Answer to Question #154698 in Sociology for Joyna Mae Vacalares

Question

What are some examples of cultural lag that are present in your life? Do you think technology affects culture positively or negatively? Explain.

Answer 1

According to Sociologist William F. Ogburn described the term cultural lag as the duration that elapses between adopting a new item of material culture and its full acceptance as part of the nonmaterial culture.

Examples of culture lag that I have experienced are associated with the modernity and innovations that come from technology. Stem cells have been adopted as one the medical procedure to cure stubborn diseases, but cultural values find it hard to practice even though it was applied to fix the bone cancer that my cousin contracted. The stem cell is only obtained from an aborted fetus, which undermines my cultural beliefs, prohibiting abortion.  

Medical practices to provide teenagers and young girls with vaccines for cervical cancer have an impact on eroding young girls' sexual behaviors because they feel protected from cancer associated with multiple unhealthy sexes. The technology significantly affects culture negatively for groups of people who fully embrace them and abandon their previous cultural upbringing. Technology has improved the standards of living, but it has redirected people from their original cultural norms. Virtual consultations and learning, for example, have destroyed the conventional values of face to face expressions and the reality of obtaining feedback that body language portrays.