Social Media: Cultural Diffusion at What Cost?

            The world has become a much smaller place due to the interconnecting webs cast by social media. Ever since the birth of the internet, the olden days where newspapers reigned supreme have long been pushed back. It appears that American news no longer seems interesting. As seen by the Kony video, international issues have become the norm; local news no longer take precedent. This amalgamation of information between countries has come with both benefits and drawbacks. One of the most obvious benefits is the distribution of information. The knowledge of the world is literally at our fingertips and can be accessed with a single click. However, this is making material texts relics of the past. The need for books is disappearing. They are becoming replaced with things like Kindles and such. And unlike published materials that go through editing to ensure accuracy of information, the internet has no such quality control. As a result, we do not know if the information we are reading has any validity whatsoever, especially with the recent suggestion to allow websites to use any endings they desire. If it comes to pass, this will destroy the long held viewpoint that websites ending in .gov or .org are more reliable in terms of being informational sources. Omar mentioned one very important aspect of social media. He described it as being something akin to the game telephone. One person says one thing and says it to another. By the very end, the original message has been lost. Another interesting point brought up during Tuesday's discussion was the deterioration of culture. Similarly to the countries of the ancient world that were conquered and mixed together by their overlords, the internet has conquered and mixed us together as well. As Nazifa mentioned in her post, K-pop has started to cross over into the western world. However, at what cost to both the U.S. and Korea? In order for K-pop to be successful, I believe it has to take on a western flavor in order to interest American listeners. This means K-pop has to lose what little of its culture it has left. Over the past decade, its music has taken on American aspects as it has encompassed several genres such as hip-hop and r&b. And yet, that has still not been enough to break through the barrier of the western world. Is this an indicator of the rest of the world? That we are still destined to become similar but not homogenous?