How Social Media Affects Cultural Exchange
Social media has enabled the greatest cultural exchanges at speed in humanity’s history. This is fascinating for human cultures.
Muzi, sitting in his house in Johannesburg hits the send button as he uploads his latest African drum clip to TikTok. Hassan in Jakarta hears it and mixes in some Indonesian style gong chimes. Julie in Montreal gets it and layers in some Haitian creole patois lyrics over top. The final mixed video goes viral around the world.
Social media platforms and the devices we use to create cultural artefacts, from art to literature, music and architecture have ramped up global cultural exchange in a way humanity has never experienced. The most significant benefit? We can better understand one another, finding common ground.
This has created what we might call “moral economies” that sit outside of traditional market economies and could be regarded as more powerful, since moral economies will eventually impact market economics.
When Muzi’s drum piece was picked up by someone in Indonesia and another in Montreal, a form of cultural exchange has happened. None of them receive any form of monetary compensation, they are participating in a complex web of social obligations and cultural transmission.
These exchanges of mashups from music to art, literature, fashion and architecture, the aesthetic elemebts of culture create new forms of social value outside of traditional market mechanisms.
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has” — Margaret Mead, anthropologist
By Hassan and Julie adding their cultural influences to Muzi’s music, they create a form of social debt, a form of obligation in respecting and building on Muzi’s work. This gets attention and the people, living in different parts of the world, may eventually collaborate on more songs and eventually make some money, perhaps even end up touring the world and playing live.
Storytelling platform Wattpad is a hotbed of cross-cultural literary exchanges. From its “webnovels” originally in a Chinese format, has evolved storytelling structures in other cultureas around the world.
Nigerian-American writer Nnedi Okorafor has weaved in elements of mythical Nigerian and other African styles into science fiction novels and stories, influencing science fiction around the world.
Often many of these exchanges are what anthropologist Claude Levis-Strauss would call “mythological structures” with an ability to transcend typical cultural boundaries as a result of social media platforms.
Through Instagram we’ve seen how streetwear aesthetics have mixed with West African fashion. Traditional Mexican huipil designs are influencing Korean street fashions. Some “modest fashion” influencers are bridging Middle Eastern and Western style elements into their cultures.
What’s also interesting is that when major brands, usually fashion brands, have tried to incorporate smaller cultural groups styles into their own it’s been called cultural misappropriation. It is. But they too have learned that when properly engaging with another culture, this can be avoided.
We see the effects of cultural exchanges through social media in architecture as well. The Brazilian concept of “gambiarra”, a way of creative improvisation in building design has influenced global DIY movements. This is playing a key role in how many people are approaching urban spaces and community living.
Prior to the internet and social media, cultural innovations could take years, even decades, to reach other cultures around the world. Now, they can happen in a matter of hours.
So does all of this mean that we’re just going to end up creating a boring homogenized culture? I don’t think so and there is historical and modern day examples of why this is unlikely.
It has to do with what could be called “structured differentiation” and today, “differential amplification.” When Muzi and friends songs are created blening three distinct cultures, it is in essence entirely new, creating new forms deeply rooted in each culture but having global influence.
K-pop is a relevant and modern example of structured differentiation as well. While it has gone global, it has also resulted in P-pop in the Philippines, V-pop in Vietnam and C-pop in China, with them all maintaining their core cultural values.
Indigenous communities have been very effective in using social media to both transmit and aplify their cultural aesthetics while at the same time preseving their distinct approaches and styles for the future.
What we are seeing through these cultural exchanges is an incredible period of human creativity and collaboration that should give us all hope for the future of our species. It’s not all simple and easy, nor will it lead to a Utopia, but it does mean more sharing and less fighting. One hopes. Culture is not a zero-sum game, it multiplies and evolves through contact rather than diminishing.