The Effects of Technology on Oral and Written Culture

The Effects of Technology on Oral and Written Culture

            Folk material delivery, especially storytelling and other folk sculptures like drama, in the past few decades, has writhed proper perceptions and in-depth analysis. This is because they were grim to comprehend or convey contextually or even manifest the same information to printed text and still maintain their efficacy to the informer. Due to this, they suffered from a lack of sophisticated electronic devices like cameras and videotapes, which could be used to record the performances. Most of the traditional activities are only based on the existing environmental circumstances, which were beyond storage and retrieval. To maintain cultural beliefs and customs, it’s essential to ensure such information is passed from generation to another. Failure to create storage materials, traditional ideas are rendered meaningless. The development of electronic devices has created an enabling environment for highlighting the intricacies of contextually centered performances aggregated to the artistic roles in oral narratives. The urban legend is a genre of folklore comprising of the stories assumed as accurate, especially if it has happened to a close friend or family member (Guerini & Carlo, 163). These stories are usually upsetting or even encompassed with some humorous elements. The inter-relationship between urban tale and culture is generally believed to create a sense of societal anxieties. It’s only through analysis and examinations of research information; we can achieve a moralistic confirmation of the prejudices as well as creating cultural tolerance. This research paper aims to evaluate the concept of technological effects on culture based on urban legends.

Cultural differences between communities have always been a very high score in creating a negative perception regarding the assumption of technological adversaries. This is usually assumed to be related to the level of primitiveness amongst the communities. Technology not only affects culture but also influences the way of living by condensing different traditions in one belief. Various countries across the world have incorporated technology into social security. The information stored in electronic devices can be retrieved quickly, especially for research purposes. Usually, many communities refer to traditions when making critical decisions.

Urban legends are usually circulated orally but can be spread through social media. For example, the use of emails and newspapers. Most of the urban legend has been by-passed by time, although there have been minor changes that suit regionals variations (Dagnall et al., 942). Different communities have initiated diverse mechanisms of incorporating urban legend in traditional set-ups. These concepts depend on technological acceptance in different regions. For assimilation of diversity in cultural beliefs, technology has ensured acceptance as well as creating a cheap mechanism of moralistic confirmations. Recently, urban legends tend to focus more on current circumstances.

Origin and Structure

            The question arises on why some people believe urban legend and why these legends flourish in society today. Despite displaying the tell-late cryptograms of the urban legends, the number of the social website continues to thrive as a means of creating a quick check for the legitimacy of folklore. New stories in society, especially those related to the cultural and community beliefs, tend to gain momentum with little consideration on whether they are true or not. It is not necessary to believe in an urban legend to pass it on, although the majority of the urban legends are believed to be untrue. In many scenarios, the urban legend is associated with the target leaders in the markets; these may include but not to the business leaders, politicians, or other prominent people who make urban legends more attractive to the general public. Urban legends usually provide an outlet for different people in many ways.

Today’s society is incorporated with many dangerous warning lurking in everyday products and situations. These tales of wretchedness, cooperatively known as urban legends, are usually shared via email in society today, but they can also be shared through other modern avenues of communications. Previously, the connection between communications and urban was assumed to be negative, since many communities were primitively interlinked. This avoided the existence of urban legends, although at very minimal exposure. The consistent upgrading of technological concepts has improved traditional beliefs as well as cultural impressions. Despite technological changes, many urban legends are usually framed with conspiracy and characters.

The compelling appeal of typical urban legends is usually the element of the mysteries, horror, and fear. Although some of the urban legends are aimed at impacting moral concepts that depict someone. For example, it may incorporate a story about a child who acts in an immoral manner only to wind up in trouble. It can be depicted that folklores in and of themselves may fill no actual resolution as far as the stated action, but too many people it will fulfill the emotional gratifications. They generally provide authentication of doubts and thus can relieve apprehension by giving it a perceptible target.

Different people in society today, find comfort in having their belief confirmed, even they are harmful while others enjoy their biases. Alternatively, and an individual might not necessarily believe a legend is true, but he might relish the social interactions or a group bonding that sharing the story brings to the societal set-ups. Different societies, especially in the current world today, don’t like the assimilation of culture to create seniority complex amongst themselves. Although modernization has created positive implications on the concept of cultural dimensions, it would be reasonable if we believe that urban legends such as Kentucky Fried, if debunked, will go away. Nevertheless, this legend has endured for over thirty years. Generally, this belief is usually associated with the general public assumption on the possibility of societal changes based on the current technological advancements. Critically, we cannot evaluate the existence of urban legends based on current social beliefs. Ignoring the truth and efforts to enlighten why a particular story is not true; some people will hold on to what they believe and will hold on no matter what.

Defining the Symbols of an Urban Legend

            Urban legends may contain a shred of truth, or perhaps none at all. They are usually accepted as factual and enjoy rapid dissemination. Almost all communities believed in word of mouth in the past; in today’s electronic age, there are varied methods of instant communication, which can be used as verification in the future. Electronic communication has created an environment in which a wider audience can be reached under a span of little time. These legends are usually tailored to meet a specific region or situation. Despite the knowledge of the skepticism and individual doubts, legends are often passed on to the others.

There is no valid reason as to why different people in society today still believe in urban legend or why specific myths survive examination and time. However, there is a modest mutual thread that seems to bond all the possible reasons together. The urban legend usually provides means of validating fears, contributing to the listeners that an object is uncaring as it was thought to be. It is only through the review of rumors associated with the existing theories that epidemiology representations can demarcate how urban legends easily and completely clench their audiences and are perpetuated through time.

For urban-legend to create and interest amongst its audience, it should be helpful if not completely ineludibly to include specificity and reasonableness. The key reason why people believe more on urban legends is the fact that they are more susceptible to believing them, and they are presented for being dependable on them. A story will be shared off as having heard from an unidentified friend of a friend. The exact source of information may not be named. Therefore the authenticity of the source may be questionable. Legend information is passed from the first person count. These imprecise source does not seem to matter because associates wound not a tall tale. Regarding this, technology has been a greater milestone in the world of preserving culture and traditions. In the evolution of the legends, local rumors are often woven to lend additional details of any narratives. Many urban legends are an extension of the jokes told as if they reflect the real-life situations.

Cultural Beliefs in Relation to Mythology and Technology.

Recently, a social scientist has assumed the role played by the urban legends in promoting culture. They have started to refer to urban folktales with the aim of elucidation complex socio-psychological beliefs and other social attitudes to crimes, childcare, and other family decisions. In these situations, scientists create an interlink between urban legends and common folklore. In this concept, the relationships might arise regarding the theme explained in the folklores.

The urban myths are generally used in describing the character of folklore. Generally, the urban legend is usually a misleading term to be used in the explanation of people’s thoughts and beliefs (Mysteries of legend and myths). Myth is commonly used to describe widely untrue things. The standard definition of myths is assumed to be supernatural tales involving within the existence of gods and spirits as well as the origin of the earth.

The urban legend is an essential part of popular culture, which offers an insight into the existence of the state of fear in society. Although urban legends are not famous, as a lesson, they impact a lot to the community. Lack of proper verifications mechanism does not reduce the appealing affinity of the urban legends to the society today. Society usually enjoys them as just stories, and many people doubt them as conceivably precise reports. Most of the urban legends tend to offer a moral lesson.KOVEN agreed urban legend is usually interpreted differently according to the individual desire and environment. Although these lessons should not display a deeper meaning of life. The acceptance of the folklores depends on the situation and cultural beliefs. It’s, therefore, essential to evaluate the environment before creating judgmental ideas on the existence of folklores.

Technological Effects on the Culture

            Technology is changing every aspect of our lives. The benefits resulting from the incorporation of modern technology have a significant impact on our society. However, the critical approach to technological changes is not the availability of advanced devices, but how we can manage the process of cultural change. Both oral and written culture has been affected either negatively or positively (Stubersfield, Emma & Jamshid, 20). As an aspect of our daily lives today, technology has impacted our cultures to the extend of assimilating new models with improved the way of human living. Introduction of machines that can till the land, do harvesting has reduced manual labor, which in turn reduced rural jobs due to automation.

As technology becomes more pervasive, the level of inequality to access particular technology increases. It has created a division on people’s believes since many still lag in defending the primitive cultures. The critical role brought about by technology is the availability of storage devices, which can be used as a model of reference in the future. Folklores depends mostly on word of mouth, thus delimiting the researcher on future demand for the same context.

Technology is well known for ensuring the authenticity of cultural information. This can only be done by creating an online framework for accessing such information. The use of the Internet makes it easier to spread both urban legend and debunking them. Debating on urban legends is a critical topic that can be highlighted in the Usenet groups (Whitney). The Internet has also played a significant role in creating an online platform in which people can look for diversity of different cultures without necessarily accepting a mere word of the mouth, although human beings are social animals. Technology cannot replace a human being. We need only to combine human and technological elements to combine across our bonders.

The use of modern technology is wide across the world. This assists in the dissemination of information. For example, the use of Television shows such as urban legends, truths, and mostly factual stories, features re-enactment s of urban legends itemizing the interpretations of the tales later in the television show. In this concept the attitude of accepting information or stories based on human knowledge is outdated. In many situations, humans believe in what they can see more than stories. Technology creates evidence aspects of urban legends. The existence of Television shows has tried to disapprove urban legends by attempting to reproduce scientific methods. It’s only through scientific analysis such that we can understand the real concepts behind the folklores. The documenting aspect of the technology creates a room for verifications as well as analyzing the authenticity of existing urban legend.

Oral cultural values and factors allied traditional beliefs are essential connection which cannot be omitted from our society. We cannot delink culture from the community. It’s only through the persistent improvement of technological evidence such that people can outgo the existing beliefs (Kim & Howard, 254). The point of modernizations should have interacted with local culture for the better functioning intolerant line. Technology shapes different cultures in diverse ways. This allows the intermix of cultures. Through the technology of computers and teleconferencing, people can access knowledge across the world without necessarily leaving their homes and creating a room of incorporating not only the technical aspects but also the social beliefs and traditions.

It’s the nature of human beings to generate explanations for the occurrences around us. We usually form theories about how the world operates and why different thing occurs in a particular manner (Mysteries of legend and myths). Generally, these explanations help us feel in control, whether they are true or not. This tendency has abounded in every ancient beliefs mythos. For example, the oceanic storms and earthquakes are usually destructive and very unpredictable to primordial Greek seamen. But if they had enlightenment on their actuality, they could assert some control over the outcome of the situation. Maybe through consistent petitions and sacrifices to appease gods.

Figure 1 by (Doyne)

Technological myths seem to work in the same concepts. People don’t have a clear cognitive understanding of how these systems work, but they usually generate possible justifications that may seem rational to them. This particular phenomenon has been in reality since the initial days of the individual internet users. In specific, people tend to form myths around what they are disturbed about. The examination of urban legends about the Internet discloses that human beings are very terrible about our existing technology. For instance, Folklores about undistinguishable waves, as manifested in cooks and phones, and supercomputers. Usually indicates the highest level of anxiety amongst people of different cultures (Stubbersfield, Emma & Jamshid, 130). Even without examination of the urban legends, people tend to believe the existence of folklore based upon the necessity of modern technology. Although these items such as micro-wave, computers, and cell phones are fundamentally requisite, the accessibility influence does not allay the distressing mistrust that pronounced harm can result from the continued convention. Currently, almost one-third of the world inhabitants suffers some point of technophobia, ranging from simple averting to the physical expressions. For example, the Northern Minnesota Urban legend poses information that gives an idea of the wendigo.

Figure 2 by (Vaičiulaitytė, 1)

Urban folklores have been everywhere as long as people have been capable of interconnecting. Technology has improved the mechanism of enhancing myths by quoting evidence based on the Internet. People rely mostly on the Internet, as a means of advancing information revolutions. This concept has changed urban myths suiting it to the current demands of authenticity (Mowlabocus, 123). Urban legends are a prevailing and significant portion of our historical and imminent. From perceiving the variations proficient in the myths as they pass from one or more folklore to the new cohort to the new digital database incorporating Internet and online documentation, common special effects and insinuations can be exposed with a little insight.

Technology has not only improved the oral culture, especially those related to the myths but also changes the social inferences of the verbal storytelling amongst each community (Murphie,22). As literacy becomes more wide-spread, urban legends reformed in several ways. First, is it conceivable to make a great story that is being told, and this leads to the new trend of shriveling of concepts. As text became visible and available, people could pass the true story minus certainly changing it. This mechanism took away a lot of ideas and amendments that oral history had to offer. Through technology, we can remember various aspects of the culture which took place in the ancient past. As a result, the future generation will have clues of the historical events which took place in the past. The effect of technology on urban legends has an impact on how different communities engage in their cultural dimensions.

The most significant magnitudes have risen as an effect of modern technology, have destroyed the restrictions of distance and time (Kavanagh). Therefore; the energy required to pass information from one individual to another is explicitly reduced, taking into consideration the cost factor (Quora. “How Technology Is Changing the Literary World.”). The Internet has changed the diffusion of urban legends a lot, making a way of doing email forwards and the use of statement boards. Considering the traditional myths, the storyteller would be limited to the geographical regions such that he can only inform people based on the small area (Facebook. “The Impact of the Digital Revolution on Africa’s Oral Traditions.”). The Internet has created a favorable implication in terms of disseminating information to a large group within the minimum time possible. Previously, there was no economically feasible way for a person in America to talk to a person in Asia for the sole purpose of spreading a story. Ideally, an individual can fly to any place in the world, or either spend exclusive hours on the phone but not convincingly.

Although there is a definite implication resulting from the technology, one of the significant challenges with the Internet is that once information is read, they give the impression of a pass. There is usually no further consideration of the modification into a new form. As a result of this, a story has an expiry time once it has been recited (Bonime). Besides, technology is an aspect of recording and documentation, creates an aspect of making information more credible rather than the oral word of mouth. Legends are most related to an unforeseen conspiracy which may impact fear and emotional imbalance to people.

Figure 3 by (Vaičiulaitytė, 5)

Urban legends appear in the configurations and folklorists, although with the Internet, we can configure these patterns into a meaningful summary of the available text (Pitura, 736). The Internet provides a new opportunity of studying urban legends and their modern affiliates such as chain letters and emails (Guerini &Carlo, 170). The Internet is the ideal channel for the broadcast of folk descriptions due to its inconspicuousness and effectiveness in the immediate dissemination of ideas. Folk groups are readily identifiable on the Internet and evidenced as chat forums and online political activity.

Different studies reveal that people are more than the environment. Such that people are attracted to the stories that are contained in endurance threat and social association. Most urban legends are contained on the Internet, portrays the current social behavior. This information can be retrieved at any place. Urban legends are a form of folklore that is continuously changing for being reformed. To ensure a consistent flow of urban legend storage is very important.

Conclusion

            Many of us have encountered urban legends in one way or the other. Those about technology leave an indelible mark in the current society. There is always a pattern in recognition of the contemporary technology impacts on urban legends. We may indicate that even though we relish our automated devices and use them devoid of bearing in mind the critical influences on our well-being, we fall off the urban legends (Pitura & Elzbieta, 740). Imperceptible substances such as contaminations make us anxious and dreadful that a few years later, we might become fatalities to some of the most horrible ailments, which could have been evaded if only we could have known.

Technology has a positive impact on the student who studies urban legends. It highlights and delivers an alternative view of our profoundly entrenched cultural acceptance of technology as evolvement (Valbuena, Cecilia & Carlos 5). It deals with an individual in a positive medium of fluctuating our modes of discernment and our nous of self –belonging. The capacity of the Internet to spread myths has been applicably used in marketing, for example, low, moderate film, which can be advertised as if it were about genuine urban folklore rather than working of imaginative fiction.

Urban legends have been a regular part of our civilization today. Although technology has impacted both positively and negatively depending on the types of folklore. Myths provide a way for people to bond with one another. The is no current explanation on titles and their continual popularity, although there are some elements of urban legends that overlaps all the theories. The continued application of the Internet may outweigh the initial concept of urban legends, thus affecting the society negatively.

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