Cultural Encounters in Cyberspace

 by Paula Uimonen
United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), Geneva

Paper presented in a virtual conference organized by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
on "Internet in Asia: Cultural Diversity", Cyberspace, March 1998

“People in virtual communities use words on screens to exchange pleasantries and argue, engage in intellectual discourse, conduct commerce, exchange knowledge, share emotional support, make plans, brainstorm, gossip, feud, fall in love, find friends and lose them, play games, flirt, create a little high art and a lot of idle talk. People in virtual communities do just about everything people do in real life, but we leave our bodies behind...To the millions who have been drawn into it, the richness and vitality of computer-linked cultures is attractive, even addictive.” (Rheingold, 1994: 3)

The Internet is a social construct, created by people for the sake of human communication and interaction. It provides new venues for cultural expression and experimentation in a transnational social environment. As captured by Rheingold in the quote above, computer-mediated communication (CMC) allows for more interactive and innovative ways for people to do what they do in ‘real life’. Thus the Internet is but an extension of human ingenuity and creativity, “the most precise mirror of people as a whole that we’ve yet had” (Lanier, 1998: 60). However, while the image of the Internet as a mirror is accurate, it is still not a mirror of people as a whole. The fact that only an estimated 5-10% of the content on the Internet is of Asian origin while the Asian population represents almost half of the world’s population indicates how far the Internet is from true cultural diversity.

Although the Internet is a medium of global reach, its North-American origin is evident in the dominant language of the Net as well as the origin of most existing sites. Approximately 80% of on-line content is currently in English (Internet Society, http://www.isoc.org). This Anglophone influence in both form and content could be interpreted in terms of cultural dominance and the Internet could be seen as a vehicle for marketing ideas and values stemming from a very specific and powerful part of the world. Nonetheless, the characteristics of this new medium differ markedly from traditional broadcasting media, as the Internet is based on principles of interactivity rather than one-way transmission, allowing users to be both consumers and producers of information.

The Internet also symbolizes a specific way of communicating, which is influenced by a number of variables. The most common means of computer-mediated interaction is through text-based exchanges, with the most commonly used application being electronic mail. The characteristics of e-mail communication are evident in much of the interaction taking place on the Net in general, the style of which is notably informal. Over the years, social rules guiding on-line behaviour have been developed, commonly referred to as ‘netiquette’. Designed to facilitate on-line interaction, netiquette comprises some general guidelines, which are followed to varying degrees (see for instance Rinaldi, 1996). These are some of the characteristics of cyberculture, a mix of different influences shaped by the world within as well as outside the Internet. As with any other culture, the elements of cyberculture are unevenly distributed and change over time, representing patterns rather than rigid structures. Yet their influence is clearly visible in many of the characteristics of cyberspace, in both form and content.

As the Internet goes global it encounters different cultures which react to it in different ways. It would be far too simplistic to view this process in terms of ‘cultural imperialism’, assuming that old habits can simply be washed away. What actually happens as new users get on-line is that a myriad of new virtual worlds are created. These are a mix of traditional culture and cyberculture, influenced by and adapted to existing communicative practices and value systems. In fact, this is how cultural encounters always take place. The internalization of external influences is a complex process influenced by existing social relations. People interpret new influences according to existing frames of reference, and accommodate or reject them accordingly, the result of which is a fusion of the old and the new, unique to each specific context. In the case of the Internet, one can but expect that responses to on-line behavior will vary from country to country, each context offering new interpretations of and responses to the world of cyberspace.

Such cultural encounters are nothing new in the history of Asia. After all, Asian countries have been exposed to foreign influences over centuries, from neighbouring countries as well as more distant cultures. With rapid modernization, Western influences have perhaps been particularly strong. It would, however, be naïve to think that Coca Cola and MacDonalds could possibly replace centuries of tradition, something which marketing experts, for a start, are painfully aware of. Having observed the modernization process taking place in various Asian countries over the last decade, I can but conclude that Asia has not become ‘Westernized’, just like Europe has not become ‘Americanized’, despite the intensity of intercultural encounters and the changes that have taken place. This is not to say that Asian cultures have not changed. They always have.

If the Internet is to be a truly multicultural medium, it will, however, be important to encourage people in Asian countries to actively use the Internet to express themselves. The only way to ensure that Asian ‘Internauts’ are not merely consumers of information but also producers is to use the medium proactively. Unlike other media, the Internet opens up enormous opportunities for people to broadcast their own news and views to local as well as global audiences. It is, for instance, not particularly complicated to design a Web site, incorporating text and images, which can then be made available to others. And as more Asian people get on-line there will be both a supply and a demand for local information.

Studies have shown that Internet users are generally far more interested in local than in global information. For example, a few months ago I started subscribing to an Asian listserv, submitting my application just before going off on a long weekend. At the time my experiences with electronic mailing lists were limited to listservs of North American origin, from which I was used to receiving a few messages a day. Upon returning to my office, I was astonished by the 180 messages I had received from this Asian listserv over a period of only four days. The experience taught me how popular the Internet could be in Asia and how willing people were to use this new medium. What did they use it for? They were ‘talking’ about all kinds of issues related to their daily lives, including friendship, traffic jams and food. Things they would probably have discussed with each other had they met in real life. They just did it over computer networks instead of in person.

While it is important to provide localized content, in local languages and by using local frames of reference, the global reach of the Internet should not be neglected. Here the wide-spread use of English in Asia provides an advantage. English already serves the function of being a global lingua franca, allowing people of different cultural origin to communicate with one another. In many Asian countries, English has long been used as a national language, providing a cultural bridge in multicultural societies. This existing basis for intercultural communication will be very advantageous to Asian content developers, for local, regional and global communication.

The Internet can become a mirror of the multicultural world we live in and Asia could play an influential role in this process. Given the enormous wealth of cultural diversity in the Asian region, the transnational worlds of cyberspace would be greatly enriched if more Asian material were on-line, giving the rest of the world a better taste of what Asia has to offer. Few continents contain as many different ethnic groups, multicultural societies and ancient traditions as Asia. The attraction of this to the outside world is already clearly indicated by the growing numbers of tourists who visit the region. Sharing these resources on-line with the rest of the world would not only benefit local economies, but also stimulate Asian cultures.

These are some of the issues to be considered when discussing Internet and cultural identity. The line of thought presented here suggests that instead of viewing the Internet in terms of a ‘foreign devil’, it is more productive to view it for what it is, a new global medium for social interaction. How best to incorporate this tool for human interaction and cultural expression throughout the region of Asia is an issue for creative analysis by the participants of this virtual conference.

References cited

Lanier, Jaron. “Taking Stock”, in Wired, January 1998, pp. 60-62.

Rheingold, Howard. The Virtual Community. Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier. New York: HarperPerennial, 1994.

Rinaldi, Arlene, The Net: User Guidelines and Netiquette, on-line @ http://www.fau.edu/rinaldi/net/dis.html, last updated April 1996.