CULTURE & COMMUNITY- Learner's Log
- deepikagupta20
- Oct 25, 2020
- 3 min read
ILLUSTRATED GLOSSARY:
1. Culture- It is the norms and beliefs of a particular group sharing a particular language, religion, music and arts.
2. Community- It is a society in which people who share a common culture or interest grow together as a family and share a sense of belongingness.
3. Material culture- Material components of a culture are the physical things, for example, clothing, food, accessories which can be visible in its outlook.
4. Non-material culture- non-material components include the feeling aspect and abstract ideas, for examples, rules, ethics, morals, and beliefs.
5. Belief- It is a feeling or intuition that something exists which may be evil or good. For example, our belief in our God.
6. Norm- It is basically a rule or a principle or a guideline according to which something has to be done or followed.
7. Ritual- It is basically a ceremony usually related to a particular religion or something divine which has to be done in a specific manner.
8. Values- Values are the morals of a community determining how important something is by influencing a person's attitude.
SOCIAL MEDIA COMMUNITY:
There are several unsaid beliefs as well like even though people say that "you can be yourself on social media", however, it is not the case as there's a belief that you should react in a certain manner on social platforms. If you are not "picture perfect" or not posting anything about the current situation of the country, then you are judged and made fun of.
Traditions and Customs of Social Media:
Even though social media is a modern culture it too has traditions and customs. For example, it has become a tradition to post pictures on 'Diwali' with a lamp or light. These reflect in the material aspects of the social media which is posting pictures and selfies. There also has become a custom of posting stories about anything major that happens in the country usually related to political rights, for example, #Blacklivesmatter became a trending Twitter hashtag due to police brutality against African-American men. It influenced the materialistic aspect as now everybody was sharing about the right of equality and protesting against racism.
There are aspects of non-material culture as well since it a platform through which we connect with other communities and cultures. It is an intangible aspect since it gives one happiness, create a sense of belongingness which cannot be measured in terms of anything.
These traditions and customs, however, keeps changing according to the current scenarios and so does the audience.
PERSONAL OPINION:
One of the greatest achievement of 'modernism' and 'digital revolution' is the Internet and Social Media. Social media has become a very important part of our lives affecting it immensely. Sometimes the effect is positive while sometimes its negative.
Social media is a great platform to connect, share opinions and create awareness. In today's time almost every individual is on some or the other social media platform sharing his perspective and learning from others. But now a time has come where its influence is more negative than positive. What's ironic is that while we are using social media to connect with people from far off places, in reality we are neglecting the ones living with us creating a generation gap. Even though social media has non-materialistic aspects, it has snatched away the real happiness.
Despite all the unique advantages, social media is main cause of depression and anxiety among teenagers. While creating their individual identity on the Internet, people have now forgotten their basic values, the roots of their real identity. Being a social media user, I believe that social media has made people 'fake', a word which was unknown until the digital revolution.
Where would we be today if social media hadn't been created? Would we be still going to the libraries to fetch information? Would we still wait for the letters from the loved ones the way we used to? Would we remember each others' birthdays on our own? Nobody really knows.
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