The Sakhalin declaration on Internet and Socio - Cultural transformations

The Internet is not a technology of limited functionality, but rather a global systemic phenomenon with a tendency to self-development and producing a broad range of socio-cultural effects. On the one hand, Internet development and penetration lead to significant socio-cultural transformations. On the other hand, it is the societal development tendencies of the past decades that have stimulated the Internet and ICT penetration in all spheres of life. Discourses related to the concepts and policies of building information society and knowledge societies should embrace the understanding of ICTs as an essential but not sufficient component of converging nano-, bio-, information and cognitive (NBIC) sciences and technologies, being of paramount importance for modern technological development and able to impact global socio-cultural processes. The Internet defines the process and forms of culture mediatization. The Internet and new media have become a major space for group and interpersonal communications, generating new cultural meanings and ways of interaction. In particular, the following socio-cultural impacts should be noticed: - The Internet creates a basic environment for the socialization of new generations, changing their values and ways of thinking. - A culture gap between generations is thus getting deeper. Traditional mechanisms of cultural reproduction are broken down. Lagging behind in mastering new technologies, older generation is losing its status as a carrier of valuable cultural experience. - A phenomenon of new escapism is coming into being which implies diving into the virtual space to avoid solving real world problems. - Logocentric, narrative way of thinking is losing its dominance, getting supplemented and partly replaced by “clip” mentality characterized by a lower degree of logical connectivity, criticality, consistency. - Consciousness immersed in cyberspace largely loses the ability for supra-situational activities and long-term planning. As a result traditional models of intellect-enabled basic processes of social control are defied. - Internet development is an integral part of a global challenge to national cultures and national languages. Against this background the promotion of competencies (skills, knowledge and attitudes), united by the term “media and information literacy” (MIL) gains importance. MIL ensures responsible, safe and critical use of networks for free access, production and exchange of information and knowledge within all linguistic, cultural and social groups. Traditional copyright institutions and legislation should be updated in the context of digital environment to provide free access to information necessary for living and receiving quality education, as well as for scientific progress. Studies of contemporary socio-cultural processes under the impact of the Internet and other ICTs should be based on interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral approaches.