Cultural artificiality: a study on cyber cafes in Punjab

The present study has been undertaken to know the profile of the users at cyber cafes, purposes and frequency of using it, and the sites preferred by them. It was found that about 75 per cent of the users were between the age group of 15 to 25 years and were found chatting on the net. More than 90 per cent of the users were using it for e-mail purposes. About three fourth of the respondents were chatting on the net followed by surfing, playing games and listening to music. It was also observed that 9 per cent of young people were observed using pornographic sites but not even a single respondent expressed himself that he used Internet for pornographic purposes. Thus a cultural artificiality has been created since people concentrate more on the instructions given on the net. It hampers ability to solve the problems. Moreover it operates on the assumption of universality of human needs and culture. Electronic mails & greetings are more of a formality as it is devoid of personal touch, emotions, humanizing and socialization. An integrated approach of human centred system, which keeps a balance between man and machine should be followed. Internet should be used to promote creativity, individuality and originality.