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 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 and change, 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…
