A thoughtful person would give a thorough development of the subject Information Technologies are not culture neutral. Developing a discussion about the issues at hand and giving a formal opinion after weighing up all the evidence. In this context a thoughtful person would identify the links between culture and Information Technology and would develop the argument for the claim that Information Technologies are not culture neutral. I have addressed such issues as the power of language in Information Technologies, the Digital Divide and the effect that it has on the class system of society as well as giving consideration to the discussion about culture and its influence on Information Technologies.

Culture has several definitions, I have focused on the aspects of culture defining social groups.

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language defines culture as, “The totality of socially transmitted behaviour patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought” (2

Dertouzos, M. 1997, ‘What Will be: how the new world of information will change our lives’, HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., United States

Some countries have curbed this inflow of information by imposing restrictions on individual access information. For example Singapore and China have made it illegal to use satellite antennas. Restricting citizens access to world information not filtered by their government. This action on one hand denies societies the right to advance through the integration of IT but on the other hand allows the societies the right to retain their cultural and political systems already present. For these countries a trade off will have to emerge where governments will have to slowly decrease the walls blocking the vast amounts of information, and develop their own information so as to still maintan their cultural values and politics which are important to their society.

2000, Houghton Mifflin Company, United States.

Dertouzos defends the opinion that, “ people will jump from the agrarian to the information stage by skipping the industrial stage is as likely as a child’s learning to dance without going through the walking stage” (1997, 242)4.

Some topics in this essay:
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