The improvement of living standards and the development of high technologies have led to a change in all conditions of the functioning of society, the need to revise the very concept of cultural identity, as well as the mechanisms of its formation in the modern world.
Rapid changes, the unsteadiness of new living conditions led to the loss of benchmarks in the formation of sociocultural identity. In order to avoid alienation and destruction of cultural communication in society, it is necessary to rethink all spheres of a person’s spiritual activity, taking into account new meaning-forming positions.
Cultural identity in the modern world
We live in an age of blurring clear boundaries between societies with different traditional cultures and customs. The trend towards significant interpenetration of cultures has led to the difficulty of a person comprehending cultural norms and behavioral patterns accepted in society. But it is their conscious acceptance, understanding of their original "I" based on the cultural patterns of society that is called cultural identity.
Understanding, consciously accepting and identifying himself with generally accepted cultural norms, a person starts the mechanism of intercultural communication in which the emerging global virtual space forms new realities. What is the cultural identity of people listening to the same music, using the same technological advances and admiring the same idols, but having a different traditional culture and ethnicity? A century ago, a person’s belonging to cultural traditions was not difficult to determine for himself and others. Modern man can no longer identify himself only with his family or his racial group and nationality. Despite the fact that cultural identity has changed its nature, the need for its formation has remained.
Features of the formation of cultural identity in the 21st century
Awareness of oneself included in a homogeneous community and contrasting this community with another social group gives an impetus to the formation of cultural identity. The isolation of societies, the introduction of the concept of “we” into personal identity and the behavioral code contributed to the grouping of all mankind into a social community, because the measure of contrast at the same time is also a measure of unification.
In different historical periods, group and individual cultural identity had its own specifics and mechanisms of occurrence. Over the centuries, fundamental cultural affiliations have been issued with birth by parents and the local community.
In modern society, the traditional constancy and attachment to the family and cultural code of their group is weakening. At the same time, a new division arises, an increasing segmentation of groups into various small subgroups. The differences existing within the global group are emphasized, they are given great cultural significance.
Our era is the era of individualists who strive for self-determination and are able to organize themselves into groups according to other criteria than religion, citizenship and nationality. And these new forms of self-identification are mixed with deeper layers of traditional culture and ethnic identity.
Problems of preservation of cultural identity
The problems of cultural identity take their roots from the recent personal freedom. The individual is no longer limited to those cultural values that are given to him by family and national ties. The global virtual space to a large extent eliminates the difference in cultural differences, which makes it difficult for a person to choose the parameters of identity and classify himself as a particular social group.
Not only cyberspace, but also a qualitative improvement in living standards allows a person to break out of the cultural environment in which he would be stuck a couple of centuries ago. Cultural achievements, once the prerogative of the elites, are now accessible to many. Distance higher education, remote work, accessibility of the world's best museums and theaters - all this gives a person a huge personal resource that allows making a wider cultural choice, but complicates identification for an individual.
Innovative and traditional culture
Culture includes everything - both new and old. Traditional culture is based on following customs and behavioral patterns. It provides continuity, the transfer of acquired beliefs and skills to subsequent generations. The high level of normativity inherent in traditional culture sets a large number of prohibitions and opposes any changes.
An innovative culture is easily moving away from established patterns of behavior. In it, a person gains freedom in determining life goals and how to achieve them. Cultural identity was originally associated with traditional culture. Modern processes, in which more and more space is given to innovative culture, are becoming a good test of the strength of cultural and national identity in our country.
Socio-cultural identity in the context of increasing the level of communication between societies
Sociocultural environment implies communicative processes between people, as the main carriers and subjects of culture. When individuals from different communities interact with each other, their values are compared and their transformation.
Global migration processes and virtual mobility of human society contribute to the intensification of intercultural communications and the erasure of the basic socio-cultural features of the country. It is necessary to learn to control and use for the benefit of information arrays exchanged between cultural groups, while maintaining their own uniqueness. Next, consider what ethnicity is.
Importance and development of ethnicity
Ethnic cultural identity is the result of the individual's connection with the historical past of the ethnic community to which he belongs, and the awareness of this connection. The development of such awareness is based on common historical symbols, such as legends, symbols and shrines, and is accompanied by a powerful emotional outburst. By identifying himself with his ethnic group, realizing its uniqueness, a person isolates himself from other ethnic communities.
The emerging ethnic consciousness allows you to build a system of behavioral patterns in contact with your own group and with other ethnic groups, accompanied by high emotional reinforcement and moral obligations.
Ethnicity includes two equivalent components: cognitive, which determines knowledge of the historical and cultural characteristics of one’s people, and affective, which gives an emotional response to membership in a group.
The problem of loss of ethnic identity
The problem arose recently, due to the wide spread of intercultural contacts. Having lost the opportunity to identify himself through sociocultural characteristics, a person seeks refuge in a grouping along ethnic lines. Belonging to the group makes it possible to feel the security and stability of the world. Russia is a multinational country and the unification of cultures of various ethnic groups requires the manifestation of considerable tolerance and the education of proper intercultural and interreligious communication.
Globalization, which has shaken the traditional models of cultural identity, has led to a break in continuity. The previous form of self-consciousness fell into decay, without having developed mechanisms of compensation and substitution. Individual internal discomfort prompted them to become more isolated in their ethnic grouping. This could not but increase the degree of tension in a society with a low level of political and civic consciousness and a sovereign mentality. There is a need to form a unity of the peoples of Russia, taking into account their cultural and ethnically differences, without opposing groups to each other and infringing on small nations.
Personal identity
It is difficult to challenge the claim that there are no absolutely identical people in the world. Even identical twins, brought up in different sociocultural conditions, have differences in their features and characteristics of their response to the outside world. A person has different characteristics that connect him with various cultural, ethnic and social groups.
The totality of identities on various grounds, such as religious and national affiliation, race and gender, is the definition of the term "personal identity". In this totality, a person absorbs all the foundations of the ideals, morals and traditions of his community, and also builds a picture of himself as a member of society and his role in it.
Multicultural Identity Formation
Any changes in the process of development of cultural, social and ethnic patterns of behavior lead to a transformation in what we call “personal identity”. Consequently, the presence of problems in any of these areas will inevitably result in an identity crisis, loss of one's own self.
It is necessary to find an opportunity to build a harmonious multicultural identity and, based on a variety of behavioral patterns, choose the ones that are right for you. Building a step-by-step ordered "I", systematization of values and ideals will lead to increased mutual understanding between individuals and sociocultural groups.