Cultural Context of My Life and Future Generations, Essay Example

When I compare the cultural context into which I was born with that of my parents, there are many significant differences which have shaped their lives as well as mine. For example, my parents’ parents emigrated from Eastern Europe and Russia, so that they had to learn a new language and while they spoke English, at times they had difficulty expressing themselves. My parents, of course, spoke English, so that they did not have any trouble with a language barrier. Secondly, because whatever work experience my grandparents had was not really relevant once they got to the United States, they were forced to find work in jobs in the garment industry, which earned only low wages for very long hours. This made them extremely tired when they got home, and certainly affected their availability to parent their children with energy and enough time. My parents were a typical middle class family so that my mother stayed at home raising the children, and my father went to work and returned home at dinnertime. They were always available to me when I needed help. Finally, my grandparents did not have any formal education, and so their job prospects were limited, as was their income. My parents both finished high school and my father went on to finish college, so that they both emphasized very strongly might need to go as far as possible in school in order to be successful. All of these events shaped my life because my cultural identity has played a role in my socialization process (Zahm, 2010, p 26.)

I can anticipate that will be significant differences between the culture into which I was born and socialized and the future cultural context for children who are born in 2000 and afterwards. There is no question that methods of communication will be extremely different, because people no longer engage in writing letters, but rather use electronic devices to communicate via e-mail, texting, skyping, and other ways that do not involve face to face contact. In addition, it is likely that reading actual books and newspapers will become obsolete, because for those purposes, people get their materials from the Internet, read books on Kindles and other wireless devices. Going to the movies also will be relatively obsolete, because people preferred to watch movies at home, on the Internet, or even on their cell phones. This will result in diminishing social skills, because it is so easy to avoid face to face contact in favor of sending a text or sending messages via Facebook. In addition, there may not be any traditional workplaces in the future since so many people work from home using their computers and other forms of electronics so that once again, the social setting that used to be part of working in an office will fall by the wayside almost entirely. Literacy in the 21^st century has and will continue to decline, because people are so accustomed to using abbreviations that they simply lack the ability to spell and use punctuation correctly.

The overall impact of these changes will be tremendous, and for me, they are exceptionally disturbing because I have always put a lot of importance on my communication skills, and I’ve always enjoyed face to face contact with people because seeing them and their facial expressions enhances the conversation and reinforces a connection. I find that talking on the cell phone constantly and sending text messages has negatively affected my relationships, if because even though it is easy to communicate quickly, messages are not really in depth so that I find it difficult to really get to know someone well. I can only imagine, as the century progresses, how impossible it will be to form relationships of any substance. In my Life Summary exercise, there is an example of how relationships may decline because if I want to dedicate my work to a teacher or mentor who has been important to me (Zahm, 2010, p.20) in the future, will be hard to have meaningful connections with teachers since so much academic contact exists on line only.

Reference

Zahm, M. (2010). Create your Ideal Life: Applied Psychology of Personal Adjustment and Growth. Bloomington: AuthorHouse.