IT and Language

Paper Summary:

This paper claims that information technology (IT) and its present language of preference, English, is having a profound effect upon global societies through its influence on native languages and, hence, on native cultures. This paper addresses those and other issues regarding Internet, language, and globalization.

From the Paper:

"As to the impact Western-spawned technology in general is having on cultures overseas, author Thomas L. McPhail (Global Communication: Theories, Stakeholders, and Trends) suggests that there is a kind of "electronic colonialism" (EC) now sinking its fangs into lesser developed countries (LDCs). This EC reflects the dependency LDCs have on the West, which is caused by "the importation of communication hardware and foreign-produced software, along with engineers, technicians, and related information protocols" (pp. 14-15) into LDCs. These hardware and software technologies ("from comic books to satellites, computers to fax machines, CDs to the Internet") establish a set of foreign norms, values, and expectations that, to varying degrees," McPhail asserts, "alter domestic cultures, habits, values and the socialization process itself."

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