Social and Cultural

Journal of Community Guidance & Analysis, November 2007, Vol. 24, No. 3, p: 253-261.
INTRODUCTION

Electronic culture is of universal prevalence. The impact and ambience of electronic technology is invariably and inevitably felt by everyone throughout the world. The indisputable reality right now is that individuals and organizations inextricably exist in an E-planet. Nowadays, a lot of human requirements are gratified by the use of electronic goods and solutions. This reality is explicit from the various electronic solutions obtainable and utilized by consumers in their properties, offices, public areas and also those they personally carry. The emergence and rapid spread of technologies like e-commerce, e-studying, e-medicine, e-governance, e-small business, e-communication, e-banking, e-entertainment, e-houses, and so on, also emphasize the significance of electronic medium in the gratification of our psycho-social needs.

The information and facts and communication technologies (ICT) successfully championed by Net has culminated in e-culture. It has resulted in the simultaneous deconstruction and reconstruction of basic ways of thinking about humans, worlds and technologies. It has also led to shifts in attitudes, abilities and behaviour (De Haan & Huysmans, 2002). Personality development from e-cultural perspective involves acquiring digital skills. E-culture is a transnational and global phenomenon it is each technological and a social improvement. Net, specifically, is expected to bring in sweeping and lasting cultural transformations. The emergence of e-culture has implanted new demands upon people and organizations (Robbins, 2003).

The approval of e-culture notion is reflected in the keenness with which political decision-makers have taken it more than at all levels- local, regional, national and transnational. Significantly more accessible and transparent specifics is an hassle-free expression, some thing that is unequivocally great each from the point of view of social resources and democracy. According to Mitchell (2003) the tips of an details society and e-culture have also implied expectations of economic growth and stability, opening up of new sectors of production, improved productivity and the advent of a new, fluctuation-proof economy. In the views of Marsh (2003) the emergence of e-culture leads to cultural homogenization and immense concentrations of monetary energy thereby cautions that "discover English and order a personal computer or you are out." De Haan & Huysmans (2002) emphasize that e-culture tends to make it crucial to develop digital ability regarding the handling of electronic goods and primarily the use of pc and World-wide-web.

Currently, research on e-culture are at a rudimentary level. The concept of e-culture is evolving and is far from conclusive. Then again, right now e-culture is increasingly perceived as a new digital media culture or digitalization of culture. Netherlands council for culture (2004) argues that, inside the context of the ‘digitizing society', e-culture really should be noticed as the integration of ICT into the primary processes of productivity, distribution, presentation, preservation and (re)utilization of cultural expression. According to the view of De Haan and Huysmans (2002) the term ‘e-culture' is stated to refer to the diffusion of new technologies, its application for varied avenues such as facts and communication in addition to shifts effected in related attitudes, values and norms. Patel and Rajendran (2005) have defined "electronic culture" as "enhanced use of electronic goods by folks in a number of areas."

Objective OF THE STUDY

E-culture although prevalent widely, is a latest phenomenon. The scientist community has just begun to study it. The exploration of e-culture could possibly only be the commence of a extended-term procedure of change taking location at a global level (De Haan and Huysmans, 2002). The impetus for the new interest is the realization that e-culture is widespread, inevitable and places adaptive demands upon people.

Looking about a single finds a vast and versatile spectrum of electronic merchandise applied commonly by the individuals. In common, the indefinite progress produced in the field and frontiers of electronic technology has ameliorated the good quality of life of all. The e-culture scenario in India is not much various from the international one. The spread of e-culture would be influenced by a plethora of factors. Couple of amongst them may perhaps be socio-demographic components such as age, gender, revenue, education, native place, marital status, and so on.

The critique of related literature indicates that analysis studies of e-culture are scarce and negligible. Considering that e-culture is the current improvement there are no substantially standardized tools attainable and accessible to assess it each at national and international levels. In India, unfortunately, the study efforts in understanding and investigating the status of e-culture have not however gained momentum. The research and academic community are dormant regarding the influence of e-culture. Evaluations on e-culture in Indian context indicate that it has received poor attention. Deplorably, lots of researchers belonging to many different disciplines are but to take up this issue. In certain, from a socio-demographic perspective, e-culture still remains unexplored. A socio-demographic approach to e-culture in Indian context is lacking definitely and is worth conceivable in the light of the modern day unfathomable dimensions attained by it. Hence an try is created here to study, assess and evaluate e-culture in India from socio-demographic perspective. This study is a pioneering work made to discover e-culture from a psychological perspective in India.

Process

Sample

The sample for this study comprised of 326 educated individual (200 males and 126 females) randomly chosen from 3 several towns of Tamil Nadu, India, namely, Chidambaram, Coimbatore and Erode. All the respondents were among the age group of 20 to 76 years (mean age= 42.5 years). Samples had been chosen from the universe based on the judgement of the researcher. In this study persons with above higher secondary level of education (plus two) had been regarded as educated. The sample taken consist of persons from a number of occupational background like college teachers, school teachers, engineers, physicians, Government officers, psychologists, lawyers, merchants, technicians, assistants and housewives.

Tools utilized

The research tools used in this study for data collection had been the (1) E-culture Inventory and (two) Individual Info Schedule.

(1) E-culture inventory