Dr. Selman Dilek, Germany NGO Representative, comprehensively addressed the cultural impacts of digitalization and the importance of intercultural communication at the 20th Anatolian Gatherings.
The 20th Anatolian Gatherings, organized by the Anatolian Federation in Ankara, continues to host an important exchange of ideas. As part of the program, Dr. Selman Dilek, Germany NGO Representative, gave a presentation titled “Intercultural Communication in the Age of Digital Homogenization,” addressing the historical development of Western civilization and the contemporary process of digitalization. Stating that Western modernity set out with a claim to universal morality and reason, Dilek emphasized that this civilization does not consist of a uniform structure as commonly believed. Pointing out that civilizations can exist through cultural interaction, Dilek said, “Western civilization was never a monolithic, holistic entity. It established a perfect interaction among its own internal diversity.”
WE ARE IN AN AGE OF DIGITAL HEGEMONY
Stating that a crisis of civilization lies at the root of the world wars, Dr. Dilek explained that the technological progress which began with industrialization in the modern era has reached an entirely new dimension today. Stating that technology was used only as a tool in the past, but that today it has come to determine the social and cultural sphere entirely, Dilek pointed to the increasing domination of digital platforms with the words, “Human beings are now moving toward becoming its instrument; the human being itself is becoming a tool.” He stated that the imagination of the new generation has been confined to digital spaces and that adults remain under a consumption-oriented digital hegemony.
YOUNG PEOPLE ARE A BRIDGE BETWEEN CULTURES
Arguing that the way to protect against the destructive effects of digital hegemony is through intercultural communication, Dilek explained that communities need to establish a healthy connection with their own internal dynamics. Stating that withdrawing inward by escaping from problems cannot offer a solution, Dilek noted that it is imperative to create areas of high interaction within our own cultural diversity. Dr. Selman Dilek concluded his presentation with the warning: “Unless we establish strong intellectual communication with the external spheres of Islamic civilization on a solid foundation, it is inevitable that we will dissolve under the digital hegemony, which is the existing new form of civilization.”
