Philosophy

Everything changes together with the modernization of the world. Todays culture is dominated by the advancements of technology such as the development of the Internet, proliferation of cellphones, and the invention of modern games. These products of modernization affect mans cycle of life. Jackson et al. categorized all of these developments under information technology in their research article entitled  Self-Concept, Self-Esteem, Gender, Race, and Information Technology Use. This article explains the relationship of modern culture to the formation of a persons self-esteem and how this varies between races and genders.

Based on the results and discussions on the study conducted among 500 young African American and Caucasian American boys and girls, the use of modern products, especially of video games, appears more extensive among the male population. However, this reality does not seem to influence the self-concept and level of self-esteem of males and females. Gender and usage of technology does not affect how the recipients perceive themselves and project themselves to the public. Males and females have found their own ways of maximizing the developments of todays culture so that it will not affect the formation of their self-concept and the increase of their self-esteem. However, based on the article, the race of a person offers significance difference in their level of self-esteem.  African Americans had lower behavioral self-concept that did Caucasian Americans. Although the authors suggest further studies to be conducted to test the reliability of this result, they have also hinted that this could be attributed to the fact that the African Americans have lesser access to information technology compared to Caucasian Americans,  a difference that cannot be attributed to income  alone anymore.

The article notes that information technology has a significant influence on peoples way of thinking and formation of behavior. Nevertheless, even though the males are more exposed to the inventions of modern times, this does not contribute much in the formation of self-concept and self-esteem of males and females. However, the racial concerns about the accessibility of information technology has an effect on the development of self-esteem between different races depending on who are more exposed to it and thus have higher levels of self-esteem.