Technology changing values, culture and tradition

Technology is the practical application of scientific knowledge, tools and skills to meet human needs. Because it changes how people work, live, communicate and earn, it slowly changes what they value, how they behave (culture) and which customs they keep (tradition).

How technology changes values

• From collective to individual: In farming villages people depended on each other (e.g. parma labour exchange in Nepal). Machines, wage work and money make people more self-reliant, so individualism and personal success become important values.
• Time and efficiency: Clocks, factories and offices made punctuality, speed and productivity valued; earlier, life followed seasons and festivals.
• Education and merit: In an industrial and information economy, skills and degrees decide income, so education is valued more than inherited land or caste.
• Consumerism: Mass production and advertising make people value owning goods (phones, bikes, branded clothes).

How technology changes culture

• Family structure: Jobs in cities and abroad break joint families into nuclear families; many Nepali villages now have mostly elderly people and children because youths have migrated.
• Communication and language: Mobile phones, social media and TV spread English and Nepali-English mixed language, Western dress, food (fast food) and music.
• Role of women: Household appliances, contraception, education and paid jobs give women more independence and change gender roles.
• Leisure: Traditional evening gatherings, folk songs and deuda/dohori sessions are replaced by TV, YouTube and online games.

How technology changes tradition

• Ceremonies: Weddings are booked in party palaces, invitations sent on Messenger, and rituals shortened; video calls let relatives abroad "attend".
• Traditional occupations: Machine-made goods displace traditional crafts (potters, blacksmiths, weavers), so caste-based occupations and the bali-ghare system weaken.
• Medicine: Modern hospitals reduce dependence on dhami-jhankri (faith healers).
• Agriculture: Tractors and threshers replace oxen and communal harvesting festivals linked with them.

Positive and negative sides

Technology itself is neutral; the change in values depends on how a society adopts it. Nepal needs to use technology for development while documenting and preserving its own languages, festivals and crafts (e.g. digital archives, cultural tourism).