Digital platforms have a profound impact on shaping and challenging cultural norms. Here’s how they do it:
1. Creation of New Cultural Norms:
- Global Connectivity: Digital platforms break down geographical barriers, allowing people from diverse cultures to connect, share ideas, and influence each other. This leads to the creation of global cultural norms (e.g., viral trends, memes, or shared online behavior).
- Influencers and Social Media: Social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube allow influencers to set trends that become widespread, often shaping youth culture, fashion, beauty standards, and even language.
- Access to Diverse Ideas: Platforms like Twitter, Reddit, and podcasts foster diverse voices and opinions, enabling the development of new cultural conversations that can challenge traditional norms, especially regarding social justice, politics, or gender.
2. Challenging Existing Cultural Norms:
- Visibility of Marginalized Groups: Digital platforms provide a space for marginalized groups (e.g., LGBTQ+ communities, racial minorities, disabled people) to voice their experiences and push back against societal norms or systemic oppression. Movements like #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo gained momentum on social media, challenging long-standing norms related to race and gender.
- Decentralization of Authority: Traditional media was often controlled by a small group of powerful institutions. Digital platforms decentralize this control, allowing anyone with an internet connection to have a voice. This can challenge traditional gatekeepers (e.g., journalists, government officials) and cultural elites, shifting power dynamics and questioning established norms.
- Redefining Identity: Social platforms allow people to explore and express different aspects of their identity (gender, sexuality, politics) in ways that may not have been as easily accepted in more traditional, offline spaces. This challenges conventional norms about how people should behave or identify.
3. Reinforcement of Existing Cultural Norms:
- Echo Chambers: Algorithms on platforms like Facebook, YouTube, or Twitter tend to show users content that aligns with their existing beliefs and interests. This can reinforce cultural norms and biases by limiting exposure to differing viewpoints or experiences.
- Conformity through Social Proof: People often mimic behaviors or trends they see online, which can reinforce conformity to popular cultural norms. For example, social media “likes” and shares can encourage people to follow the crowd, reinforcing trends, beauty standards, and lifestyle choices.
4. Commercial Influence on Cultural Norms:
- Advertising and Branding: Digital platforms are driven by advertising revenue, and brands often promote certain lifestyles, beauty ideals, and values that shape what is considered “normal” or aspirational. This can reinforce consumerism, body image norms, and other societal expectations.
- Data and Personalization: Platforms use data to create highly personalized experiences, which can lead to people being exposed to content that supports existing behaviors or desires. This can challenge people to become more individualized, but it can also limit diversity of thought by pushing people into “filter bubbles.”