How Cultures Adopt Digital Technologies
Muna was growing increasingly anxious, almost on the verge of tears. Her cow was missing, she didn’t know if it had been stolen or just wandered off. Finding it however, was vital. Not just for her, but for her kids, her status in the village and for money.
Muna pulled out her small flip phone and opened the app that accessed Twitter, which was popular in the surrounding communities of late. She hastily tapped out a quick message of her cows name and description. And began to pace about nervously and thinking of where to go next. The impact of the loss piling on her anxiety, a doom loop starting to spin.
Her phone sounded a soft bleep, she opened it. Her cow was near the next village, about a five minute walk away, an elder had it safely secured. Relief washed over her. Her kids, her reputation, her income, were safe.
This is a true story. It happened in Kenya in late 2010 as I was on a research project that involved civil society groups and the United Nations seeking to understand mobile internet use in various parts of Africa.
Societies around the world see technologies in a variety of ways, through their particular cultural lens. Most significant digital technologies today come out of Silicon Valley and are therefore developed within the cultural context of that region and in particular, the…
