Culture Shock: How Big Tech’s Digital Colonialism Imposes Values on the World with Katharina Reinecke, PhD

Big Tech, predominantly designed by those from Western cultures, embeds specific cultural norms into global systems, leading to culture shock for users across the world. This lack of diversity among developers results in designs that ignore local customs and needs, effectively creating a modern form of digital colonization where billions must conform to a narrow technological worldview.

To explore how Western digital culture is imposed upon the world, Harvesting Happiness Podcast Host Lisa Cypers Kamen speaks with the director of the interdisciplinary UW Center for Globally Beneficial AI, Katharina Reinecke, PhD.

Katharina presents key findings from her book, Digital Culture Shock, detailing how different cultural preferences shape global user behavior across social media platforms and how people search for and share information.

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