Robots that encroach on your personal space, baffling emojis, a chatbot that gives you an answer that seems terribly rude—does any of this sound familiar? If so, you may know what it feels like to experience a clash of cultures, or even culture shock, in technology. Culture—shared values, norms, and behaviors—influences both the design of technology and its use. An encounter with new technology can teach us to embrace the unfamiliar, but a mismatch between design and user can create misunderstanding and loss of trust, and can even become a tool of digital imperialism. In Digital Culture Shock, computer scientist Katharina Reinecke travels through countries and cultures around the world to show the many fascinating ways that technology design and use can differ.
Reinecke argues that technology is inherently cultural because developers apply their own knowledge and experiences when creating it. And this can make the technology fail in other settings. For example, robotaxis trained on driver behavior on a California highway are paralyzed when confronted with the more complicated traffic flows of Egypt. Western online social networks, designed to convey one’s individuality, violate the need to preserve the image of a family in more group-oriented cultures. Likewise, the visual complexity common in many East Asian websites can be overwhelming to North Americans and European users, who tend to prefer simpler designs. Making it clear what’s at stake, Reinecke urges us to resist generalizing our own cultural peccadillos in technology design.
Katharina Reinecke is a professor in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington. She is the cofounder of LabintheWild, a virtual lab that studies how people around the globe interact with technology.
"It makes for a fascinating study on culture and tech."—Publishers Weekly
“This book is a must-read for tech enthusiasts and developers alike. In Digital Culture Shock, Katharina Reinecke provides a compelling guide to the powerful ways that culture manifests in digital interactions, while enabling readers to uncover helpful insights into how values and norms shape how we use and envision technology.”—Jamie Teevan, Chief Scientist and Technical Fellow, Microsoft
“Drawing on years of research at the forefront of culture and digital technology, Reinecke delivers a tour de force on how Silicon Valley decisions impact the rest of the world, often with unhappy effect. Every technologist and designer should read this book.”—Kentaro Toyama, author of Geek Heresy: Rescuing Social Change from the Cult of Technology
“From website aesthetics to emoticon use to robotaxis to Google Search, Digital Culture Shock is full of riveting examples showcasing that all technology design is culturally located. Reinecke illustrates the profound impacts of the one-size-fits-all myth and persuasively argues for a new participatory approach. This book will convince you to think again when it comes to asserting human universals in design preference.”—Elizabeth F. Churchill, Mohamed Bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence
“This thought-provoking book uncovers how technology reflects the cultural values of its creators, often clashing with users’ needs. Through real-world examples and interactive experiments, Katharina Reinecke shows how culturally conscious design can enhance user experience, build trust, drive business success, and advance social justice by breaking down barriers to access.”—Indrani Medhi Thies, former principal researcher, Microsoft Research India
“As AI increasingly shapes our daily lives, Digital Culture Shock is timelier and more important than ever. This inspiring book reveals how technology embeds cultural biases yet gets applied to a much broader, global population. Katharina Reinecke cautions against one-size-fits-all design and compellingly shows how culture and technology continuously shape each other. A must-read for anyone committed to building more inclusive and culturally aware technology.”—Naomi Yamashita, Kyoto University
