Will every country eventually have the same westernised culture?

RetroGamingUK

RetroGamingUK

Member
I remember studying geography back in the 90s at school and being somewhat fascinated by how different people were around the world in terms of architecture, dress, cuisine and music.

Since then we've seen global trade balloon and the internet go from a small niche to something to vast majority of the planet uses.

As a result, I think we're seeing (outside of places like Afghanistan) the end of diverse cultures around the world.

What do you guys think? Here's some examples…

India - Young women shunning traditional dresses (saris) for jeans and Adidas tracksuits
2X0KgRo.jpeg


Saudi Arabia - Women watch a football/soccer match alongside men
5tFDFiF.jpeg


China - Western architecture and fast food now dominate
LO1t7bV.jpeg


Brazil - TV dominated by US streaming giants
4jiIsje.jpeg
 
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It's more a homegenization than a total takeover.
It wasn't so long ago that something like Squid Game being a hit show in the US would have been laughable.
 
I don't think so. Here in Mexico, some girls wear beautiful handmade dresses.

It's like the time they put the Taco Bell nonsense in Mexico and Wendy's burgers...

Both a resounding failure. I don't even know those filthy franchises.
 
Only in the cities of these countries.

When you go on Holiday, don't go to capital cities. Visit the smaller cities and towns to see the real country you are in.

There are many towns in China/India/Saudi/Morroco/Egypt/Russia/Japan etc that won't have any western influence in them.
 
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It almost seems inevitable. I do think (hope?) there will still be cultural differences. Some cultural habits run deeper than appearances alone.
 
Heimdall_Xtreme said:
I don't think so. Here in Mexico, some girls wear beautiful handmade dresses.

It's like the time they put the Taco Bell nonsense in Mexico and Wendy's burgers...

Both a resounding failure. I don't even know those filthy franchises.
Click to expand...

It's coming. The Anglosphere more than the West is what's dominating the world.

I actually really hate that but that's the reality.

I was just recently wondering, do they even make traditional sounding music in Western Europe anymore? I know in eastern and southeastern Europe they still do. I know because my family is Greek and I listen to a lot of Greek music. And I know a bunch of the countries around them still do too even though there is plenty of American style music being made as well.

But what about Germany? Or Denmark? Or even Italy? I have this feeling they have been completely consumed by the Anglosphere.
 
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Great Auk said:
It's coming. The Anglosphere more than the West is what's dominating the world.

I actually really hate that but that's the reality.

I was just recently wondering, do they even make traditional sounding music in Western Europe anymore? I know in eastern and southeastern Europe they still do. I know because my family is Greek and I listen to a lot of Greek music. And I know a bunch of the countries around them still do too even though there is plenty of American style music being made as well.

But what about Germany? Or Denmark? Or even Italy? I have this feeling they have been completely consumed by the Anglosphere.
Click to expand...
Nah. Mexican customs are a beautiful cultural heritage. They're not absorbed by marketing nonsense... much less Hollywood.
 
Heimdall_Xtreme said:
It's like the time they put the Taco Bell nonsense in Mexico and Wendy's burgers...
Click to expand...

When I was a kid Taco Bell was only something I'd heard of in Demolition Man, now they're opening up everywhere here in England.

In the 90s my city on had 2 McDonalds restaurants, now there's 11.

We're famous for our pubs and fish & chips shops (chippies), so many of these have closed down in the years following the Great Recession. My local chippy is now a Domino's and one of the last remaining pubs recently got turned into Papa John's…

A4oKQIG.jpeg


Meanwhile in China…

KFC - KFC China Celebrates the Opening of its 10,000th Store | KFC

KFC China Celebrates the Opening of its 10,000th Store
global.kfc.com global.kfc.com
 
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Nah. It's like going to eat Domino's pizza in Italy. Same here, Taco Bell was a flop in Mexico...

Better to have tacos made in Mexico than plastic and poorly cooked food from that franchise.
 
Sybrix said:
Only in the cities of these countries.

When you go on Holiday, don't go to capital cities. Visit the smaller cities and towns to see the real country you are in.

There are many towns in China/India/Saudi/Morroco/Egypt/Russia/Japan etc that won't have any western influence in them.
Click to expand...

It starts in the big cities before spreading to smaller towns.

In 70s Britain if you wanted Nike or McDonalds you had to travel to London, now American corporate stuff is everywhere.




As for our world famous BBC, young people have abandoned it for Netflix

www.independent.co.uk

More young people watch Netflix than the BBC

16 to 24-year-olds spent more time watching Netflix than all BBC TV services, including BBC iPlayer
www.independent.co.uk www.independent.co.uk

In TV, 16 to 24-year-olds spent more time watching Netflix than all BBC TV services, including BBC iPlayer. A generational shift which becomes clear when the demographic is widened to 16 to 34-year-olds, in which similar amounts of time are spent watching BBC1, ITV, and Netflix – around two hours a week.
Click to expand...
 
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To an extent yeah.
There's definitely a certain homogenization happening, which only became stronger with social media. Young people in particular get inundated with western culture online and want to replicate what they see and what's popular. You see Starbucks in movies and TV shows, you see your favorite influencers going to Starbucks, you see your friends sharing instagram stories at Starbucks...it's not surprising you eventually want to go there too.

That said I think there will always be cultural differences though. My own country is very Americanized in terms of our brands, and clothes and fast food places, but if you dig a bit deeper than surface level stuff you soon realize our culture is still very different from the american one.
 
I hate it with passion. When I travel to another country the last thing I want to see is Mc Donalds and Zara in the main streets. A little bit of homogeneization is expectable in the modern world but we are reaching a situation in which everything looks artificial, like a themed park.
 
Cinema is another example.

Take India's Bollywood for example which dominated the country's culture.

Not anymore it seems…

movieweb.com

Avatar: The Way of Water Surpasses Avengers: Endgame as India's Highest-Grossing Film of All Time

James Cameron's Avatar sequel is unstoppable at the global box office right now, surpassing Endgame as India's all-time highest-grossing movie.
movieweb.com movieweb.com

Comic con is now huge in India too, there seems to be a huge cultural disconnect between generations, especially in fast growing urban areas…


YRgjdfF.jpeg
 
India is fascinating. It's shifted a lot to Hollywood and anime. The women embracing western clothing, tattoos and drinking is also a big shift.

But then you have many within western society who are adopting their culture more, wearing their traditional clothes more. Nigerians, Bangladesh, embracing their traditional more, even in public.

Then you've got places like China where some youth are trying to bring back old dynasty clothing. Japan too.

Preservation and adapting is important (to me). I'm personally a big fan of traditional clothing in places like Africa, China, south/south east Asia. Homogenising to just western clothes is boring as shit.

Separately, wasn't there some issue that Pakistan's ex prime minister Imran Khan wouldn't wear a western suit to US meetings? Gotta respect that and I wish more leaders did that (Saudi is another). He never looked scruffy, meanwhile you got Trump with a long ass tie.
 
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Fbh said:
To an extent yeah.
There's definitely a certain homogenization happening, which only became stronger with social media. Young people in particular get inundated with western culture online and want to replicate what they see and what's popular. You see Starbucks in movies and TV shows, you see your favorite influencers going to Starbucks, you see your friends sharing instagram stories at Starbucks...it's not surprising you eventually want to go there too.

That said I think there will always be cultural differences though. My own country is very Americanized in terms of our brands, and clothes and fast food places, but if you dig a bit deeper than surface level stuff you soon realize our culture is still very different from the american one.
Click to expand...

I'd like to reiterate that it's not Western culture as that's a broad term, but it's the Anglosphere that's doing all the influencing.

Countries throughout Europe are feeling just as much if not more influence by their English speaking neighbors and from across the pond as any other region of the world.
 
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Lambogenie said:
Separately, wasn't there some issue that Pakistan's ex prime minister Imran Khan wouldn't wear a western suit to US meetings? Gotta respect that and I wish more leaders did that (Saudi is another). He never looked scruffy, meanwhile you got Trump with a long ass tie.
Click to expand...

Without trying to slur Pakistan as a whole (it's quite diverse and is going through its own severe conflicts about how to modernise the country), it does indeed seem to be one of the last holdouts against Westernisation (as with neighbouring Afghanistan).

Here's a recent example from this weekend…

www.bbc.com

One dead after protests against KFC branches in Pakistan - BBC News

Protesters, angry at the war in Gaza, have claimed KFC is a symbol of the United States and its ally Israel.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com

It's also probably the community that has least integrated itself into British culture, hence issues like this…

www.spectator.co.uk

How Pakistan’s rape culture led to the UK grooming gangs

Lahore, Pakistan Pakistani-origin men are up to four times more likely to be reported to the police for child sex grooming offences than the general population in England and Wales, the first national police scheme data appeared to suggest last week. The perpetrators of three of the most...
www.spectator.co.uk www.spectator.co.uk

www.bbc.com

London 7/7 bombers' families still in shock, Leeds imam says - BBC News

The families of three 7 July suicide bombers from Leeds are still looking for answers 10 years on, an imam says.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com
 
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As another gaffer said, its homogenization. You can find Jollibee's in the US and even before something like Squid Games, a Brazillian show called 3% was a big hit outside of its country.
 
Ikutachi said:
Muslim immigrants want their ways and aren't they outbreeding?
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Islam is incredibly sticky.

I think by the end of the century we'll end up with most of the world sharing pretty much most of the same culture and pockets of Islam completely at odds with the rest of the planet.
 
culture isn't just clothes or shops, that's just the result of capitalism and just because a burger king exists in a country it doesn't mean that suddenly the people's mindset, values and traditions are suddenly the same as people from the US.
 
Reizo Ryuu said:
culture isn't just clothes or shops, that's just the result of capitalism and just because a burger king exists in a country it doesn't mean that suddenly the people's mindset, values and traditions are suddenly the same as people from the US.
Click to expand...

Halloween is an example of a tradition that spread from America (thought it was formerly a Celtic tradition)

amp.scmp.com

Chinese children are embracing Halloween. Parents are spooked

Western celebrations are popular among young Chinese, but some fear they represent an erosion of traditional festivals and culture
amp.scmp.com amp.scmp.com

I quite like Halloween myself, the increasing trend of Brits wishing others a "happy thanksgiving" can fuck right off though.
 
RetroGamingUK said:
Halloween is an example of a tradition that spread from America (thought it was formerly a Celtic tradition)
Click to expand...
Many european countries (specifically germanic ones) had a version of halloween long before halloween was halloween:
en.wikipedia.org

St. Martin's Day - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
Halloween itself is definitely of celtic origin, as immigration brought it to the US and modernised it through capitalism, but I don't think it matters much either if people in other countries adopt it, it's not like the chinese children in that (paywalled) article will suddenly stop being familiar with, or celebrating their national traditions, like chinese new year.

RetroGamingUK said:
the increasing trend of Brits wishing others a "happy thanksgiving" can fuck right off though.
Click to expand...
That does sound retarded.
 
RetroGamingUK said:
Islam is incredibly sticky.

I think by the end of the century we'll end up with most of the world sharing pretty much most of the same culture and pockets of Islam completely at odds with the rest of the planet.
Click to expand...

Well Islam has death to those who leave the religion and it's state sanctioned in many countries so that's one way to keep the people in line lol

Quite the 180 from Christianity.
 
Ppl are doing the same thing they've always done when they encountered another culture.

They take stuff from it and integrate it into their own.

It just happens way faster now.
 
Human culture has been around for thousands and thousands of years and has changed over times. Even western culture today is different than what it was 100 years ago.
We're only looking at a specific snapshot in time. For all we know in 50 years we will be following new trends etc that have emerged out of China.
 
Lambogenie said:
India is fascinating. It's shifted a lot to Hollywood and anime. The women embracing western clothing, tattoos and drinking is also a big shift.

But then you have many within western society who are adopting their culture more, wearing their traditional clothes more. Nigerians, Bangladesh, embracing their traditional more, even in public.

Then you've got places like China where some youth are trying to bring back old dynasty clothing. Japan too.

Preservation and adapting is important (to me). I'm personally a big fan of traditional clothing in places like Africa, China, south/south east Asia. Homogenising to just western clothes is boring as shit.
Click to expand...
Based on your post, wouldn't the best option be the allowance of both options? Having just one or the other option feels like forced optics to satisfy a personal perception.

Boss Mog said:
Is that a joke OP? Western cultures and values are quickly fading, not expanding.
Click to expand...
He means big brands, fashion, food industry, etc.

Edit: Although to be fair, one could bring up an argument that this all sort of started years ago around the time when people were trying to spread Christianity to hundreds of different places across the world. But that probably leads into a messier argument.
 
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Sakura said:
Human culture has been around for thousands and thousands of years and has changed over times. Even western culture today is different than what it was 100 years ago.
We're only looking at a specific snapshot in time. For all we know in 50 years we will be following new trends etc that have emerged out of China.
Click to expand...

I think we'll see a growing trend of Chinese music and gaming gain prominence over the next couple of decades. However much of this will be heavily influenced by western culture.

As for culture changing over thousands of years, the current snapshot takes place in a world that's rapidly shrinking and becoming interconnected in ways people previously thought impossible.
 
I used to think this would happen too but I think it's actually going to go the other way.

Here in Canada it's getting more pronounced. The east west split, the English French split, etc

Given, the geography aids in this but the ability to essentially create a bubble of similar minded is easier now more than ever.
 
Too a degree, but some weird stuff is happening in places where mass immigration is happening.

In the UK, the traditional customs that formed part of 'Westernisation' are being eroded in some areas. This is partly because as 'international culture' the foundations are now weak compared to the imported cultures.

I'm not a fan of a multiculturalism in countries. We have a place for many cultures to exist together: the planet Earth.

When you start trying to ram that into single countries, especially small ones, you destroy the existing culture and open the country up to more aggressive expansionist cultures.
 
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Tams said:
Too a degree, but some weird stuff is happening in places where mass immigration us happening.

In the UK, the traditional customs that formed part of 'Westernisation' are being eroded in some areas. This is partly because as 'international culture' the foundations are now weak compared to the imported cultures.

I'm not a fan of a multiculturalism in countries. We have a place for many cultures to exist together: the planet Earth.

When you start trying to ram that into single countries, especially small ones, you destroy the existing culture and open the country up to more aggressive expansionist cultures.
Click to expand...

Fully agree

It's mainly the poorest countries that are behind mass migration.

Let's see how those countries are in 100% years then decide whether or not to import its people.

Unfortunately idiots who miss the point and blame "racism" are the problem here. I'd like to point out to them that medieval Europe was just as bad as the third world today, the solution was science, industrialisation and education.

When these people have left behind barbaric practices like FMG and honour killings they're more than welcome to come join the party in my eyes.
 
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Since op used Brazil... Brazil e.g was an amalgamation of different cultures since... Always. It's nothing new to us.

You have a native native Indian cultural matrix mixed with the Portuguese heritage mixed with the African matrix.
Later came the migrants from Europe/ME/Japan in the early 1900 to work on the field and were incorporated in the country culture, then some french influence (where the cultural/political elite went on vacation to "borrow" some "chic" ideas from French institutions post revolution) and then the USA in late 20 century.

I believe it's somewhat close to what happened in the US with the difference that Brazil is way more miscigenated than the US.

The so called "anglosphere" cultural expansion is just the US expanding it's culture to the world. First, after WW2 with Hollywood and the US influence in the Cold war, and then after the Cold war with globalization and the internet.

This "Anglosphere" influence is exclusive on the USA. Britain never had the same cultural power, besides the influence in it's colonies and some pontual movements like Beatles in the 60's and cool Britania in the 90's.
Before the US, imho France had way more influence in the world's culture/politics/institutions than Britain.

IMHO that's exactly what makes the USA the superpower of the past 100 years. And I don't say it in a pejorative way. IMHO it's awesome.

The way it was done prevented the world to engulf itself in another WW or on a spiral of bloody revolutions like the USSR was trying to do.

Ps. TV in Brazil is a different animal. Open free tv (contrary to cable tv in the US) still dominates the screen time specially in the interior and least developed parts of N/NE.
In the Big centres the sum of all streaming services already surpassed the biggest tv network (Globo).
The only time that I go for TV channels is live events like football or F1. Everything else is on YouTube/Amazon/Netflix. Even live news channels (CNN and its equivalent counterparts) are massively on YT. already.
 
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Well, we're already in a situation where kids now say skedule instead of schedule, and prOgress, instead of progress.

Because of Yank gaming channels on YouTube.
 
Tams said:
Too a degree, but some weird stuff is happening in places where mass immigration is happening.

In the UK, the traditional customs that formed part of 'Westernisation' are being eroded in some areas. This is partly because as 'international culture' the foundations are now weak compared to the imported cultures.

I'm not a fan of a multiculturalism in countries. We have a place for many cultures to exist together: the planet Earth.

When you start trying to ram that into single countries, especially small ones, you destroy the existing culture and open the country up to more aggressive expansionist cultures.
Click to expand...

The foundations of the UK "culture" are literally spawned out of generations of immigration and culture mixing, and yes colonization. This is the case for *every* single nation in the UK lmao.

In 1000 years, this will be but a paragraph blurb in whatever nation exists then, this is the way the earth has operated since we first hopped on boats and trekked the mountain plains into lands unknown.
 
Toons said:
In 1000 years, this will be but a paragraph blurb in whatever nation exists then, this is the way the earth has operated since we first hopped on boats and trekked the mountain plains into lands unknown.
Click to expand...

When you look at how much has changed this past 100 years it's impossible to contemplate the next 1000.

For people living in the year 1000 AD life wouldn't have been much different to 0 AD (apart from religion, obviously).
 
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