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Tech Wraps Growing Web Around World

Some worry about cultural loss as cell phones, e-mail spread

By Jonas Oransky,  Newser Staff

Posted Oct 8, 2007 1:40 PM CDT
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(Newser) – Global cellphone and computer usage is up dramatically as inequalities in technology drop. Cellphone ownership has grown 20% in the US, where 80% of the population uses computers, third in the world behind Sweden and South Korea. Computer usage is up in 26 of 35 countries in a new Pew survey, PC World reports, and even 6% of Tanzanians log on.

But while technology narrows the distance between borders and aids economic integration, the lead researcher concludes, a backlash endangers globalization. As citizens in developing countries welcome free markets, concern mounts about the loss of their cultures. Many worry also that the ongoing tech boom threatens their environments.

TEHRAN Woman uses a cellular phone by a busy street near the bazaar. The women of Iran seem to have lost their colors. Most of them wear black - perpetuating the mourning of the earl (PAR154402)
TEHRAN Woman uses a cellular phone by a busy street near the bazaar. The women of Iran seem to have lost their colors. Most of them wear black - perpetuating the mourning of the earl (PAR154402)   (Magnum Photos)
Sweden's blogging Foreign Minister Carl Bildt talks Wednesday May 30, 2007 after he took another dive into virtual reality by cutting the ribbon to the country's embassy in the computer-generated world Second Life. A recent study pegs Sweden's digital literacy at 82% making it the world's most consistently computer savvy...
Sweden's blogging Foreign Minister Carl Bildt talks Wednesday May 30, 2007 after he took another dive into virtual reality by cutting the ribbon to the country's embassy in the computer-generated world...   (Associated Press)
A South African cricket fan talks on mobile phone as she watches the play between South Africa and West Indies during the Super Eight Cricket World Cup match in St. George's, Grenada, Tuesday April 10, 2007. Though sometimes seen as a cultural intrusion, the proliferation of cellphones and computers is...
A South African cricket fan talks on mobile phone as she watches the play between South Africa and West Indies during the Super Eight Cricket World Cup match in St. George's, Grenada, Tuesday April 10,...   (Associated Press)
Chinese women uses mobile phones in Beijing, Monday, Sept. 17, 2007. Mobile phone subscribers in China has exceeded the 600 million mark, indicating that every fifth mobile user in the world is Chinese, an senior official said on Sunday. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Chinese women uses mobile phones in Beijing, Monday, Sept. 17, 2007. Mobile phone subscribers in China has exceeded the 600 million mark, indicating that every fifth mobile user in the world is Chinese,...   (Associated Press)
Two students use a hundred-dollar laptop computer given them days earlier by the One Laptop Per Child project at a public elementary school in Villa Cardal, Uruguay, Wednesday, May 16, 2007. The ambitious nonprofit project was launched in 2005 by the director of the media lab at the Massachusetts Institute...
Two students use a "hundred-dollar" laptop computer given them days earlier by the One Laptop Per Child project at a public elementary school in Villa Cardal, Uruguay, Wednesday, May 16, 2007. The ambitious...   (Associated Press)
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Zimbabwe welcomes biotech center
allAfrica.com

Read the report here
Pew Global Attitudes Project

 
Russia • environment • technology • cell phones • Nigeria • Tanzania • culture • developing world • computer

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