Global Technologies & Cultural Adoption
Frank, living in Austin Texas, just couldn’t wait to get his hands on the new smartphone. The camera would up his food videos, the new software fir editing meant more videos, faster too. Better game play too and AI built-in? He saw so many ways his life might get easier.
Karthaki, living in Mumbai was excited for the new smartphone too. She realized she could make better videos of the children’s help centre she volunteered at. She’d be able to video with her sister studying in Canada and connect the whole family for weekly video calls.
The same smartphone, two different cultural views. This impacts not just the hardware, but most importantly, how the technology is perceived and used and how it might succeed or fail economically within a given culture or country.
In the opening example, Frank lives in the United States, a highly individualistic country where people tend to view a technology from how it benefits them first, then family and friends, then community and then onwards to their country. Or cultural group.
Our second example is India, a highly communal society, where one considers family and friends, then community and often, their class or social status and their place in greater society. So technologies, from farming equipment to smartphones, are viewed very differently.
