catkingcaribbean

[catkingcaribbean]

The ‘Americanizing’ of Caribbean Twitter?

Hey my Caribbean Kings and Queens! So glad you decided to stop by CATKingCaribbean once more to join me in our discussions about the best region in the world, with the greatest culture, the Caribbean!

 So in my previous (and first) blog post, we had talked about how the presence and togetherness of the Caribbean Community on social media, (specifically my favourite app, Twitter; Caribbean Twitter ;) ), is so much stronger than the regionalism that CARICOM wishes to build within the region. But after reading my post again, and medzing a bit, it hit me…

What about the influence of International Twitter on Caribbean Twitter?

It’s a debate we’ve heard far too often, throughout high school, on television talk shows, and even in our own homes from our parents. Is the Internet ‘changing’ our Caribbean culture??

Globalisation

The talk used to focus mainly on cable television and how the content of the American TV shows we watched greatly influenced the way Caribbean people talked, dressed, danced, as well as the foods we craved and enjoyed. But now, with the emergence and democratization of the Internet, the conversation has shifted more to the influence of this powerhouse on our Caribbean culture. This is what is known as Globalisation.

Now let’s get a bit academic here, just so we’re all on the same page. Globalisation, according to UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation), is a multi-dimensional process characterized by concepts such as technological innovation, privatisation of social services and, most importantly to this blog, the dissemination of common cultural values.

Essentially, the fact that almost everyone is exposed to or/and has access to the Internet means that almost everyone is interacting with the content that is shared on this platform on a consistent basis. For Twitter users, however, based on the nature of the platform – people from all over the globe are able to instantly share their thoughts, pictures and videos on any and everything; from world political, economic and social issues, to the fact that they missed their bus this morning – the information is coming at them fast. And to add to this, people basically spend the entirety of their days online. And to me, that is more than enough time to become a product of globalisation.

But this is not necessarily a bad thing. Caribbean Twitter users are therefore also able to share aspects of our culture online – people particularly enjoy our party culture, our music, our food, our dancing and the colourful use of our languages (even though they might not understand). This not only does good for Caribbean tourism, but it perpetuates the retention of our cultural values, and we also begin to appreciate our culture more when it goes up against that of our American counterparts.

The ‘Americanizing’

However, there still stands the fact that International Twitter, particularly American Twitter, is extremely pervasive and strong as the number of American Twitter users are naturally much larger than the amount of Caribbean Twitter users. America’s presence online means that most of what we see on the Internet is American and so, we’re exposed to American culture everyday on a consistent basis. So much so that sometimes, we don’t even realize that the things we are imbibing and the way we are expressing ourselves is actually because of the things we see and are exposed to online. It has just become a part of us, and technically, that means that it has become a part of our culture too. You see what Globalisation and the Internet has done?

On Twitter, one can see the effect of the influence of American media and culture in the things we are beginning to accept and normalize. Like LGBTQ culture. We all know how homophobic of a country Jamaica is (for example), but gradually, more and more Jamaicans (and the Caribbean by extension) are beginning to accept it and become desensitized to it. There is also the non-issue of performing cunnilingus on a woman; something a lot of Jamaican men “bun out” or refuse to (or admit that they) do. However, Twitter, and other social media platforms, has become a place where women are speaking out about wanting it, and men that proudly do it are proudly stating so. There also is the open acceptance of some slang terms originating on American Twitter, such as the slang term “lit”, which is basically an exciting way of saying something is good – “It’s littttt!”

Globalisation and the Internet have made us all one big family, with the only things separating us from the rest of the world being the Caribbean culture that we know is innately what makes Caribbean Twitter, Caribbean Twitter. The lingo and slang we continue to use, the day to day happenings of life in the Caribbean that we tweet about that only we can understand and relate to, and when it’s carnival time, we still post our beautiful costume pictures and videos and shock the rest of the world and make them wish that they could even find one linkage to the Caribbean in their family tree.

- CAT from Jamaica. ;)

🇯🇲

[catkingcaribbean]

Is Caribbean Twitter the new CARICOM?

In this era of the 21st century, contemporary use of the Internet consists heavily of social media usage. With the democratization of the world’s access to the Internet, many users are easily and readily able to share their opinions, ideas, experiences and their whole lives with the world in the form of pictures, mirco blog posts, blog posts and videos on social media platforms.

More specifically to this blog post is the use of the social media platform Twitter. Twitter is a free, online social networking server where users are able to post and share short messages (tweets) with their “followers” in real time. With the evolution of this platform however, Twitter has become a place for people to meet and share their opinions and ideas on a variety of subject matters, some of which have initiated or even led to changes in real life matters.

This aspect becomes particularly important when we start to think about how the people of the Caribbean who are Twitter users are able to interact with each other online and gradually create what is now known as “Caribbean Twitter”.

Essentially, Caribbean Twitter is a modern day gathering of Caribbean nationals in an online/virtual setting, which facilitates the sharing of culturally similar and simultaneously unique experiences and stories revolving around the Caribbean (and its diaspora). Twitter allows us to meet new people from other islands and learn things about their culture that we perhaps were never taught in Social Studies in high school and possibly would otherwise never know about. Caribbean Twitter can really be where one can find the largest online Caribbean Community.

BUT, what about the real “Caribbean Community”? What about CARICOM??

ROLE OF CARICOM

By book definition, CARICOM was established as a means of facilitating functional cooperation between the countries of the Caribbean. Established with the signing of the Treaty of Chaguaramas on the 4th of July, 1973, its main objective was to create regional integration amongst the nation states, offering the region as a whole a better chance at economic development. CARICOM stands on four major “pillars of integration”, those being:

·         Economic integration

·         Foreign policy coordination

·         Human and social development

·         Security

With, improving standards of living and work, full employment of labour, sustained economic development and enhanced levels of international competitiveness being only some of its objectives.

CARIBBEAN TWITTER’S PLACE IN REGIONAL INTEGRATION

However, as it relates to regional integration - which is also listed as an objective of CARICOM - a lot more can be done to facilitate this important aspect. Although the University of the West Indies (UWI) has rightfully been described as a leader in regional integration, as it provides an environment for tertiary students across the Caribbean to meet, interact and work with each other, building lifelong friendships; the online CARICOM, Caribbean Twitter, functions much more directly and effectively. Not only does the Internet become a place where the regional friendships made whilst attending the UWI can be maintained, unlike previous times before the advent of social media, but, Twitter provides Caribbean nationals with a place to freely and openly talk about issues relating to the region, sharing both valid (and sometimes invalid) opinions on regional matters. Issues such as ease of trade, working and travelling between the member states are thoroughly fleshed out on this platform and, interestingly enough, these same opinions that are tweeted and shared online amongst Caribbean Twitter become catalysts for further ideas towards regional integration and even economic development, in terms of regionalists using their online influence to generate business ideas.

Take for example Twitter pages such as @ProudCaribbean and @WImatchapp. The facilitators of these Twitter accounts have managed to take advantage of the need for greater integration of the people of the region by creating a place for us all to meet up online and share in our culture, PLUS, they have also turned our cultural terms into merchandise for not only members of the diaspora, but for whoever might be interested in the Caribbean.

So now, gone are the days when a young Jamaican can say that they know (know of or personally know) no person from another Caribbean island. Caribbean Twitter has bridged that gap that the CARICOM has not yet been able to fill. And although we sometimes have our differences in the form of Caribbean Twitter Wars, which, to be honest, is reminiscent of the differences faced by the heads of government of the CARICOM member states; Caribbean Twitter has still managed to strengthen our regionalism and international competitiveness in areas such as Entertainment, Tourism, and of course, Sports.

In my opinion, there is a lot that CARICOM policy makers can pick up and employ from Caribbean Twitter as a model for regional integration, and alongside this, the voice of the people on matters relating to the meeting of CARICOM’s objectives are also easily accessible on this platform.

- CAT from Jamaica. ;)

🇯🇲