Since we were talking about job-hunting in the previous post, let’s now deal with the way we deal with the Internet once you get the job.

As far as I’m concerned, I’ve only had one long work experience, which was last year at M6 Music, the music television network. Once, I was working on this project where I had to write a record which was basically a short benchmark about visual identity and logos of similar music networks. Therefore, I heavily relied on the Internet. After watching the networks on tv, I switched screen to research informations about logos and current trends so as to understand better what I was talking about. Then, I looked for informations regarding the companies and agencies making the “skins” or the visual environment of the networks I had worked on.

You thus have one example of Internet as a endless data base where you can find information, know what is going on at the moment, what is working and not working, what the competition is up to (to a certain extend) and hone your knowledge on a specific issue.

Above all, you can communicate at all time and faster with your colleagues: you have emails of course, which are helpful when you’re not there (or if you work from home). You also have the Intranet which makes you able to enjoy special resources. For instance, at the moment, my mother learns English through an interactive online program and she doesn’t have to go anywhere. Actually, it’s the Extranet and not the Intranet, but it’s pretty much the same. You can also share your work with your team mates to conclude.

All in all, you can enjoy useful resources for your work through the use of the Internet. Nonetheless, there is also some fear from companies that say that employees spend too much time for their private use (personal emails, social networks, non-work related contents, etc.). Personaly, I wouldn’t like to have my Internet access “locked”. Nor would I agree with the company spying on me.

One worrisome social problem in our modern societies is the rise of intolerance, racism and xenophobia.

Of course, the fear of the Other has always existed and shall always exist. Moreover, there has been a clear evolution in the positive direction in terms of better understanding between cultures and communities. For instance, homosexuals have been granted rights and the society has come to terms with the fact that gay people deserve the same treatment as heterosexuals. Their sexual orientation is less and less seen as deviant or abnormal.

Another positive evolution has consisted in admitting that cultures are different but that they can grow richer by being in contact together. “Hybridization” as a word has never been trendier. For instance, Bollywood films are world known today while they’ve existed for more than 30 years now, but they’ve only been introduced in western countries for 10 years (even less). Gurinder Chadha, a British film maker of Indian origins, recently made a Western-ized Bollywood film, “Bride and Prejudice” (you’ll notice the pun with the British classic novel “Pride and Prejudice” from Jane Austen). This wave of mutual discovery and acculturation is due to the increasing mobility of people and the rise of mass media that broadcast information but also lifestyles from everywhere around the globe.

So here I won’t deny the global betterment of cultural understanding due to the hyperconnexion of the world, a growing economic development and the coronation of critical thinking.

Nonetheless, I think that there is also indeed a diffuse and often outright visible hatred on the rise. Some argue that within societies the difficulty of different communities to communicate, – especially between “minorities” (people from immigration and/or children of second-generation immigration) and the rest of the population who have been settled for longer and/or are “caucasian”, as American would say – has never quite been resolved. Riots still take place since minorities are still set aside mainstream society and the possibility of climb the social ladder. A very disturbing example that have everything to do with rejection motivated by vivid traditional stereotypes is the rise of racism against gypsies in Italy where two people where left to die in broad daylight on a crammed beach (the bodies had just been covered with towels so as not to disturb people).

To that, we have also to add 9/11which isolated the Arab community by confusing Arabs, Muslims and Terrorists in people’s mind. What’s more, in the US the worst is that most Americans don’t know how to differentiate different ethnicities; most of them would confuse Arabs with Indians with people like Obama who are half white half black… It is quite appalling and you have a perfect illustration of that during the election race in the US:

McCain: Obama Decent, no Arab

“The McCain attempt to connect race and terror on a subliminal level in his advertising [...]:

‘ Later, another supporter told McCain, “I don’t trust Obama…He’s an Arab.”

McCain stood shaking his head as she spoke, then quickly took the microphone from her.

“No, ma’am,” he said. “He’s a decent, family man, a citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with.” ‘

Worse than the lady’s confusion between Arab and Muslim were her further obvious confusion between Muslim and dangerous.”

E-culture as a solution?

It doesn’t seem that obvious that the Internet can patch up the cracks between communities and people. I’d rather tend to think that it’s both a formidable tool to connect people but they’re more likely to join communities thinking like they do or to find a free platform to spread their ideas (especially when it comes to spreading hatred). So, my idea would consist in organizing debates on cultural, or news topics through the Internet in schools. Because education is where everything is shaped: mentalities and such.