lacansmirror, Appadurai

Appadurai addresses the new conditions of the global cultural economy as they have changed rapidly.  First, Appadurai explains that the two primary forces that sustained cultural interaction were warfare and religion. These interactions or perceptions would either connect directly with people or greatly impact others.  The creation of the internet and other modern technologies has caused a shift in the way our cultural economy functions.  For example, the small world idea of knowing everyone's neighbor and being friendly with others around the world is obviously untrue today.

The It's a Small World ride at Disney may give the impression that we are all connected and friendly, but reality is far from that.  Even though one could argue that social media connects us with others around the world, the world is still large, it is just more accessible.  The increase of access has put an emphasis on online relationships instead of the global villages Appadurai mentions.

Today, local community members are unaware of their immediate community but completely aware of the global community.  This survey found that only 53% of U.S. adults know their neighbors' names.  I would be curious to learn how many U.S. youths know their peers names down the block.  With younger generations spending more time online using social networking sites connecting with friends around the world, I assume the statistics could only be greater for them.  As it becomes more common to use social networking sites, the global culture economy will lose its local uniqueness.  Online we see the pastiche of cultural convergence which diminishes uniqueness but gives us a false sense of connectivity.  A lack of local community and culture will weaken the large scale cultural economy.

An observation I made as an RA last year was that students knew their roommates names, but they often didn't know their peers' names next door or down the hall.  We used events and other programs to help residents meet, but they would often not attend.  It is a lot easier to sit on Facebook and "meet" or "stalk" others than it is to actually meet them.  I typically do not accept friend requests from people I haven't met, but when I came to Rollins, that quickly changed for the worse.  I felt like people didn't need to meet me because they already "knew" me online. I still made friends and have a good social life, but it was still a little disturbing to think about.  People use Facebook to learn about others and make assumptions even if their profile doesn't represent who their true identity.  In fact, no matter how many posts, photos, comments, etc. a person has, their true identity will only be found by talking with them.

At the beginning of last year, my hall did a "speed friending" event where we had residents pair up in groups of two and answer a couple basic questions.  Since it was an early event, people actually attended.  The feedback we received was incredible.  Residents felt like they understood more things about their neighbors and made some "real friends". The most fascinating aspect to me wasn't that they made friends (even though that was rewarding), but the idea that this type of offline socializing was new or different.  When an entire generation is living online, communicating in person is challenging and abnormal.

After reading Appadurai, I became a little worried about the next generation.  If our social mentality is focused so heavily on online interactions, and our global culture economy weakens as a result, will it eventually collapse? Will it be easier and popular to Trick or Treat online? Appadurai explains the importance of larger global forces being built on the idea of the global village, but advancements in capitalism and technology seem to be working in the opposite direction.  Services like Facebook argue that they help us connect, but by spending our time connecting online limits our framework of traditional communication.  I understand the benefits of social media, but balancing them with offline reality is essential for maintaining a stable and diverse global cultural economy.