Article : culture
The Future of Australia ’ s Culture
Society ’ s rules and etiquette ’ s have been framed by millions of years of physically regionalized human interactions .
T hese unique geographical places imparted their distinctive values , language , morays and norms to those that lived within its boundaries and taught us what was considered locally right from wrong .
These native rules were passed down orally from one generation to the next , reinforced over time by the education system and culture at large and then enshrined and enforced by local laws .
Our overriding universal culture has historically been dictated by the dominant power of our time – The Roman Empire ( circa 100 AD ), Song Dynasty China circa 1200 AD , Mughal Empire India circa 1700 , and British Empire circa 1870 .
Since the 1950 ’ s our dominant culture has been America-centric and with the increase reach of broadcast media in this time , the world has been fed a steady diet of American culture leaving many in both developed and developing nations to measure themselves against American success standards .
With the growth in internet usage , currently 3.4 billion users worldwide or 40 % of world population , rising to 5.5 billion by 2020 , this single dominant geographic dominance is dwindling and being replaced by a growing diversity of people , languages , cultures , morays , expectations and views blending together from 196 countries , 2,500 languages and endless combinations of cultures all competing for relevancy and longevity .
In a global digital world geographic boundaries and limitations don ’ t exist , localised norms don ’ t exist , and culture , language , morays , laws , etiquette , expectations , values and time zones all collide in a new uncharted and ever evolving totally connected borderless fluid digital world .
In this new and evolving digital world we have irrevocably changed what it means to be human , to work , to learn , to love , to play and to belong , leaving us to ponder in the near future whose cultural values will we follow ? Will these values be binding on all our behaviours and actions , or is culture instead becoming an issue of circumstance and not place .
All of these innovations and changes are ahead , each in their own way will alter our values , expectations and increasingly evolve what it means to be human .
To work through these and incorporate them into our future lives as meaningful and purposeful ; to teach us how , where and when to use these technologies and how to share them evenly and inclusively , are all part of an evolving culture and it is imperative in a world where “ new ” and “ different ” are ordinary and mundane that we evolve our culture so it can guide us to what is communally acceptable and what is not .
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