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Internet Use and Attitudes toward Cultural Preservation among Asian Indians in the US

This study aims to understand the use of the internet by Indian immigrants in the US for cultural preservation and maintaining ties to their homeland. It explores the impact of internet use on cultural attitudes, identity, and transportation patterns.

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Internet Use and Attitudes toward Cultural Preservation among Asian Indians in the US

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  1. Internet Use and Attitudes toward Cultural Preservation among Asian Indians in the US Paul C. Adams, Ph.D. Emily Skop, Ph.D. University of Texas at Austin Department of Geography and the Environment

  2. Objective • To better understand “Indo-American bridgespace” (Adams & Ghose 2003) • Uses • Users • global-local nexus or “glocalization” • “Indo-American Bridgespace” • The interrelated websites used by immigrants from India to the US for purposes related to cultural preservation, ethnic community organization, maintaining ties to India, fulfilling family obligations in India, and mediating between Indian and American society • Other media that serve the same purposes: movies, music, newspapers, etc. • Transportation networks to and from India

  3. Study Population & Sample

  4. Study Population & Sample • India second to Mexico in the number of annual arrivals in the US • More than one million living in the US in 2000 • 65% of the Indian immigrants living in the US arrived between 1990 and 2000 • Characteristics: • internal segmentation • geographic dispersion • economic success • technological orientation • 164 surveys of immigrants from India and people of Indian ethnicity collected by Internet between July 2004 and July 2005 • 147 surveys (89.6%) usable for all forms of statistical analysis • 17 surveys unusable or of limited utility

  5. Demographic/Social Characteristics of Survey Participants

  6. Theoretical Frameworkand Research Questions

  7. Internet as an Instrument of Globalization? • Internet often treated as an emblem of globalization • overcomes distance • reconfigures the patterns of social, economic and political life • a force of modernization, Americanization, & cultural homogenization • Alternative view holds that technologies are ambivalent • No predictable course for its incorporation in economic exchange, political contestation, community formation and identity construction does not take a predictable course • Adoption varies from one place to another (constructionist perspective) • Technology is a means for dissolving cultural differences • May simultaneously be appropriated by groups seeking to preserve, develop, expand or celebrate their distinctiveness • S. Graham; S. Marvin; M. Crang; P. Crang; J. May; M. Castells; M. Dodge; R. Kitchin; R. Williams; B. Latour; J. Law; D. Haraway • New research points to need for careful, empirical study of Internet uses and users

  8. Theorizing Heterogeneous Effects of Technology • Visions of technological unity • utopian • “global village” (McLuhan 1964) • dystopian • “logic of globalisation, pushing towards the greater standardisation and homogenisation of output, and detaching media cultures from the particularities of place” (Morley and Robins 1995) • Alternatives • Theoretical approaches that recognize particularity and difference • Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) • Actor Network Theory (ANT) • Virtual place/extensibility • John Law: “the global lies within each site and is small, sensuous, specific, heterogeneous, noncoherent, and cannot be more than patchily modeled” (2004, 13)

  9. Technological Appropriation as a Local Manifestation of a Global Process • Global processes: colonialism and labor migration • Legacy of colonization • English Language as an official language in India • Indian educational system modeled after Britain • US Immigration law • Hart-Celler Act (1965) • Indian economy • Take-off in the 1990s • Continuing problems with infrastructure and opportunities • US economy • Restructuring in 1970s: deindustrialization/reindustrialization • H-1B visa (accelerated immigration) • Strong dollar versus Rupee • Outsourcing (may decelerate immigration)

  10. Questions • Do cultural attitudes and sense of ethnic and national identity relate to whether an Indian-American is more or less inclined to use websites designed for Indian-Americans? • How does identification with bridgespace relate to other aspects of transportation and communication to create an overall pattern of involvement with India? • How do people defined by different attitudes toward “Indo-American bridgespace” feel about Indian civilization, cultural change, and traditional cultural practices? • What demographic variables (sex, age, etc.) affect patterns of Internet use, and do these demographic distinctions suggest culturally-specific appropriations of technology?

  11. Data Analysis • Data analyzed in two distinct ways • Descriptive statistics • Comparison of segments of sample (M/F) • Indices • Identify consistent (if slight) tendenciesby combining findings from similar questions • vignettes • Select a subgroup within the sample • Identify modal responses • Convert non-modal responses into modal responses • Interpolation • Inclusion of peer disagreement in vignette

  12. Gender Differences

  13. Frequency of Travel to India *Significant at .00

  14. The Gendered Use of Indian Internet Sites* *Significant at .00

  15. Types of Indian Internet Sites Utilized:News from India* *Significant at .00

  16. Types of Indian Internet Sites Utilized:Sports from India* *Significant at .00

  17. Types of Indian Internet Sites Utilized:Politics from India* *Significant at .00

  18. Types of Indian Internet Sites Utilized:Matrimony Sites* *Significant at .00

  19. Types of Indian Internet Sites Utilized:Remittance Sites* *Significant at .00

  20. Summary and Analysis • Indian-American men use the Internet about the same amount as Indian-American women • But… • Men and women use Indo-American bridgespace in different ways • Men more likely to visit sports, politics, matrimony and remittance sites • Men and women visit news, immigration and shopping sites about the same amount • A gender-based difference in Internet use pattern has been found in the rest of the US population (Wasserman and Richmond-Abbott 2005; Joiner et al. 2005; Rainie 2000) • Unique elements are the matrimony, immigration and remittance sites • Gender difference itself remains present across cultural divides

  21. Cultural Values and Bridgespace

  22. Cultural Preservation Index • The category of “users” was based on self-reported levels of use of Indian or Indian-American sites

  23. Cultural Values Index • The category of “users” was based on self-reported levels of use of Indian or Indian-American sites

  24. Cultural Activity Frequency Index • The category of “users” was based on self-reported levels of use of Indian or Indian-American sites

  25. Vignettes

  26. Vignettes • “Pratima Patel” : a 22-year-old graduate student in electrical engineering at a major state university • “Kiran Bharadwaj” : a 32 year old computer programmer, born in Karnataka state and now living with his wife and pre-school age child in a major American city • “Suchitra Choudhury” : a 37 year old woman of Bengali descent who was born in Tanzania and moved to the US with her family in the mid 1970s to grow up as part of what is known as the “1.5 generation.” • “Pradeep Arumugam” : a 55 year old Tamil with a master’s degree in mechanical engineering, presently working for a computer company in the SF Bay area

  27. Findings & Conclusions

  28. FINDINGS • The survey revealed distinct sub-populations among the Asian Indian population defined by patterns of media use. • Men and women • Younger versus older users • Those individuals who identify themselves as using Indian-oriented websites are: • more likely to perceive cultural preservation as an important goal • more likely to be concerned about Americanization • more likely to support the continuation of arranged marriage • more likely to believe that Indian people have contributed more to world civilization than Europeans • Classifying users relative to the specific types of Indian/Indian-American sites the subject visited did not reveal this pattern

  29. Conclusions • Personal identification with the Indian-American Bridgespace (Adams & Ghose 2003): • is a weak but consistent predictor of cultural attitudes that value India, Indian culture, and a sense of Indian heritage • is not a good predictor of actual use of bridgespace • The Internet serves as a means of preserving Indian-ness in a diasporic situation, serving as a locus of emotional attachment that varies depending on one’s values, and particularly revealing “traditionalism” • Paradoxically, a new technology may be appropriated for the purposes of cultural preservation and for maintaining traditional values and ways of life even as it also provides access to the novel phenomenon of instantaneous global information flows

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