For me communication is strongly related to language and culture and I mainly used communication as a medium for cultural integration. Being bilingual, in a largely bilingual country, implied a number of challenges: learning Romanian and Russian and how to navigate daily life based on the language I am expected/required to speak in different environments. In college yet again, at the beginning knowing only classroom English, with very limited understanding of cultural aspects, posed initial barriers. To improve my communication, I had to work on my knowledge of the language. However, as I switched more into a predominantly English milieu I lost my initial cultural and linguistic fluency in Russian.

With the advancement of technology it became imperative to build a vocabulary around the newly available devices and processes. The concept build, thereafter, around programming and coding strongly conveys that the new technologies are, in fact, tools of communication. It almost seems as if the advancement of technology mirrored the advancement of communication. For instance, the appearing of programing languages can be viewed as a parallel to the appearing of the writing. It helped establish logic and build a form of consciousness. While I am not certain whether extensive research has been conducted, I am almost certain that if the way of thinking of someone who is “literate” in programing languages will be compared against the thinking of  someone who is ”illiterate”, but surrounded by “literate” individuals, and then against someone who is “illiterate” in an “illiterate” society the results will be fairly distinctive. On a personal level, I have noticed this with my parents. Growing up in an environment in which coding was present and studying bits of it in school, shaped my thinking and understanding of the world, in ways in which my parents were not impacted. For instance, it is really easy for me to comprehend new technologies that appear on a daily basis, while for them it is always more of a science-fiction-y experience.

The connection between culture and communication has build norms and legal requirements that vary across the world. In some cultures swearing, for instance, is more normalised than in others. While in some countries verbal abuse is treated and punished as a crime, in others it is still viewed as rather abstract to be followed up on. At this point, it can be claimed that  there is also a culture of communication online, that is sometimes defined by the interests of users or by their cultural belonging. For instance, more often than not Eastern Europeans tend to simplify the smiley emoticon from this “:)” to this ”)” . Why? Not really sure. Governments around the world are also more involved today in the regulation of the online space, so cyberbullying or improper data collection can cause trouble to those using technology improperly while communicating.

Communication and technology to me are deeply embedded in the idea of culture. However, remembering that a few months ago, based on my activity, Facebook placed me in the “parents with adult child” category for advertisement, implies that often our online activities are simple data points in the bigger scheme of things.