Illuminating Souls
Cultural pollution: A big threat?
Cultural Pollution, A Bigger Threat
Culture is an ever-evolving process and one can add to it in a way. A culture is formed according to society, facts, religions, situations, geography, and needs. There have been different ways of expression in every era, but today, social media dominates public opinions and shapes our culture. Thus, we have Mediated Culture today, where the media directly influences culture.
Let’s talk about Kashmir and its culture, which was predominantly a wealthy institution of moral and spiritual values. But today, these notions seem archaic because we can see a mixed culture. We keep giving lectures about cultural identity, preservation of the Kashmiri language, the legacy of Sufi saints, and the best social conduct. Still, unfortunately, we accept foreign cultures, languages, values and social patterns, denying our own. It is a fact that we take our values, beliefs, rituals, and virtues from our religion and society. Still, at the same time, we erode their importance by accepting values from other cultures, faiths, and beliefs.
In the destruction of a nation or a community, its culture can play a significant role. It’s easy to divide people by snatching from them the binding factor which is the cultural identity. A nation or a community can be easily dominated politically, socially, and individually after a nation or community loses its collective identity, thus ultimately deranging it morally.
To be very precise, even after the colonial era, the west kept dominating us in all ways. We find English more superior to our languages and that’s why today we all are bound to speak in English as it became a standard here. What if, we never adopted English as a standard language like China, Russia, France, Germany, Spain, etc.? Probably, because they knew the importance of cultural identity. Similarly, our traditional clothing has got replaced by so-called modern suits. Our food is dominated by western junk food and Chinese food. The irony is we still don’t wake up and our children continue to defend the foreign values while terming our values as “traditional.” My question is, does “old” always mean “outdated”?

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Social media is much used to set commercial and social trends which bring long-term effects with them. For example, a celebrity is promoting Vimal Pan. Masala and likely, the brand image will encourage many youngsters to consume the unnecessary product, which can eventually become a fashion. A similar effect was seen when Indian cinema promoted cigarettes in movies pushing a manner of smoking during the 20th century in India. Media not only promotes a product but makes us believe that the product is our need.
Some serious propagandas like communalism, feminism, nepotism, pseudo-nationalism, obscenity, and homosexuality can be seen on the internet. Such content is disguised as entertainment stuff, motivational speeches, lifestyle posts, celebrity gossip, advertisements, and inspirational videos. It’s easy to meddle one’s lifeves with the help of emotional and entertainment stuff where a user relates the content with himself and hardly notices the mind game being played.
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Most of such social media propaganda is undetected because they have long-term effects, which slowly change the opinion. At the beginning of the social media era, jokes like “Santa Banta” and some little adult jokes were available, but within a few years, some adult comedy was available in the form of pictures, dubbed clips, etc. But later, when adult jokes became much common, some prominent standup comedians like Kapil Sharma got an opportunity to make their career in such an environment and openly started speaking such jokes. Many YouTubers and users followed this kind of stuff to create similar roasting and memes.
Today abusing and speaking foul words is not a bad thing on social media and this way, indecency became a new normal and defined comedy for many. This way, a new immoral culture came into existence. I see this change as propaganda because it was gradually brought in to make entertainment and obscenity look indifferent. Earlier it was seen only in Hollywood movies that a couple kisses each other, while today, Bollywood and local media openly play bed scenes in minimal outfits. Society eventually has reached a position to accept it and instead seek such content in the name of entertainment. Hence we degraded our morals and consciousness.
One of the most significant western propaganda is feminism. Its values and ideas are still being injected into Asian countries through the internet and being propagated as something more liberal, just, civilized and modern, which is a disaster. Women played a crucial role in our societies, especially in Islamic ones, to nurture the next generation by inculcating rich moral values, faith, social responsibilities, and educating them. But today’s women are filled with the poisonous narrative that is, “I am an independent woman.” This narrative has taken women’s minds beyond the sense of right and wrong and much beyond the sense of responsibility. The main thought that is being delivered is to be selfish so that one must be independent economically, socially, culturally and what not.
Being independent for bread and butter is a great thing but being independent socially or culturally shows the ill mindset and selfish behaviour. Being a part of society, we all have a responsibility. Our every action, our dressing, our social and ceremonial practices matter and contribute to the culture. Feminism, on the other hand, pushes women against men, creating a gender conflict and hence degrading the social fabric. It’s a fact that feminism is a devilish idea to bring social evils like lesbianism. Social media is a much active carrier of such ideology. This cultural induction is pertinently carried out by some western women who believe in homosexuality and the gender divide or matriarchy.
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There are many other cultural propaganda on the internet, and all are induced silently through entertainment and viral stuff. Indeed in upcoming information wars, cultural domination through content will play a crucial role. Internet is a space where worlds shrink virtually, but in reality, we have to walk in our streets with our own cultural identity.
Cultural Pollution, A Bigger Threat