In the previous article “cultural evolution” It discussed that cultural evolution is a discipline that is a quantitative study of culture and of cultural dynamics. Thus, with digital technologies, an essential tool in the digital age, we have a lot of quantitative data from social media. Google ad sense, google trends and Mailchimp, to name a few, the list is too long. Online connectedness and digital media allow access to networks where cultural transmission is possible, increasing both the availability of cultural models (from whom we can copy) and our reach (the number of individuals who can copy from us) (Acerbi, 2019).
The digital cultural evolution as a system provides a good way to analyse these data quantitatively, and this is one side. The most important side of the cultural revolution is that there is also a solid theoretical background that helps to study online dynamics and social influence more effectively. The cultural revolution adds some good understanding of how people learn from each other and how people transmit information in the digital era. The following paragraph is one of the fundamental features of the digital revolution (Acerbi, 2019).
This post aims to explore how culture and new communication technologies shape, and are shaped by, our interactions and technological advancements. In the digital age, modern communication technology has revolutionized the way we access and share information. This transformation has not only enhanced the availability of information but also introduced new dynamics in transparency and social interactions. However, these advancements come with both benefits and challenges. The ease of accessing vast amounts of data can lead to the illusion of competence, while the widespread reach of digital platforms influences social conformity and critical thinking. This post explores the multifaceted impact of modern communication technology, examining its role in information availability, transparency, and social behavior, and highlighting the ongoing evolution in how we interact with knowledge and each other.
Modern communication technology is different from all other communication technology, and availability is one aspect of the main novelties in the new digital technology. Availability means the ability to have access to an enormous amount of information whenever one wants at a low cost (Pertierra, 2017). In addition, this modern technology is a time-saver. To put it in another way, we can access any type of information whenever we want. Back in the day, books, writing, and painting were doing the same service.
Digital availability offers us reach too, which has played a big role in shaping culture internationally. Today people can communicate with an enormous number of people. Individuals can work, meet and hang out remotely, this was not possible at the end of the 90s (Kress, 2010).
On the other side of the coin, availability could create the illusion of competence (Oakley, 2014). To clarify what Oakley means, let us take an example, one watches a video about Behavioral Economics, where the video’s creator synthesises all kinds of ideas and comes to an interesting conclusion. For a second, the viewer thinks, “ I know all about that topic now”. But if someone asks a person to explain the topic in detail, that person probably would not be able to do that, and they might fumble for words. When someone finishes watching a documentary, they feel that they know all about that, but they don’t. What Oakley means is seeing information in front of you doesn’t mean you know it. Or hearing someone come to a conclusion, doesn’t mean you know how to reach it or explain their argument (Schoder, 2018).
Knowledge and information are not the same, in fact there is a huge difference between to gain knowledge to solve problems or to have access to information. Searching for something on google gives you the illusion that the information is in your brain. Spending lots of time with material doesn’t mean you know it.
There is a difference between feeling informed and truly understanding information. The person can parrot opinions they read or cite random facts. One of the many reasons why people have trouble explaining from videos or articles is because they simply don’t remember what was said. The huge amount of available information and the easiness of reaching it creates the illusion of “I know, I read, I watched”. It is worth understanding how memory works. Though the digital information age has practical advantages, which are the availability and the speed of obtaining information, it also brought with it challenges. Finishing a video/ an article and moving on to another without spending at least 30 seconds to repeat and recall after finishing the video is the main reason for the illusion of competence (Schoder, 2018). Therefore, it is important to distinguish between knowledge and information, information is materials while knowledge is a tool for the solving of problems (Kress, 2010).
Another advantage of modern communication technology is that it reduces opacity. Before the digital revolution, communication was happening in a relatively small circle of the trusted social network. In contrast, today, humans can communicate with almost any online person in this globe (Pertierra, 2017). And here is a drawback of this availability and reach. Here an obvious question appears, do we have all the information we need to trust that person? The answer to this question is we still need to do research that is coming and gaining from the internet. Let’s say X connected with Y via Instagram and ask them to live together. Y should do research on the social media about X to decide if he can trust X or not; for example, from the number of likes with paying attention to comments on previous posts and videos etc. Therefore, this digital technology helps us see and evaluate things more clearly (Acerbi, 2019).
In 1951 Solomon Asch did a conformity experiment to investigate how far a person could be affected by social pressure from a majority group. This experiment’s results showed that there are two main reasons people conform. The first reason is a normative influence because they want to fit in with the group. And the second reason is informational influence, which means they believe the group is better informed than they are (Acerbi, 2019).
The conformity experiment provokes us to wonder if it is easy to influence and misinform people; in other words, do we follow the herd? Here, two points should be spotted: freedom to choose and critical thinking. Digitalisation has opened up the globe for people and has changed their way of living. So, regarding the first reason for the conformity experiment, human beings’ desire to blend in, this point does not apply to the global digital culture we live in today (Acerbi, 2019). Belonging is one of the human essential needs, because humans are social beings (Pertierra, 2017) – Maslow’s needs pyramids show us that humans need to feel they belong to society; the figure below shows Maslow’s Hierarchy pyramids of human needs- (Campbell, 2010). Today, however, people have more freedom to choose their community, and be a member of any society one wants. The availability of various social groups in the virtual world has given individuals more options to choose the society they want (Kress, 2010). And regarding the second reason of the conformity experiment, the group knows more than they do; this idea could not be applied 100% in our digital age because the availability of information motivates our critical thinking, and in this context, people don’t accept information blindly (Acerbi, 2019).
A constant evolutionarily strategy will never be if humans are just following the herd and if they conform to everything that happens in their environments. Moreover, humans would be unable to distinguish between reliable and unreliable information. The enormous availability motivated our critical thinking and gave us more options to choose what fit us, not the other way around (Pertierra, 2017).
Availability has been mentioned earlier in this post, and as a spontaneous wondering, we might ask why people share this great amount of useful information. Here I am not talking about the channels that allow ads on their platforms. Wikipedia is a good example of a non-commercial website, where anyone can write and edit; it has more than 56 000 000 articles in different languages. In other words, what are the motivations behind sharing valuable information through the internet with people they have never met or are not even part of their circle of friends? It is important to be mentioned and it might include some unreliable information, however, a large proportion of this information is reliable (Acerbi, 2019). Wikipedia’s organisation has a solid structure, and it could not be explained in this post.
Undoubtedly, each individual has their own reason for contributing to Wikipedia. According to the Lebanese Wikipedia, Basem Fleifel is one of the Lebanese Wikipiadian. He talked about the reasons that motivated him to contribute hundreds of articles on Islamic history to Wikipedia: “I wanted to help people understand their history and its true form in their mother tongue, and provide people information with the same quality level that western sources or references provide their readers” (Dirani, 2017).
People could do it with the wrong expectation of reciprocation, even if anonymous (Acerbi, 2019). Wikipedia editors all have their reasons for wanting to contribute to Wikipedia, but here are the most common reasons why (Beutler Ink, 2022):
This idea may seem strange at first glance. You might suppose that it is difficult for a person who has his/her time occupied by study, work, or family, to devote his time to hard work for which he does not receive anything in return (Acerbi, 2019). Still, those who try to write on Wikipedia may find it enjoyable.
To sum up, the availability and accessibility are good advantages of new technologies that have two main positive impacts in our lives. The first is the spread speed of information transmission, and the second is how we analyse this available information. In contrast, the illusion of competence could be produced by the availability of information and how our cognitive mechanisms process information.
The new communication technology affects our behaviour and gives us new ways to interact with others. Over and above that encourages people to refute what is not suitable for them, not the other way around, as it was in the old days, with a consistent evolutionary approach to culture and cognition. If humans did not have critical thinking and epistemic vigilance, there would never be a cultural evolution. In short, to transmit culture, it is consequential to have a good hypothesis and quantitative approach and that is basically what the cultural revolution does. The last part of this paper highlights how humans pass on what they learn at greater distances and across time by Wikipedia’s example. These writers do not get any material or moral reward for their efforts, and their names do not appear in their articles in the first place. The only consolation in what they do is serving others and spreading knowledge. How can we leverage the vast amount of online information to gain a deeper understanding rather than just a superficial grasp? Moreover, How do we find the right balance between being open and transparent online while still keeping our privacy and trust intact?
Sources:
