Today, I’m going to talk about values of e-culture. In order to answer to the question : “What are the values of e-culture”, I will establish links with the origin of the Internet and the counter-culture movement’s values. Drawing this parallel, I will show how some values endured, even if it sometimes doesn’t correspond to the reality.
When Internet was created, it was developed by and dedicated to researchers communities – mostly in universities – before being extended to the whole society. Those communities worked in a spirit of cooperation, and the networks that linked the computers together allowed the researchers to share their knowledge and to work more efficiently. Then, when Internet has been extended to the whole society, the conception of a virtual group in which each one could express in an egalitarian way has endured.
Indeed, the advent of the Internet has changed many things in the field of social interactions. When they connect to the Internet, users have the impression that they enter a new world of egalitarian relationships. Forums are one example of virtual places of free expression : everyone can give his opinion about various subjects, without considerations of age, social belonging or ethnic group. But we can also qualify this statement : indeed, forums are moderated by people who supervise the contents of the contributions.
Moreover, the Internet provides to its users the possibility of interacting by tools such as electronic mail services, instant messaging and chats. It constitutes a different way to communicate than in “real” life : easy and immediate social link seems to be established trough the networks. On the one hand, it can lead to contacts between people who wouldn’t have met within the Internet ; for example, it can develop communities based on affinities or exchanges between different nationalities. But on the other hand, it can also damage sociability based on direct interpersonal encounter, for example some traditional communities such as families. In this case, we can evoke the phenomenon of “no life”, those people who become absorbed in virtual worlds.
We can also find a strong link between values of e-culture and values of “counter-culture” movement, which took place in the sixties in the Unites States. This movement includes young people’s revolting movement, hippie movement and some other alternative ones. Their values were life in community, desire of equality and freedom. They conceived the society as a pacific community in which love and altruism were two very important values. This movement disappeared in the seventies, but its values have endured. We can establish a link between counter-culture values and e-culture values. Indeed, Internet’s growth has mobilized many young people who were looking for a brotherly, communicating and peaceful society.
But does it correspond exactly to the reality of Internet use ? Many people consider that there’s a huge difference between the utopias that came with the emergence of the Internet and the reality. They think that big companies have distorted the initial project of a more cooperative and communicating society. Indeed, many companies have seen in the Internet the possibility to develop their brand strategies, to sell their products and to lure consumers. Moreover, there’s another point that has to be mentioned. Internet promises to its users universal and free access to information and knowledge. But even if the number of users has increased rapidly, many people remain excluded from the access to the networks. It can be due to different reasons, that I won’t evoke in this article, which is a bit long ! Maybe next time…
To conclude, I just invite you to come back to the “ELECTRONIC VILLAGE” in one week, for a new article about e-Culture and Communication.
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