How has the internet changed our notion on ‘collective identity’?

How has the internet changed our notion on ‘collective identity’?
Glen Waine


As different forms of technology have been produced and laid upon the public it is a definite trend above anything else that technology especially the internet has made the public lazy. Although this is definitely true it can be argued that instead of it making people lazy the internet has justly just made life easier. As the internet has progressed many uses have also developed, people can now choose to even do their grocery shopping over the internet. This being a very simple day to day chore has been made perhaps overly simplified due to the internet. As the internet has progressed from its origins in the 1990s as ‘the web 1.0’ a large following of gadgets have been created as it has changed to what Is called ‘web 2.0’. Items which are considered to be more or less ‘miniature computers, such as iphones’ have been created with very hi-tech additions such as the touch screen, the fact that devices such as these are also available to access the internet show the technological advances that have been made to make something so advanced fit in your pocket. The age of this new media has broadened the horizons and brought forward a large scale of new communication techniques all thanks to the internet. People can now talk to each other free of chare using the internet, social networking sites such as facebook, msn and twitter allow this to happen. The public can now very easily socialise with other people online from all over the world but is this effecting the British notion of collective identity?

The internet is definitely effecting our ideology of collective identity, as our new found love of being able to talk and send information across the world seems to allow use to in some way merge with other cultures in a digital format removes certain aspects of being individual and different into one global networking audience. The media has such a large audience due to not one single culture but other cultures surrounding it working together and merging in a way to develop[ technologies. One very large influence (especially on the internet front) has been America. Britain gets a lot of its media from America, especially films as a large percentage of films are primarily American funded. It can be argued that as other cultures have slyly integrated themselves with Britain through the media and internet that certain influences have been made on unwary people without them knowing. For example certain T.V advertisements that encourage you to ‘claim money’ for accidents and injury’s at work have most certainly migrated from American culture to British as suing is seen as a very Americanised thing to be done now a days.

It has been argued that a possible watershed would have a good effect on internet users. The idea of limiting internet use to certain times could effect the country in different ways. For Young people who use the internet more than anyone else it could be seen as both a good thing and a bad thing. As people can see the internet as being very distracting it also provides a wide range of information that can be accessed fast. This makes it very hard to decide if a watershed would be beneficial or not as students can use it to work as well as use it for games and social networking.


The generation that has grown up with the internet using it regularly is known as ‘digital natives’ while the generation that just missed the internet developing or grew while it was in its very early stages are known as ‘digital immigrants’. The contrast between these two generations is very large as digital immigrants lack a very basic understanding of how the internet is used in theory making it harder for themselves to use.

Sabbah said ‘web 2.0 isn’t a thing, it’s a state of mind’ this is very true as what he is trying to say is that the world has become so reliant on the internet that is has fused itself so much in to our day to day routine that at a flick of a finger it can be accessed. This is definitely seen in the teenage use of the internet who would be referred to as ‘digital natives’, one statistic about teenage internet use is that teenagers generally spend at least 2 hours a day on the internet. This statistic clearly show how much this generation relies on the internet therefore how much It will in the future as well as the next generation, or whatever is to replace internet 2.0. This being said our notion of collective identity being in tatters already could disappear in future generations quite easily as the ideology of using the internet on such a regular basis to do things that can be done in person but in such a more easy way for the user using the internet. It can definitely be said that our idea of collective identity has had a large impact on by other cultures and ideologies from countries such as America and across Europe.