Culture and technology are constantly at the stage of development and improvement; moreover, they are interconnected. With the advent of technology, many spheres of society have changed, and popular culture has not been spared. Under the yoke of constant innovation, the latter had to adapt to new realities. In addition, the technologization and development of the Internet have contributed to a change in the structure of supply and demand. Thus, this work aims to examine how the development of technology influenced the popular culture of America in the twentieth century. Also, the issue of the relationship between race and technology will be analyzed and whether they affect each other negatively or positively.
One of the leading technologies that had a direct impact on the formation of the culture of the twentieth century was the Internet. He touched on all aspects of media art, redirecting the focus to sources that can openly convey someone’s opinion. One of the difficulties faced by popular culture was that it had to be rebuilt entirely. The introduction of innovations provoked the destruction of old charters, as they no longer fit a rapidly adapting society. At the same time, the process of technologization introduced alternatives for introduction into the cultural life of society, which on the one hand, facilitated the process of innovation and adaptation to new realities.
It is also worth emphasizing that people should have an understanding of what popular culture is and what it includes. So, it consists of the most common objects, trends, and views that dominate society. With the introduction of new technologies, these indicators began to change, which gave rise to a change in society. This is due to the fact that popular culture finds itself in extremely close interaction with the public sphere of people’s lives, and all its aspects are influenced by it. Technology also shapes different cultures and differentiates them from each other. However, in such a process, there may be problems with the perception of race.
As mentioned earlier, technologization has influenced such an aspect of culture as the distribution of its products of activity. Hence, with the advent of the Internet, there was no need to use physical media, as innovations gradually appeared that allowed storing information in electronic form. Moreover, technology has contributed to the emergence of new trends not only in art but also in music and architecture. There is an opportunity to create new sound new construction solutions. However, in this case, such a critical aspect as the availability of the products offered was not taken into account. Thus, the first people who could feel and get acquainted with the changing culture were often the wealthier people. Despite the fact that there was a significant gap between those who could afford to be satisfied with music, some suffered from a lack of music or audio.
Thus, one of the problems that can be caused by the development of technology is the strengthening of racism and racist bias in society. Despite the fact that they will provide people with information in the public domain, many fail to educate themselves on this topic. Moreover, anonymity allowed detractors to calmly express their reasonable opinion, which directly affects representatives of another race.
Therefore, it must be underlined that technology helps create different cultures and differentiates one from another. Thus, the process of merging cultures occurs more smoothly and favorably, but this may not be attributed to all cases. Technology does allow for every opportunity to be expressed but at the same time create more opportunity for racism than in society. Because of this, there is incitement of racial conflicts and hatred in favor of a non-prevailing culture. However, there is a possibility of the opposite process; when receiving additional information and learning about creators from other countries, people begin to encourage representatives of other nations more.
Sources also emphasize the point of view of Lopez, who claimed that there are two concepts: techno-optimism and techno-optimism. Techno-pessimist is the digital belief technologies heavy-hearted people of color, and the second one holds that people of color have adopted new technologies to benefit their communities (Rios, 2019). In his lecture on techno-pessimism, Lopez said there are various ways digital technologies can perpetuate racism. However, even if there is a positive trend, we can say that at the moment, there is a shortage of racially designated products, which does not affect the elimination of racism and racial bias in any way.
Thus, this work considered the question of the impact of technology on the development of culture in America in the twentieth century. It is worth noting that these innovations and innovations contributed to the change of the market, but also the concepts of supply and demand. Moreover, many other industries have greatly facilitated their work. One of the main problems is the attraction of racism in the formed society. This problem can be solved by implementing specialized programs. Thus, this work came to the conclusion that technology has significantly influenced the development of culture.
Reference
Ríos, M. Á. R., López, J. B. L., & Veiga, J. G. (2019). Present and future in the mirror of the past: capitalist dynamics, digital technology and industry in the fifth Kondratiev. World Review of Political Economy, 10(4), 449-483.