Abstract

This paper aims to discuss the role of social media platforms in the realization of cultural diversity. The purpose of this article is to explain to readers how social media promotes and promotes cultural diversity through the viewpoints of some authors, discuss the shortcomings and challenges of social media in the field of cultural diversity, and give suggestions.

 

Introduction

In modern society, the popularity of social media and its role in society are extremely significant. Social media has profoundly changed the way people live, access to information, interpersonal communication. MySpace went from having 1 million monthly active users in 2004 to 2.4 billion Facebook users in 2019 and other apps like YouTube and Whatsapp each have more than 1 billion users. These huge numbers tell us that a third of the world’s population and more than two-thirds of Internet users use social media platforms. In the United States, the share of adults using social media has grown from 5% in 2005 to 79% in 2019, a growth rate and scope unprecedented in modern communications technology(Esteban Ortiz-Ospina, 2019).

 

Social media is an open public platform that is becoming an important tool for individuals to share information and build relationships on a daily basis. On social media, you can meet people from all over the world. It is a widespread mode of transmission that can cross continents and oceans (BECILLEY.RL, 2021).The use of information social media can enhance multicultural experiences by expanding the range of cultural information. People can learn about the culture, economy and society of other countries in the network, which helps individuals to understand and learn the culture and knowledge of different countries or regions.(Shangui Hu, et.al., 2017).

 

Digital technologies have facilitated direct communication between people, making culture and interaction a domain that was once largely controlled by the state. The closer the connection between people, the greater the potential for direct interaction without cultural perspectives (R.S. Zaharna, 2019). Thanks to the powerful influence of digital technology and the sheer popularity of social media, cultural diversity becomes an integral part of the communications world.

 

Background

Cultural diversity can be understood as the diversity of life worlds, lifestyles and identities. In an increasingly globalized world, they cannot separate from each other but gradually mix and interbreed. In the Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity, cultural diversity is defined as “the common heritage of humanity.” In 2002, UNESCO recognized that cultural diversity is as important to humanity as diversity of life is to nature(Gunther Dietz, 2007).

With more than half the people on the planet using social media, cross-cultural communication is bound to become smoother and more frequent. Cultural exchanges and collisions, conflicts and integration between users of these platforms are increasingly evident (Di Yuna, 2022).

 

Social media provides a global platform where people from all places can connect and share their different experiences (Shruti Swaroop, 2024). It provides a platform for people to communicate, interact, exchange information and share. While cultures around the world value their unique traditions, beliefs, and norms, social media allows people around the world to connect without differences and geographical limitations. They can send and receive information within seconds. Supported by Maslow’s needs theory, people all hope to realize a sense of belonging through their relationships with others (Rebecca Sawyer, 2011). Social media provides this opportunity for people to interact with each other through the Internet, using social media to get news from different regions, opinions, and to connect with people who are thousands of thousands of kilometers away.

 

Case Study

Li Ziqi, a YouTube blogger from China, has been making and uploading videos about life in rural China since 2015. Her videos are very popular both at home and abroad, having amassed 16.4 million followers. Li Ziqi is from Sichuan, China, and her videos have strong elements of rural China. The video content of traditional farming culture, food culture and cultural heritage all show a strong Oriental aesthetics(Thomas William Whyke, 2022). It is worth noting that a large part of the uploading platform and fans of Li Ziqi’s videos come from YouTube, not just Chinese social platforms and Chinese fans, but her fans come from all over the world. For a large part of the audience who have never been to China and do not understand this part of Chinese culture, it is a good way to understand Chinese culture. The fact that Li’s videos have amassed so many followers is a testament to the fact that the content of her videos has been recognized and resonated with Western audiences.

 

There are a lot of interesting activities on TikTok, and one of them is #DanceWithMe. The campaign allows TikTok users from around the world to participate in the challenge and share their traditional dance forms. The challenge allows users from all over the world to learn about different cultures and customs. On Instagram, there is also a challenge called #EidCelebrations, in which people around the world share their stories with celebratory photos during Eid to learn about different cultures and customs and promote cultural diversity interactions (collegenp, 2023).Challenges like these with hash symbols have become popular on social media as a way to educate users about cultural diversity, regardless of topic or content. By participating in such activities on social media, you can share and read cultures from all over the world at any time and anywhere without cost. Before the birth of social media, culture could not be spread so quickly and widely. It is social media that makes the way of cultural transmission enter a new field.

 

An example of a multinational collaborative project focusing on social work students and international English study students from six different countries. Students use social media platforms to interact with teachers and other students. The results showed that the students not only made rapid progress in English listening and reading, but also adapted to the native and non-native pronunciation of different countries and regions. We also learn about the culture of different countries (flag, location, currency, history, living habits, education system, etc.). It broadens students’ minds and horizons, and cultivates their understanding and respect for different cultures(Reima Al-Jarf, 2020). This case highlights the effectiveness of social media as a platform to promote understanding and integration between people from different cultural backgrounds. By sharing and discussing their life experiences, values and cultural identities, social media participants can overcome cultural barriers and build a more open and inclusive environment.
 

Restrictions and challenges

Speech on social media platforms is free, but not absolutely free. Questions about the regulation of speech on social media platforms are becoming increasingly important. Companies like Facebook use a range of AI methods to censor what users post on their social platforms. In this process, those who struggle with marginalized groups may find space for expression and empowerment, or reinforce pre-existing prejudices. Today’s social media is not only a space for human rights struggles to exercise freedom of expression and record evidence of rights violations, but also a space for the suppression of power. For example, with #BlackLivesMatter, marginalized groups can use social platforms to voice their concerns. Bias in platform regulation often replicates or amplifies existing inequalities and vulnerabilities(Dorothea Endres, 2023). Therefore, it is necessary to take human rights into account in the framework of social media, promote a more just and equal information exchange environment, and facilitate friendly cultural exchanges among people.

 

Social media often becomes a vehicle for cultural appropriation. Cultural appropriation occurs when members of another culture use elements of one culture in an unrecognized or inappropriate way (Angela Gracia B Cruz et al. , 2024.) usually exists in two ways: assimilation and exploitation. Assimilation refers to the use of cultural elements of the dominant group by the vulnerable group, and exploitation refers to the use of cultural elements of the weak group by the dominant group. Acts of cultural appropriation can cause harm and can be highly offensive (James O Young, 2021).

 

Jalaiah Harmon, a black girl from Atlanta, created a dance called “Renegade” that has gone viral on TikTok. But the dance was widely disseminated and appropriated without any credit authorization from her, a phenomenon that is highly beneficial in an increasingly social media-oriented society. The little girl’s case fits with hundreds of years of theft of black culture in the United States with little credibility (Kimberly Johnson, 2020).

 

 

While social media can help cultural diversity spread quickly, it can also help turn it into an accelerator of cultural appropriation. Symbols, art, language, and other elements of a culture can spread and be adopted quickly and widely without context or original meaning. Cultural communication on social media is difficult to define the concepts of clear appreciation and appropriation. Sometimes, without in-depth understanding of a certain culture, users will follow this cultural element as a fashion, which may be disrespectful to the original culture. Although social media has also made efforts to combat cultural appropriation, its effect is limited, after all, a large proportion of users are unaware of the appropriation of other people’s culture, and social media can not spend a lot of human and financial resources on policing cultural appropriation and other issues.

 

When it comes to social media, there is always the topic of user privacy and data security. About 160,000 Facebook pages are hacked every day. According to the investigation of Yuxuan Liu et al., social media era is exploiting users’ privacy rights (Yuxuan Liu et al., 2022). Privacy and security issues will be the first to affect user engagement, which will lead some users to reduce their engagement on social platforms. Secondly, due to concerns about privacy and security, users will reduce information sharing on social platforms and reduce the quality of information sharing. Some users may only be willing to establish contacts with known and trusted individuals, rather than establish new contacts with people from different cultural backgrounds. Such behavior exacerbates the formation of information bubbles, reduces the opportunity to contact different cultures, and is not conducive to promoting cultural diversity.

 

Discussion and suggestion

Social media has played a crucial role in promoting cultural diversity. With the huge influence of modern digital technology and the huge base of social media users, perhaps the “global village of the Internet” has already been realized. In the past, people could learn about the culture of a certain place only through newspapers and newspapers or through personal experience. With the rise of social media platforms, people save all kinds of complicated exploration costs. They just need to open social media to surf the Internet, and they can learn about music, fun, food, art and other things in various places. Local people can also be contacted to verify the authenticity of information or to gain further understanding. Even by arguing with people from different backgrounds, one can learn about the views and ideas of people from different cultures. In addition to aimless chat, social media platforms can also be applied to education, medical and other industries to realize the integration of information and resources to promote the further development of this field. These explorations and collaborations, whether intentional or not, are subtly promoting cultural diversity through social media platforms. However, the occurrence of cultural appropriation and the emergence of user privacy and data security issues have become reasons to hinder the development of cultural diversity on social media. It is suggested that social media platforms should make further efforts to regulate cultural appropriation, although it is difficult to completely avoid cultural appropriation by social media regulation alone. Secondly, it is suggested that social media platforms and users should always pay attention to privacy and security issues to create a good information interaction environment.

 

Conclusion

This paper focuses on the relationship between social media and cultural diversity, quotes the views of some authors to elaborate the impact of social media on cultural diversity from both positive and negative aspects, and discusses the analysis content and puts forward suggestions. Overall, social media’s push for cultural diversity is a positive one. It provides an unprecedented platform for people to connect with the world and completely removes traditional geographical barriers. Although there are still some issues with social media platforms, such as regulation and user privacy, there is no denying that social media platforms are still powerful accelerators for the development of cultural diversity.

 

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