Abstract
As we approach the new millennium, social relationships are changing radically. In 1969, the anthropologist Margaret Mead spoke of an ‘approaching world-wide culture’. While Mead wrote of a global culture made possible by the electronic and transportation advances of her day, her words actually foresaw fundamental changes that have been substantially enhanced by the computer communication networks that were just beginning in 1969. A new culture is being formed out of a universal desire for communication. This culture is being formed and formulated both by new technology and by social desires. People are dissatisfied with their conditions, whether traditional or modern. Much of the new communication technology facilitates new global connections. This paper will explore the effect of new communication forms on human culture and of human culture on these new communication forms.
‘Any document that attempts to cover an emerging culture is doomed to be incomplete. Even more so if the culture has no overt identity (at least none outside virtual space). But the other side of that coin presents us with the opportunity to document the ebb and flow, the moments of growth and defeat, the development of this young culture.’ (John Frost, Cyberpoet’s Guide to Virtual Culture, 1993)
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Hauben, M. (1997). Culture and communication — The interplay in the new public commons: Usenet and community networks. In: Berleur, J., Whitehouse, D. (eds) An Ethical Global Information Society. IFIP — The International Federation for Information Processing. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-35327-2_18
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-35327-2_18
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