Name: ID:

Anahí Parcero Garza AL02928452

Karen Alexandra Hernandez Yañez AL02926821

Cristina Saharim Torres Olmos Al02793203

Name of the course: Global Culture I Professor name: Peter Ernest Reid

Module: 3 Activity: 11

Date: 25/11/2019

Bibliography:

Tecmilenio. (2019). Global Culture I. 20/11/2019, from Blackboard. Retrieved from:

https://miscursos.tecmilenio.mx/ultra/courses/_157651_1/cl/outline

Objective:

To create a podcast that talks about cultural differences.

Procedure:

Students will form teams to create a podcast on which they will discuss: How to deal with cultural
differences and promote a positive coexistence in various scenarios? (school, workplace, daily life.)

1. Gather in teams, the professor will determine the number of teams and its members.

2. You must determine who will be the moderator(s) of the episode and the format for your
podcast.

3. Use mobile devices to record your episode that must be 7-10 minutes long in total. Consider
some of the following questions and discuss with the other members.

4. Consider the structure of your podcast before starting. Consult the resources below or
research other podcasts structure.

5. Use some of these questions for your podcast:

● How human relationships have change with the use of Internet, social media and
globalization?

● Have you been in a difficult situation due to cultural differences?

● What problems could be caused by rejection of differences and lack of tolerance?

● Which negative emotions could be present when a person from a minority group is
rejected or left out?
 ● Which action could you take to avoid the above, even when you are not directly
involved? Is it best to take actions or to mind your own business?

Remember that podcasts are fluent and must be done in one take, prepare your arguments but be
open to go with the flow of the conversation.

Results:

Cristina: Good morning to everybody who is listening to us today. This is “CultureNow”, I am your
host Cristina Torres and my partners Karen Hernandez and Anahi Parcero. Today´s topic is “Social
media and culture”. It is a very interesting theme to talk about and which is happening around
without us even noticed it. S¿¿ No let's get started!

Topic 1.

Cristina: So….Karen!, one fan asks, How do you think human relationships have changed with the
use of Internet, social media and globalization?

Karen: Well, Cristina, it is a fact that most of us have at least one technological device, be it a cell
phone, a computer or even a video game console, the world has evolved, it has changed and with it
us too. It is true that the introduction of technology has facilitated many things, has allowed us to
keep in touch with people who are far away and allows us to meet new people from other cultures,
but, every positive change has its negative side.

Unfortunately, the use of the internet and social media have caused our relationships with close by
people to be affected. Have you ever been invited to a party with friends or a meeting and after a
while, everyone is sitting watching their cell phones? They are physically together, but they are not
spending time with each other. Sometimes someone can be next to you and you choose to
communicate by message! The impact that networks have had with us has led us to become careless
to physical contact and direct communication because it is easier for people to take out their cell
phones and type with their fingers. We have become addicted, spending all our quality time stuck to
a screen.

Social media put us in a fictional world, altering reality, where we believe that the greater the
number of likes, reactions and followers means a greater number of friends. But that is completely
different from reality. With how many people that you have added to your social media do you really
talk? You can count them with your fingers.

The same thing happens with family, surely many of us, not all, come home from school and grab
the video game, the cell phone, or the computer, but, what about quality family time? The “hey little
brother, how was school? Did you have any problems?” Or “how was your day at work mom?” That
exchange of emotions and experiences has diminished in society, becoming more and more reserved
in terms of personal issues.

It is because of this lack of time together, communication and empathy, that it becomes difficult for
people to accept something new outside their comfort zone, they meet someone from another
country, another continent and there is a cultural shock. Many people choose to spend time and
know about them and have a good time, but others prefer not to approach, either because they are
apathetic or because of the stereotypes and biases they find on the internet.

Segue into Topic 2.

Anahí: Very interesting Karen, I had never thought of it in that way. what you said is true and it has
affected all of us. Let's move to the next question, Cristina, have you ever been in a difficult situation
due to cultural differences?

Cristina: A couple of times , in fact, most of this situations were in social media! there was this guy
for example, he was from France and he was a really nice guy, we chatted for a couple of weeks but
one day out of the blue he got upset, but reaaally upset, and all because when trying to practice my
french i misspelled a word, A SINGLE WORD, and he went bunkers. Started to send me profanities
and curses, then when i tried to tell him it wasn't a big deal, that it was just a word he started to
explain, between curses, that his language was sacred, and that was how i discovered that for french
people you don't mess around with their language, because that is a really important part of their
culture.

Oh! There is another story that i remember, but this one is not mine, is from my brother. He studied
high school abroad in a country called Bosnia, and in the city were he stayed there was a street that
divided the place right through the middle , one side being catholic and the other muslim… and there
were soo many problems between those sides, They hated each other! To the point that one day one
of the students from the muslim side had to cross into the catholic side to take one class, the
buildings of the school are all around the city that is more of a school town than a real city, but after
the class a group of extremist from the catholic side intercepted him when he was about to cross the
dividing street, beat him up and then throw him to the muslim side. It was awfull for the poor kid,
and my brother was so angry with that because the kid was one of his friends, he wanted to confront
them but he knew that he couldn't do much, he got even more upset when the culprits started to
gloat about it in social media. Can you believe it? The nerve of those guys! But sadly this is just one of
the examples of how far cultural intolerance can affect people, and with social media this can be
dangerous, because intolerant people can find each other more easily and justificate towards each
other their behaviors.

Segue into Topic 3.

Karen: Oh my, That is unfortunate…. the next question dives more into this topic so..Anahí, what
problems could be caused by rejection of differences and lack of tolerance?

Anahí: Well Karen, first of all, I think rejection of differences and intolerance in general is closely tied
to discrimination, in the sense that one can quickly lead to the other without people noticing.
Intolerance is a lack of respect for different customs or beliefs, or rejection of people that we
perceive as different in some way. It can go from avoidance, to hate speech or even physical
harassment. For example, there have been cases of people insulting women wearing hijabs in public
places, or people seeing someone that looks like an immigrant and telling them to “go back to their
country”, or teenagers bullying other teenagers because of their sexual orientation, etc. Just from
the definition, we can see that intolerance itself can be a very bad problem, and as I said earlier, this
can lead to the bigger issue that is discrimination, which is when people are treated less favorably in
a situation only because they belong to a certain group of people. Discrimination is more structural,
and there has been a lot of instances in history where it became an important part of the way
society was organized. For example, in the 1950s when black people were segregated and they had
to use different restrooms, they had to sit at the back of the buses, etc. Another example is when
the Spaniards created a caste system in Latin America based on a classification by race and race
mixtures like mestizo, mulato, etc. All of these phenomena started with rejection, with people
feeling that their culture is superior to others, with people not making an effort to try to understand
other people’s stories and perspectives, etc.
Karen: mmm Interesting, and which negative emotions you think could be present when a person
from a minority group is rejected or left out?

Anahí: Well, when someone in a minority is rejected or left out, they feel powerless, they feel angry
or sad, and it restricts them from developing their skills. On the long run, this has an effect in society
as a whole, because it creates an environment where people are deprived from freedom.

Cristina: OH! would you look at that, it seems like we have run out of time for todays episode, so it
seems like that will be all. Remember guys tolerance is the best policy, empathy is better than gold
and we will see you all next time! until then this is CultureNow signing off.

LINK OF THE PODCAST:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDHHnozW6EA&feature=share