Identification and Explanation of Cultural Harms Caused by Cyberspace

Modern information media, especially internet have brought about renovations in social processes and despite the opportunities which have been available to human beings, some damages have been caused to the cultural values of societies. a major part of present cultural identity is the result of interactions between people and cyberspace and since the current society is a society in transition, it naturally faces transformations related to the transition from traditional to modern society. One of these transformations is the change of identity in cultural dimensions. Cyberspace, especially during adolescence and youth, can cause great transformations in cultural identity. Improper use of cyberspace will affect the transformation of cultural identity by affecting gender identity, family identity, national identity, global identity and religious identity. this study, as a warning sign and sociological research, studies the harms of social networks and sites in cyberspace on cultural identity. This study is a qualitative research in terms of methodology and applied in terms of purpose, because it identifies the cultural harms caused by cyberspace to the cultural identity in national and individual levels. This study adopts the thematic analysis method to identify the damages and through a review of the literature and during a comprehensive observation of all the suspicions published in social networks and sites by skeptics during a year these themes were counted and then by separating the cases related to cultural issues the doubts and suspicions were obtained. In the end the cultural damages were explained in the form of four main axes of lifestyle, national identity, cultural values and cultural norms and fifteen sub-themes. Finally, solutions in the form of discourse and executive strategies have been proposed to managers and officials in the field of culture and communication, such as launching a national information network.