and Social Media Are Changing Culture

There is little doubt that the digital technology and social media has already a significant impact on culture. Towards the end of the 19th century artists sough to capture their subjects through portraits of individuals who were absorbed in the act of reading a book. Today, it is the pictures of people standing in the middle of a crowd, captivated by what they are reading on their smartphone that best symbolizes the 21st century subject.
That the Internet and the social media are powerful instruments for mobilization of people is not in doubt. However, it is not its own technological imperative that allows the social media to play a prominent role in social protest. Rather the creative use of the social media is a response to aspirations and needs that pre-exist or at least exist independently of it. This technology ought to be perceived as a resource that can be utilized by social and political movements looking for a communication infrastructure to promote their cause.
Take the example of radicalized jihadist youth in the West. In many cases the Internet has been represented as a powerful technology that incites young Muslims to become radicalized. Often the term“sudden radicalization” is used to highlight the power of social media to swiftly convert otherwise confused young Muslims into hardened extremist jihadists. Yet there is considerable evidence to suggest that young Muslims who go online to visit jihadist websites have gone through a process of self-radicalization. They are already drawn towards radical Islam and are looking for a medium to express their ideals and interact with those who share their sentiments. What these websites do is to affirm, deepen or harden sentiments that their visitors already possess. Their experience of the Internet may encourage young Muslims to move in unexpected radical directions but these individuals have already developed attitudes that disposed them to embark on such a journey.
The relationship between the social media and radicalization is both an interactive and dynamic one. The social media provides a medium through which pre-existing sentiments can gain greater clarity, expressions and meaning. It provides a medium for the kind of interaction that can throw up new ideas, new symbols, new rituals and new identities. In this sense it has helped stimulate the emergent Western jihadist youth sub-culture and arguably its online expressions have exercised an important influence on its offline trajectory.
BY SANG IS/1221/14