WESTERNIZATION: WHAT IS THE IMPACT?

Westernization is the behavior of imitating a Westernized lifestyle or culture, because the Western lifestyle and culture is considered to be better and more prestigious than the local culture. The existence of westernization can be seen as a form of widespread influence of Western countries in the world. An example of westernization is a free lifestyle as in Western countries, preferring imported products from Western countries over local products, imitating Western clothing style, and so on. Then, what are the good and bad impacts of westernization itself? Here are the explanations.

The good impact of westernization is that it makes us updated with information about new technologies. This is because in the current era, it has become a demand for us to follow the development of globalization in order to adapt to the rapid changes in the society.

In addition, the existence of westernization helps improve the welfare of the nation, because our country gets a higher exposure of global knowledge, particularly in science and technology. We will also be able to compete in the global market if we have a more efficient process to produce local goods and services through better technology application in our country.

However, for its own bad impact, Western culture is considered cooler while the local culture itself is considered as something old and outdated. Because people are more proud of Western culture, this may result in the degradation of the sense of belonging to our local culture which leads to the loss of national identity.

Westernization also causes people to become more consumptive towards imported products. This happens because of the branding of the Western culture that is considered ‘high level’ and supported by the free trade market which allows us to buy goods from abroad easily. In addition, Western culture can possibly destroy local culture because Western culture itself often does not match with Indonesian culture, for example in terms of dress, communication style, and many more.

Therefore, in responding to the westernization, we should be wise and try to filter the influence from Western culture. This action is necessary to expand the positive impacts from westernization itself while also keeping Indonesian culture preserved.

References:

DosenSosiologi.Com. (2021, January 27). √ 9 Dampak Positif dan Dampak Negatif Westernisasi di Masyarakat. DosenSosiologi.Com | Ilmu Sosiologi. https://dosensosiologi.com/dampak-westernisasi/

Idhom, A. M., & Raditya, I. N. (2021, September 14). Perbedaan Globalisasi, Modernisasi dan Westernisasi serta Contohnya. tirto.id. https://tirto.id/perbedaan-globalisasi-modernisasi-dan-westernisasi-serta-contohnya-gjtL