cultural lag essay

Cultural Lag: 10 Examples & Easy Definition

Grace Ramsey

Master in Public Policy (MPP), Harvard University

Grace Ramsey will graduate in May of 2023 with a Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard University. She is a freelance writer and journalist, writing on global poverty and American drug policy.

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Saul Mcleod, PhD

Editor-in-Chief for Simply Psychology

BSc (Hons) Psychology, MRes, PhD, University of Manchester

Saul Mcleod, PhD., is a qualified psychology teacher with over 18 years of experience in further and higher education. He has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Clinical Psychology.

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When a new technology or innovation is introduced, it takes a bit of time for our behaviors and laws to adjust to it. Imagine what it must have been like when the first car was invented; how much work needed to be done to pave roads and carve out meaningful traffic laws.

There were certainly problems of convenience and safety in the meantime. This gap between the introduction of technology and our adjustment to it is known as cultural lag—a phrase coined by sociologist William F Ogburn. This concept can help us understand both historical behavior and current problems. 

Key components

First of all, what is culture? For Ogburn, culture was the “social heritage;” the things and ways of living that we inherit from those that came before us.

However, in his explanation of what cultural lag is, Ogburn was careful to make a distinction between two different parts of culture: material and non-material. 

Material culture 

Material culture is the physical objects that make up our culture. This includes things like buildings, clothes, art pieces, musical instruments, food and technology. Much of material culture changes quickly, and frequently. 

Non-material culture

Non-material culture is the unseen or intangible aspects of our culture: things like norms, laws, rules, religious ideas, and general worldview. As you can imagine, these kinds of things take a lot of time to change. 

Ogburn also distinguished between adaptive and non-adaptive forms of non-material culture. Some parts of non-material culture will change to keep up with material culture, while other parts will not.

For example, when factories became widespread and most people left their home during the day for work, the function of the family as a working group was phased out.

This would be the adaptive form of non-material culture. However, some parts of the function of the family, such as emotional support, did not change—this would be a non-adaptive element of the family. 

Modern culture is made up of so many different interlinked parts—different ideas, places, symbols, technologies, foods, dances, lingo—and none of these things are changing at the same rate. Ogburn saw all the different parts of society as deeply interlinked.

Therefore, when one part of culture changes, the rest of society will have to adjust to accommodate the change. That period of misalignment between the change taking place and the adjustment of the rest of society is what cultural lag is.

At its most basic, cultural lag is the period of adjustment to a change in some part of society.

The concept of cultural lag is most commonly used to refer to societal adjustment to a new technology, but its original definition is much broader.

Any change that would require a period of adjustment would qualify as cultural lag, moving in any direction between material and non-material culture, or even staying within one part of culture. 

For example, there can be changes within material culture that causes lag specifically in another part of material culture.  For instance, the widespread use of electric vehicles when there is not yet a convenient infrastructure for charging them. 

Cultural lag within two parts of non-material culture is also possible—consider that women are now encouraged to join the work force, even as research still shows that they bear the brunt of the responsibility for housework and childcare. 

There can also be a lag of material culture behind non-material culture. For example, when advanced theories in the field of astronomy can’t be evaluated because our machinery for viewing the stars isn’t yet powerful enough. 

All of these forms of cultural lag are possible, but Ogburn thought that a change in material culture forcing a change in non-material culture was the most common. Most modern examples of this phenomenon follow this framework, including the examples provided below.

Given how variable instances of cultural lag can be, it is an incredibly common phenomenon. However, Ogburn thought that most instances of cultural lag were so slight that they were imperceptible in the long run.

After all, new inventions and changes to our physical reality happen every day, and they mostly don’t cause too much trouble, if any at all.

However, Ogburn also made the sinister prediction that some instances of cultural lag would have such a drastic effect as to threaten universal disaster. 

Ogburn wrote that there were three causes of the kinds of social change that would trigger cultural lag. The first is diffusion, when some kind of technology or way of doing things enters a cultural ecosystem by way of globalization. The second is discovery—when we stumble across resources or information that cause social change. 

However, Ogburn thought that the most important catalyzer of change was the third type, invention. He said that invention was an act of combining existing cultural elements to form something new. For example, by combining the wheel and the steam engine to invent the train.

Naturally, as more technologies and tools come into existence, the possibility for different combinations among them increases. This is why Ogburn thought that the accumulation of material culture was a catalyst for invention. He also thought that this growth would turn out to be exponential. 

This part of Ogburn’s theory has some strong empirical backup. There is a well-known theorem known as Moore’s Law which identified that technology develops at an exponential rate, with computer processing power doubling every 2 years.

With the advent of recent artificial intelligence technologies, that time frame has shortened so that computing power doubles every 3.4 months. Invention rates seem to be indeed exponential. 

The causes of social change are only one part of what causes cultural lag. We must also consider why it takes societies so long to adjust to these changes. Why are we not more expedient in changing our laws and norms to accommodate new technology?

Ogburn thought that non-material culture was actively resistant to change. He said that worldviews and ideas are stubborn— on both an individual and societal level— especially in comparison to how fast technology changes.

Sometimes individuals resist change out of fear of the unknown, and sometimes governments find it too onerous to attempt to change longstanding bureaucratic policy.

With the constant introduction of new technologies, it is difficult for societies to even decide how those technologies should be used, let alone put together a comprehensive set of laws and norms around the use of the technology. The examples below explore this challenge.

These examples illustrate the concept of cultural lag, where societal values, norms, and institutions struggle to keep pace with rapid technological and social changes, resulting in various challenges and disparities.

• AI and Automation: Artificial intelligence has become so advanced that it is now capable of replacing human workers in many jobs. Already, familiar technologies such as automated factory machines and self-check-out in grocery stores have caused unemployment. The economy and education system still has not shifted to reskill these workers and place them sustainably elsewhere in the workforce. 
• The Internet and digital divide : Almost 40 percent of the world’s population has never used the internet or has no way to access it. Meanwhile, the average American uses the internet for just under seven hours a day. This difference in access to technology between two groups is known as the digital divide. As new internet-based technologies (like ChatGPT, for example) are released, those with the internet gain their benefits, while there are entire swaths of the global population that fall further behind. The infrastructure needed to connect isolated populations to the internet has simply not yet materialized. 
• Climate change and environment: The environment also provides a compelling example of cultural lag. New inventions that emit greenhouse gases or require massive uses of resources have entered the economy and started to have an impact on global temperature. The global response so far has been far too modest and subdued to prevent the disastrous consequences of global warming. Global regulatory bodies are lagging behind the technologies and ways of living that are causing climate change. 
• Medical advancements and bioethics: Recent medical advancements such as the ability for doctors to prescreen infants for genetic diseases and potentially engage in genome alteration leave society with many questions that have yet to be answered. What should we be allowed to test for? If a disease is found, should we be able to alter the genes of that child to remove it? Should we be able to use this technology to edit genes in pursuit of specific aesthetics or abilities in newborns? In November 2018, Chinese biophysicist He Jiankui announced that the first genetically altered humans had been born—two twin girls. He removed a gene from their DNA in an attempt to create genetic resistance to HIV, and reported that they were both born healthy. However, He Jiankui’s actions met widespread backlash, revealing the gap between the capabilities of our technology and our underdeveloped thinking on how to regulate it. This is a clear and obvious case of cultural lag. 
• Cryptocurrency and taxation/regulation : Cryptocurrency is a relatively new form of digital asset. Its function is based on digital technologies that allow for verified online purchases without the need for a bank. As use of these digital currencies become more mainstream, regulation measures have lagged behind. A likely cause for this is that this technology is not very well understood by lawmakers or the general public, which makes the generation of tax interventions and regulatory bodies quite difficult. 
• Social media and big data: The effect that recent technological innovations have had on privacy is a perfect example of cultural lag. Suddenly, the technologies and websites that many of use every day were able to collect vast swaths of data on our activities. Cultural lag manifested in a pretty commonplace lack of awareness among users as to what data was being collected, how and for what purpose. Once people realized on a broad scale what is happening with their personal data, there has been an even more prolonged lag in response—both in terms of individual level changes in behavior to protect personal data, and to government-level regulations of what kind of data can be used and how.
• Remote work: Following the COVID-19 pandemic, a full 44% of British people work from home for at least part of the workweek. In February of 2020, only 5.7% of the population worked exclusively at home. Considering this vast change in the landscape of working location, and how quickly that change happened, it is unsurprising that some symptoms of cultural lag have accompanied that change. Traditional methods of tracking productivity, supervising employees, and billing work hours are not as viable in a remote work context, and businesses are still adjusting their management styles to fit the new normal. 
• Online voting : Voting by paper ballot is an arduous and expensive task for government agencies to maintain. The technology for online voting is available, and it is much cheaper and more convenient for voters and administrative agencies. However, laws to regulate use of digital voting technologies are not in place, and public trust of these technologies is not at a point where widespread implementation is yet feasible. Neither the U.K. nor the U.S. uses online voting, and conversations around voter verification and election verification with these technologies abound. 
• Autonomous vehicles: The technology for autonomous vehicles is already widely available and in testing stages. However, the typical laws used to regulate driver behavior on the road become obsolete when a computer is driving. In 2018, the first recorded fatality that involved a self-driving car (owned and operated by Uber) spurred questions not only around the safety of self-driving cars, but also on culpability in the event of a traffic accident. Was the safety driver at fault? Was Uber at fault? These questions highlight the gaps in legal thinking that need to be filled in order to adjust to the reality of co-existing with autonomous vehicles. Further, as vehicles become fully autonomous (meaning no safety driver is behind the wheel) the computer that operates the car may find itself in situations where it must make a moral decision. If there is a pedestrian in the street and the car must either hit and kill the pedestrian, or turn and crash into a wall, killing the passengers, what should it do? Does it matter how many people are in the car? Does it matter if the pedestrian was jaywalking? These questions do not have a legal answer, a good sign of cultural lag. 
• Remote medical services and licensing : In the United States, the laws around the practice of medicine usually require that a medical provider be licensed in the state where the patient is physically located during the appointment. During COVID-19, many states waved this requirement. However, these waivers have since expired, even as the reliance on telemedicine continues—a phenomenon that is unlikely to reverse. This leaves patients in absurd situations, such as driving hours to park just over the state border to take a remote appointment from their car. Long-term, sustainable legal solutions to the telemedicine licensing crisis do not yet exist, highlighting that society has yet to adjust to this change in culture. 

Implications

Social inequality and conflict.

Access to newly introduced technologies is, of course, not universal. The groups that are more exposed to new inventions will adjust more quickly to the change than those who have not yet had the chance to access it. Therefore, the more exposed groups feel the change less acutely. 

This also means that the negative consequences of cultural lag are not spread evenly among all members of a society. Some groups of society are more vulnerable to the raw impacts of cultural lag, whether by chance or by systematic disadvantage. They are left to deal with change without the needed infrastructure. 

Differing experiences among social groups can also lead to disagreement on how to tackle it. As the examples illustrated, many instances of cultural lag include a lack of consensus on how to manage new technologies.

This lack of consensus can lead to social conflict, as those with differing opinions clash on questions of profound importance for them. 

Educational disparities

A large part of adjusting to societal change is ensuring that schools are teaching students the relevant skills and information needed to thrive in a changed world.

If the curricula offered in schools does not account for new technologies, inventions, and ways of doing things, students will be ill-prepared to navigate the world.

This manifestation of cultural lag is self-reinforcing—schools struggle to adjust to the way the world has changed, and as a result students themselves are unable to adjust to the ways that the world has changed. Every school is different, so this manifests in vastly different educational outcomes across the country. 

Anxiety and stress

It can be quite distressing for anyone, in any context, when things change very quickly; especially of things are changing both quickly and profoundly.

Trying to manage using a new computer you are unfamiliar with, or using an automated kiosk for the first time can be overwhelming.

Further, if these changes are happening on a large scale—where you are facing very new technologies very frequently, this can be deeply distressing. Anxiety may be a blunt result of cultural lag. 

Identity crises

We define our identities in relation to our outside world, deciding where we belong and why. When the outside world—both materially and culturally—is changing rapidly, it can be difficult to relate to the new world that we have been presented with.

Who am I? What am I meant to be doing? These essential human questions are made further murky and difficult by the effects of cultural lag. 

What is Culture Lag and Examples – Explained

Culture refers to the ideas, customs, thoughts, behaviors and everything from the way they eat, to the way they dress, to the kind of music they listen to, the art forms that they show interest in, etc. Culture often has two aspects, the material, and the non-material aspects; while the former refers to the more tangible parts of culture, such as the technology, the clothes, cars, phones and anything that we are able to see and touch rather than observe. The latter on the other hand refers to the intangible parts of culture, such as the language, the ideology , the norms, values, gestures, etc. we cannot see or touch these parts, however, we can observe them in the way people behave, their daily actions they carry out and how they react to situations.

Change in the society is inevitable, along with other social change, change takes place in the culture of the society as well, in both material and non-material aspects. Often we find that the material culture is likely to go through change faster than the non-material aspects, this is due to the fact that the technology, is more likely to evolve before we are able to adjust to it. This is known as cultural lag , it is the process where the non-material culture is not able to keep up with material culture. It is believed that it is because of this lag that the social problems and conflicts are caused.

The term has been coined by William F. Ogburn in 1992 in his work ‘Social Change With Respect to Culture and Original Nature’. This cultural lag is a period of maladjustment, it occurs when the nonmaterial culture is struggling to adapt to the new material conditions. This theory identifies with technological determinism, which assumes that the growth or development of the social structure and the cultural values, depends on the technological innovation in the society, it determines the change that comes about in the values of the society and thus, determinism.

We find various examples of cultural lag when we see the growth of medical technology and other forms of technology.

 E.g. the use of cancer vaccines, which have become available for cervical cancer have been developed, these are given to teenagers or preteens, this raised many ethical issues, saying that this was encouraging children to engage in sexual activity from an early age. Such an issue is raised due to the fact that cervical cancer is acquired through a virus called the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), this virus is spread through the onset of sexual activity, thus a woman is likely to get cancer if she does indulge in sexual activity, and preventing her from cancer would then be required once she has been sexually active, and giving it to teenagers meant they were being encouraged to engage in sexual activity. The risk of cancer, however, is high at the reproductive stage of life due to the fact that the HPV may multiply in the affected cells causing issues. This is such situations ‘prevention is better than cure’ becomes true, however culturally we are still to accept that.

Another such issue was raised in the discovery of the fact that the stem cells can be stored in order to cure diseases later in life, however the extraction of the embryonic stem cells is considered unethical as it is seen, that the destruction of embryo for the extraction of the stem cell is indirectly the death of the embryo. Similarly, the research for the harmful effects of video games, mobiles, screening, etc. came in much after the development of the technology.

Thus cultural lag is considered to take place as the values and ideologies and the ways of thinking are likely to evolve slower than technology.

https://sites.google.com/site/etec511/the-cultural-lag-theory

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_lag

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/human-papillomavirus-(hpv)-and-cervical-cancer

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3996512/

https://www.khanacademy.org/test-prep/mcat/society-and-culture/culture/v/culture-lag-and-culture-shock

Aishani Menon, a sociologist, communicates her thoughts through words. She values learning, seeing it as the catalyst for growth, and believes that the best writing stems from continuous knowledge

Effects of Cultural Lag

• Key Concepts
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Cultural lag — also called culture lag — describes what happens in a social system when the ideals that regulate life do not keep pace with other changes which are often — but not always — technological. Advances in technology and in other areas effectively render old ideals and social norms obsolete, leading to ethical conflicts and crises. 

The Cultural Lag Concept 

The cultural lag concept was first theorized and the term was coined by William F. Ogburn, an American sociologist, in his book "Social Change With Respect to Culture and Original Nature," published in 1922. Ogden felt that materiality — and by extension, the technology that promotes it — advances at a rapid pace, whereas societal norms tend to resist change and advance much more slowly. Innovation surpasses adaptation and this creates conflict. 

Some Examples of Cultural Lag 

Medical technology has advanced at such a pace as to put it in conflict with several moral and ethical beliefs. Here are a few examples: 

• Life Support: Medical technology is now being used to keep people’s bodies functioning long after they would otherwise have been declared dead. This raises cultural and ethical questions about when life ends and who has the right to end artificial life support or to prolong existence. The development of new cultural beliefs, values, and norms lags behind the dilemmas posed by the technological change. 
• Stem cell research and therapies:  Stem cells have been proven to defeat a host of diseases, yet they must come from unborn fetuses. Some types of abortion remain illegal on several state and federal levels, creating a conflict between medical advancement, the law, and ethical and religious beliefs. 
• Cancer vaccines:   A vaccine against cervical cancer became available in the 21st century, but some oppose it because it is given to preteens. This is seen in some quarters as encouraging youngsters to engage in sexual activity. Again, medical advancement has outpaced cultural and moral considerations. 

Other Cultural Lags in the 20th Century 

History — and particularly recent history — is rife with other, less traumatic examples of cultural lag that nonetheless support Ogburn's position. Technology and society are fast-paced, and human nature and inclination are slow to catch up.

Despite their many advantages over the handwritten word, typewriters weren't routinely used in offices until 50 years after their invention. A similar situation exists with the computers and word processors that are commonplace in businesses today. They were at first met with objections from labor unions that they would undermine the workforce, ultimately replacing people and ultimately costing jobs. 

Is There a Cure? 

Human nature being what it is, it's unlikely that any solution exists for cultural lag. The human intellect will always strive to find ways to do things faster and more easily. It has always attempted to fix problems thought to be insurmountable. But people are wary by nature, wanting proof that something is good and worthwhile before accepting and embracing it.

Cultural lag has been around since man first invented the wheel, and woman worried that traveling so fast would surely cause grievous injury. 

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3.3C: Cultural Lag

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The term “cultural lag” refers to the fact that culture takes time to catch up with technological innovations, resulting in social problems.

Learning Objectives

• Produce an example of cultural lag using an example of the tension between material and non-material culture
• Cultural lag is not only a concept, as it also relates to a theory and explanation in sociology.
• It helps identify and explain social problems and also predict future problems.
• According to Ogburn, cultural lag is a common societal phenomenon due to the tendency of material culture to evolve and change rapidly and voluminously while non-material culture tends to resist change and remain fixed for a far longer period of time.
• Due to the opposing nature of these two aspects of culture, adaptation of new technology becomes rather difficult.
• innovation : The act of innovating; the introduction of something new, in customs, rites, and so on.
• material culture : In the social sciences, material culture is a term, developed in the late 19th and early 20th century, that refers to the relationship between artifacts and social relations.
• non-material culture : In contrast to material culture, non-material culture does not include any physical objects or artifacts. Examples of non-material culture include any ideas, beliefs, values, and norms that may help shape our society.

The term cultural lag refers to the notion that culture takes time to catch up with technological innovations, and that social problems and conflicts are caused by this lag. Cultural lag is not only a concept, as it also relates to a theory and explanation in sociology. Cultural lag helps to identify and explain social problems and to predict future problems.

The term was coined by the sociologist William F. Ogburn in his 1922 work “Social Change with Respect to Culture and Original Nature. ” According to Ogburn, cultural lag is a common societal phenomenon due to the tendency of material culture to evolve and change rapidly while non-material culture tends to resist change and remain fixed for a far longer period of time. His theory of cultural lag suggests that a period of maladjustment occurs when the non-material culture is struggling to adapt to new material conditions.

Due to the opposing nature of these two aspects of culture, adaptation of new technology becomes rather difficult. As explained by James W. Woodward, when material conditions change, changes are felt in the non-material culture as well. But these changes in the non-material culture do not match exactly with the change in the material culture. This delay is the cultural lag.

Cultural lag creates problems for a society in different ways. Cultural lag is seen as a critical ethical issue because failure to develop broad social consensus on appropriate uses of modern technology may lead to breakdowns in social solidarity and the rise of social conflict. The issue of cultural lag tends to permeate any discussion in which the implementation of some new technology can become controversial for society at large.

Essay on Cultural Lag

Students are often asked to write an essay on Cultural Lag in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Cultural Lag

Understanding cultural lag.

Cultural lag is when changes in material culture happen faster than changes in non-material culture. Material culture includes things we can touch, like technology. Non-material culture includes ideas, beliefs, and values.

Examples of Cultural Lag

Think about mobile phones. They’re part of our material culture and have changed quickly. But laws and social rules about phone use have been slower to develop. That’s an example of cultural lag.

Why Cultural Lag Happens

Cultural lag happens because changing our ideas and beliefs takes time. We need to understand new things, like technology, before we can decide what we think about them.

Effects of Cultural Lag

Cultural lag can cause confusion and conflict. For example, some people might think it’s rude to use phones at dinner, while others don’t. This disagreement can lead to arguments.

Overcoming Cultural Lag

To overcome cultural lag, we need to communicate. By talking about new things and sharing our thoughts, we can help our non-material culture catch up with our material culture.

250 Words Essay on Cultural Lag

What is cultural lag.

Cultural Lag is a term that sociologists use to describe the time gap between new technological inventions and our understanding of how to use them in our culture. It is like when you get a new phone and it takes you some time to learn all its features. The same happens in society when new technologies, laws, or ideas come up.

A good example is the internet. When it was new, people did not know its full potential. With time, we learned to use it for many things like shopping, learning, and connecting with others. But, this learning took time, so there was a cultural lag.

Another example is laws about marriage. In many places, laws have changed to allow same-sex marriage. But, it takes time for people’s attitudes to change and accept this new idea. This is also a kind of cultural lag.

Why Cultural Lag Matters

Cultural lag can create problems. For example, when the internet was new, there were no laws about online privacy. This caused many issues as people’s private data was not protected. Only after problems occurred, laws were made to protect online privacy.

Cultural lag is a normal part of our society. As we keep inventing new things, there will always be a gap in understanding how to use them in our culture. But, by being aware of cultural lag, we can try to reduce the problems it can cause. It is important to learn and adapt to new changes quickly to make the most out of them.

500 Words Essay on Cultural Lag

Cultural lag is a term that describes what happens when changes in material culture happen faster than changes in non-material culture. Material culture refers to physical things, like technology. Non-material culture includes beliefs, values, and social norms. In other words, cultural lag is when our technology advances faster than our ideas and beliefs.

Cultural lag often happens because technology changes very quickly. For example, smartphones and the internet are part of our daily lives now, but they weren’t around a few decades ago. These changes happen so fast that our ways of thinking and behaving can’t keep up. This can cause problems because our social rules and laws may not be ready for new technologies.

One example of cultural lag is the issue of privacy in the digital age. Before the internet, it was easy to keep personal information private. Now, with social media and online databases, it’s much harder. Our laws and social rules are still catching up to these changes.

Another example is the use of drones. Drones are used for many purposes, like delivery or photography. But there are questions about how to regulate them. For instance, should there be rules about where they can fly? These are new questions that our society has to answer.

Cultural lag can cause confusion and conflict. People may disagree about how to handle new technologies. Some people might be excited about new possibilities, while others might be worried about potential risks. For example, some people love the convenience of online shopping, while others worry about job losses in traditional retail stores.

Addressing Cultural Lag

There’s no easy way to prevent cultural lag, because technology will always change faster than society. But we can try to manage it. One way is through education. By learning about new technologies, we can understand them better and make more informed decisions. Another way is through thoughtful law-making. Laws should be flexible enough to adapt to new technologies, but also protect people’s rights and safety.

In conclusion, cultural lag is a challenge that we face in our rapidly changing world. It happens when technology changes faster than our beliefs and social norms. This can cause problems, but we can manage them through education and thoughtful law-making. By understanding cultural lag, we can better navigate the changes in our world.

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• Essay on Culture Diversity
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20.2 Sources of Social Change

Learning objectives.

• Describe the major sources of social change.
• Explain cultural lag and provide an example.

We have seen that social change stems from natural forces and also from the intentional acts of groups of people. This section further examines these sources of social change.

Population Growth and Composition

Much of the discussion so far has talked about population growth as a major source of social change as societies evolved from older to modern times. Yet even in modern societies, changes in the size and composition of the population can have important effects for other aspects of a society, as Chapter 19 “Population and Urbanization” emphasized. As just one example, the number of school-aged children reached a high point in the late 1990s as the children of the post–World War II baby boom entered their school years. This swelling of the school-aged population had at least three important consequences. First, new schools had to be built, modular classrooms and other structures had to be added to existing schools, and more teachers and other school personnel had to be hired (Leonard, 1998). Second, school boards and municipalities had to borrow dollars and/or raise taxes to pay for all of these expenses. Third, the construction industry, building supply centers, and other businesses profited from the building of new schools and related activities. The growth of this segment of our population thus had profound implications for many aspects of U.S. society even though it was unplanned and “natural.”

Culture and Technology

Culture and technology are other sources of social change. Changes in culture can change technology; changes in technology can transform culture; and changes in both can alter other aspects of society (Crowley & Heyer, 2011).

Two examples from either end of the 20th century illustrate the complex relationship among culture, technology, and society. At the beginning of the century, the car was still a new invention, and automobiles slowly but surely grew in number, diversity, speed, and power. The car altered the social and physical landscape of the United States and other industrial nations as few other inventions have. Roads and highways were built; pollution increased; families began living farther from each other and from their workplaces; tens of thousands of people started dying annually in car accidents. These are just a few of the effects the invention of the car had, but they illustrate how changes in technology can affect so many other aspects of society.

At the end of the 20th century came the personal computer, whose development has also had an enormous impact that will not be fully understood for some years to come. Anyone old enough, such as many of your oldest professors, to remember having to type long manuscripts on a manual typewriter will easily attest to the difference computers have made for many aspects of our work lives. E-mail, the Internet, and smartphones have enabled instant communication and make the world a very small place, and tens of millions of people now use Facebook and other social media. A generation ago, students studying abroad or people working in the Peace Corps overseas would send a letter back home, and it would take up to 2 weeks or more to arrive. It would take another week or 2 for them to hear back from their parents. Now even in poor parts of the world, access to computers and smartphones lets us communicate instantly with people across the planet.

As the world becomes a smaller place, it becomes possible for different cultures to have more contact with each other. This contact, too, leads to social change to the extent that one culture adopts some of the norms, values, and other aspects of another culture. Anyone visiting a poor nation and seeing Coke, Pepsi, and other popular U.S. products in vending machines and stores in various cities will have a culture shock that reminds us instantly of the influence of one culture on another. For better or worse, this impact means that the world’s diverse cultures are increasingly giving way to a more uniform global culture .

This process has been happening for more than a century. The rise of newspapers, the development of trains and railroads, and the invention of the telegraph, telephone, and, later, radio and television allowed cultures in different parts of the world to communicate with each other in ways not previously possible. Affordable jet transportation, cell phones, the Internet, and other modern technology have taken such communication a gigantic step further.

As mentioned earlier, many observers fear that the world is becoming Westernized as Coke, Pepsi, McDonald’s, and other products and companies invade other cultures. Others say that Westernization is a good thing, because these products, but especially more important ones like refrigerators and computers, do make people’s lives easier and therefore better. Still other observers say the impact of Westernization has been exaggerated. Both within the United States and across the world, these observers say, many cultures continue to thrive, and people continue to hold on to their ethnic identities.

Cultural Lag

An important aspect of social change is cultural lag, a term popularized by sociologist William F. Ogburn (1922/1966). When there is a change in one aspect of society or culture, this change often leads to and even forces a change in another aspect of society or culture. However, often some time lapses before the latter change occurs. Cultural lag refers to this delay between the initial social change and the resulting social change.

Discussions of examples of cultural lag often feature a technological change as the initial change. Ogburn (1922/1966) cited one such example from the decades after the American Civil War: the rise of the machine age. The development of factories during the Industrial Revolution meant that work became much more dangerous than before. More industrial accidents occurred, but injured workers were unable to receive adequate financial compensation because the existing law of negligence allowed them to sue only the person—a fellow worker—whose negligence caused the injury. However, negligent workers were typically very poor themselves and thus unable to provide meaningful compensation if they were sued. This meant that injured workers in effect could receive no money for their injuries.

Over time, the sheer number of industrial accidents and rising labor protest movement pressured lawmakers to help injured workers receive financial assistance. Some states began to allow workers to sue the companies whose dangerous workplaces were responsible for their injuries, and juries awarded these workers huge sums of money. Fearing these jury awards, in the early 1900s the manufacturing industry finally developed the process now called workers’ compensation , which involves fairly automatic payments for workplace injuries without the necessity of lawsuits (Barkan, 2009). The delay of several decades between the rise of factories and industrial accidents and the eventual establishment of workers’ compensation is a fine example of cultural lag.

A more recent example of cultural lag involves changes in child custody law brought about by changes in reproductive technology. Developments in reproductive technology have allowed same-sex couples to have children conceived from a donated egg and/or donated sperm. If a same-sex couple later breaks up, it is not yet clear who should win custody of the couple’s child or children because traditional custody law is based on the premise of a divorce of a married heterosexual couple who are both the biological parents of their children. Yet custody law is slowly evolving to recognize the parental rights of same-sex couples. Some cases from California are illustrative.

In 2005, the California Supreme Court issued rulings in several cases involving lesbian parents who ended their relationship. In determining custody and visitation rights and child support obligations, the court decided that the couples should be treated under the law as if they had been heterosexual parents, and it decided on behalf of the partners who were seeking custody/visitation rights and child support. More generally, the court granted same-sex parents all the legal rights and responsibilities of heterosexual parents. The change in marital law that is slowly occurring because of changes in reproductive technology is another example of cultural lag. As the legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights said of the California cases, “Same-sex couples are now able to procreate and have children, and the law has to catch up with that reality” (Paulson & Wood, 2005, p. 1).

The Natural Environment

Changes in the natural environment can also lead to changes in a society itself. We see the clearest evidence of this when a major hurricane, an earthquake, or another natural disaster strikes. Three recent disasters illustrate this phenomenon. In April 2010, an oil rig operated by BP, an international oil and energy company, exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, creating what many observers called the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history; its effects on the ocean, marine animals, and the economies of states and cities affected by the oil spill will be felt for decades to come. In January 2010, a devastating earthquake struck Haiti and killed more than 250,000 people, or about 2.5% of that nation’s population. A month later, an even stronger earthquake hit Chile. Although this earthquake killed only hundreds (it was relatively far from Chile’s large cities and the Chilean buildings were sturdily built), it still caused massive damage to the nation’s infrastructure. The effects of these natural disasters on the economy and society of each of these two countries will certainly also be felt for many years to come.

As is evident in this photo taken in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake that devastated Haiti, changes in the natural environment can lead to profound changes in a society. Environmental changes are one of the many sources of social change.

United Nations Development Programme – Haiti Earthquake – CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

Slower changes in the environment can also have a large social impact. As noted earlier, one of the negative effects of industrialization has been the increase in pollution of our air, water, and ground. With estimates of the number of U.S. deaths from air pollution ranging from a low of 10,000 to a high of 60,000 (Reiman & Leighton, 2010), pollution certainly has an important impact on our society. Climate change, a larger environmental problem, has also been relatively slow in arriving but threatens the whole planet in ways that climate change researchers have already documented and will no doubt be examining for the rest of our lifetimes and beyond (Schneider, Rosencranz, Mastrandrea, & Kuntz-Duriseti, 2010). Chapter 20 “Social Change and the Environment” , Section 20.3 “Society and the Environment” and Section 20.4 “Understanding the Environment” examine the environment at greater length.

Social Conflict: War and Protest

Change also results from social conflict, including wars, ethnic conflict, efforts by social movements to change society, and efforts by their opponents to maintain the status quo. The immediate impact that wars have on societies is obvious, as the deaths of countless numbers of soldiers and civilians over the ages have affected not only the lives of their loved ones but also the course of whole nations. To take just one of many examples, the defeat of Germany in World War I led to a worsening economy during the next decade that in turn helped fuel the rise of Hitler.

One of the many sad truisms of war is that its impact on a society is greatest when the war takes place within the society’s boundaries. For example, the Iraq war that began in 2003 involved two countries more than any others, the United States and Iraq. Because it took place in Iraq, many more Iraqis than Americans died or were wounded, and the war certainly affected Iraqi society—its infrastructure, economy, natural resources, and so forth—far more than it affected American society. Most Americans continued to live their normal lives, whereas most Iraqis had to struggle to survive the many ravages of war.

Historians and political scientists have studied the effect of war on politics and the economy. War can change a nation’s political and economic structures in obvious ways, as when the winning nation forces a new political system and leadership on the losing nation. Other political and economic changes brought by war are subtler. World War I provides an interesting example of such changes. Before the war, violent labor strikes were common in Britain and other European nations. When the war began, a sort of truce developed between management and labor, as workers wanted to appear patriotic by supporting the war effort and hoped that they would win important labor rights for doing so. However, the truce soon dissolved after prices began to rise and wages did not. Labor-management conflict resumed and became very intense by the end of the war.

This conflict in turn forced European political and business leaders to grant several concessions to labor, which thus achieved gains, however limited, in political and economic power. Labor’s participation in the war effort helped it win these concessions. As a historian summarized this connection,

By the end of the war, labor’s wartime mobilization and participation had increased its relative power within European societies. As a result, and despite the fact that endeavors to reward labor for its wartime cooperation were, in general, provisional, partial, and half-hearted, it was nonetheless the case that labor achieved some real gains. (Halperin, 2004, p. 155)

Other types of nonobvious social changes have resulted from various wars. For example, the deaths of so many soldiers during the American Civil War left many wives and mothers without their family’s major breadwinner. Their poverty forced many of these women to turn to prostitution to earn an income, resulting in a rise in prostitution after the war (Marks, 1990). Some 80 years later, the involvement of many African Americans in the U.S. armed forces during World War II helped begin the racial desegregation of the military. This change is widely credited with helping spur the hopes of African Americans in the South that racial desegregation would someday occur in their hometowns (McKeeby, 2008).

Social movements have also been major forces for social change. Despite African American involvement in World War II, racial segregation in the South ended only after thousands of African Americans, often putting their lives on the line for their cause, engaged in sit-ins, marches, and massive demonstrations during the 1950s and 1960s. The Southern civil rights movement is just one of the many social movements that have changed American history, and we return to these movements in Chapter 21 “Collective Behavior and Social Movements” .

Key Takeaways

• Major sources of social change include population growth and composition, culture and technology, the natural environment, and social conflict.
• Cultural lag refers to a delayed change in one sector of society in response to a change in another sector of society.

For Your Review

• Write a brief essay in which you comment on the advantages and disadvantages of cell phones for social relationships.
• The text states that courts are beginning to grant same-sex couples the same parental rights and responsibilities that heterosexual couples have. Do you believe that this is a positive development or a negative development? Explain your answer.

Barkan, S. E. (2009). Law and society: An introduction . Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Crowley, D., & Heyer, P. (2011). Communication in history: Technology, culture, society (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Halperin, S. (2004). War and social change in modern Europe: The great transformation revisited . Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

Leonard, J. (1998, September 25). Crowding puts crunch on classrooms. The Los Angeles Times , p. B1.

Marks, P. (1990). Bicycles, bangs, and bloomers: The new woman in the popular press . Lexington: University Press of Kentucky.

McKeeby, D. (2008, February 25). End of U.S. military segregation set stage for rights movement. Retrieved from http://www.america.gov/st/peopleplace-english/2008/February/20080225120859liameruoy0.9820215.html .

Ogburn, W. F. (1966). Social change with respect to cultural and original nature . New York, NY: Dell. (Original work published1922).

Paulson, A., & Wood, D. B. (2005, August 25). California court affirms gay parenting. The Christian Science Monitor , p. 1.

Reiman, J., & Leighton, P. (2010). The rich get richer and the poor get prison: Ideology, class, and criminal justice (9th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Schneider, S. H., Rosencranz, A., Mastrandrea, M. D., & Kuntz-Duriseti, K. (Eds.). (2010). Climate change science and policy . Washington, DC: Island Press.

Sociology Copyright © 2016 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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By Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess

February 14, 2020

When I think back on the things that I learned as a graduate student, there are a few big ideas that have, over the years, stood out as having done an exceptionally good job of explaining some critically important (and frequently repeated) aspect of social conflict. One of those ideas is William F. Ogburn's notion of "cultural lag." 

I first learned about this when Howard Higman (the professor who started me on my career path) explained that most of the commencement speeches being given at the time were, in one way or another, focused on cultural lag. In the 50 years since, I have found that the concept continues to explain much of what is going on in society (even though the concept itself seems to be less-widely recognized). 

The basic idea is based on an evolutionary view of cultural beliefs and cultural evolution. It sees culture as a set of beliefs that tell people how to think about their place in the larger social and environmental context, and how they should behave within that context. Over time, the success of individual communities and societies is, in large part, determined by the degree to which their cultural norms encourage behaviors that take advantage of as many social and environmental opportunities as possible, while simultaneously limiting exposure to downside risks. 

When social and environmental conditions are fairly stable, the slow process of trial-and-error leads to the evolutionary selection of beliefs that "work" and the de-selection of ideas that don't.   The result is a series of stable social, religious, cultural, and political institutions.

Since societies are stronger when everyone works together and the level of internal strife is minimized, it is not surprising that strong social pressures and enforcement mechanisms also become part of the culture to force most citizens to stay within normative bounds.  That said, there is usually room for a few outlying "deviants" who are allowed to try to figure out how to better adapt the culture to changing social conditions. These individuals usually fail (often because they pursue purely selfish goals) and are treated as semi-outcasts by the larger society.  Occasionally, however, one of their ideas will catch on and lead to significant changes in a society's cultural beliefs. There was, for example, a time when those who challenged the "separate but equal" doctrine of segregation were seen as outcasts (or worse). Now we have a national holiday celebrating Martin Luther King's birthday. There was a time when women, if they work outside the home, were confined to to a few occupations like nursing, elementary school teaching, and secretarial work. Now they earn more advanced degrees than men.

The problem that Ogburn noted in the 1920s was that the social environment had, at least since the start of the Industrial Revolution, been changing so rapidly that cultural norms were increasingly ill-suited for the emerging world. He saw this as giving rise to a whole series of conflicts as increasing numbers of people (generally with more risk-tolerant personalities) started to question and then quit observing traditional norms. Instead, they started experimenting with alternatives that they believed would offer them a better life.  The result was a series of new counter cultures that presented a significant challenge to the established order.

This, of course, led to conflict with the more risk-averse members of society who continued to place their trust in more traditional and well-established institutions—institutions that placed great value on social cohesiveness and a willingness to forgo personal, short-term pleasures for the longer-term benefit of the larger community (and, of course, those in more dominant positions).  As traditionalists frequently point out, the cultural nonconformists tend to be more motivated by the pursuit of immediate personal gratification than the longer-term well-being of the entire community.

There is also a generational component to all of this. This process of internalizing cultural norms is something that is primarily done in one's formative years with peer group pressures (in young adulthood) often playing as important a role as traditional institutions. In later years, significantly changing one's beliefs is pretty tough, partly because of cognitive dissonance and partly because people don't want to admit that they may have been wrong. More importantly, there are strong social pressures against walking away from cultural norms of one's group. This is a quick way to become ostracized, and deprived of the social support group which is so much a part of our lives. 

Since the 1920s, the pace of social, environmental, and technological change has only accelerated with prospects for even more daunting changes in the near future. The result has been a series of deep and increasingly bitter conflicts between traditionalists and nonconformists and between generations who have formed their cultural orientations in very different environments. 

Think for a minute about the environments in which different US generations developed their cultural beliefs. The so-called "Greatest Generation" won World War II by respecting authority and subordinating one's personal needs to the needs of the larger society. By contrast, Baby Boomers, with their unprecedented educational and economic opportunities, had to come to terms with the folly of Vietnam, the environmental catastrophes that gave rise to Rachel Carson's Silent Spring , the sexual revolution, and demands for social justice emanating from the civil rights and women's movements.

Gen Xers came of age amidst renewed Cold War tensions and the Reagan-era backlash against government efforts to promote social justice and protect the environment.  By the time that the Millennials came around, the Soviet Union had fallen and the globalization of the world economy was in full swing. This, of course, was followed by 9/11 and the insecurity that comes from seeing yourself as a terrorist target.

Now, Gen Y is coming of age at a time when the "can-do, post-9/11 spirit of globalization" has been replaced by war fatigue and cynicism with increasing inequality that has left large fractions of the population in a state of despair at being left behind. 

And, all of these events have played out as the communication system that we rely on to tell us what's happening has made the transition from broadcasting to narrowcasting to, now, targetcasting. 

For more information about generational differences in cultural beliefs we recommend the Pew Research Center's report on  Millennial life: How young adulthood today compares with prior generations .  Another excellent window into all of this is David Brooks' new article in the Atlantic ,  The Nuclear Family Was a Mistake . Not only does he document the many ways in which families have struggled to adapt to changing social conditions, he suggests an alternative family structure that he thinks would be better adapted to the modern world. Finally, the New York Times has a great set of interactive graphics entitled How Birth Year Influences Political Views that further illuminates the concept.

Is it any wonder that these (and a great many other events of comparable consequence) have produced a population with widely differing cultural adaptations to the world in which they live? With no let up in the pace of change in sight, we can expect cultural-lag conflicts to persist and probably intensify. 

It's pretty clear that the continuing quest for decisive victory in the culture wars is a recipe for continuing and potentially catastrophic strife. Cultural lag conflicts can easily escalate to the point where they undermine the ability of culturally-diverse societies to work together to solve a wide range of common problems. Further complicating things is the fact that this escalation process is often being deliberately amplified by "mobilize-the-base" politicians who try (often with great success) to ride cultural conflicts to political victory.  This is, in turn, is making it harder for us to wisely and equitably find solutions to common problems (like climate change). It is also increasing the risk of large-scale civil unrest or the possibility that some cultural groups will come to dominate and oppress others.

So, what should we do? We think it would be much better to live in a world characterized by mutual tolerance, respect, and coexistence—one that gives everyone the freedom to search, in their own way, for the best way of living. This will require charting a middle course between guarantees of cultural security (in which everyone is protected from hearing things that might call their beliefs into question) and continuing efforts to defeat those with whom we disagree. 

We need safe cultural spaces in which to live our everyday lives. And, when we are ready, we need to be able to pursue opportunities for cultural cross-fertilization that can enable us to learn from the experiences and beliefs of others.  For the left, this simply requires them to extend their commitment to diversity to those with less progressive cultural beliefs. On the right, it is simply a call to "walk the talk" with respect to individual liberties.

These are both ideas that have been long championed by people working in conflict and peacebuilding-related fields who have, for years, found cultural tensions to be at the core of many of the world's difficult and destructive conflicts.  Rather than trying to briefly summarize their collective insights, I thought I would highlight a few articles from the Beyond Intractability system which I think explain some of the big ideas from this literature.  To start with, it's worth thinking about the many problems which arise when cultural lag conflicts are handled poorly. You certainly have trouble meeting basic  human needs  (which include cultural security, a sense of belonging, and an identity that is respected by the larger population). Without these things, conflicts can  escalate  in ways that give rise to feelings of humiliation ,  victimhood , and even a sense of being under  siege  on the part of low-power groups. Higher power groups can become  oppressive  and even start thinking they can push the other group  into the sea  (figuratively and, sometimes, literally).  The alternative is developing a vision of a society characterized by tolerance , respect , and coexistence .  To do this a lot of tools  have been developed for facilitating  cross-cultural communication  such as  narratives ,  dialogue , and  empathic listening .  Hopefully, these articles will give you a starting point for thinking about more constructive ways of dealing with cultural lag.

The big idea that I'd like you to get from this essay is that cultural differences are largely (but not wholly) attributable to differences in the way and the speed with which different communities adapt to changing social conditions. As such, a good deal more tolerance is in order for people who are, in different ways, struggling through similar social changes. 

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Cultural Lag: 10 Examples & Easy Definition

Cultural lag refers to the idea that some aspects of culture change more slowly than others. It is a phenomenon that occurs when one part of a society (usually technological innovations) changes faster than another (culture), leading to a gap or “lag” between the two (Woodard, 1934). The term also refers to the resulting social problems caused by this lag.

For example, if technological advancements lead to significant changes in the way people work and communicate, the social norms and values related to these changes may take longer to catch up. This can result in tension or conflict as people struggle to adapt to new ways of doing things.

Examples of culture lag can include sporadic changes in cultural attitudes to gender, marriage, and environmental conservation.

Cultural Lag Definition

Cultural lag is a concept in sociology that refers to the idea that some aspects of culture change more slowly than others. It occurs when one part of a society changes faster than another, leading to a gap or “lag” between them.

Cultural lag can also occur when there are differences in the rate of change between different groups within a society. For example, if one group adopts a new technology more quickly than another group, this can lead to a gap in knowledge and understanding between the two groups.

The concept of cultural lag was first proposed by American sociologist William F. Ogburn in the 1920s. His work Social Change with Respect to Culture and Original Nature introduced the main idea (Ogburn, 1922).

He argued that technological change often occurs more quickly than social change and that this can lead to difficulties as people struggle to adapt to new ways of doing things.

Cultural lag is an important concept in sociology and anthropology, as it helps explain how societies change and adapt over time. It also highlights the importance of considering the social and cultural impacts of technological and other types of change.

Cultural Lag and Material Culture

Cultural lag literature introduced the distinction between material and non-material culture. Cultural lag can also be defined as the gap between material and non-material culture. To understand this, we need to understand the difference between the two.

Material Culture vs Non-Material Culture

• Material culture refers to the physical objects and artifacts that are created and used by society (Aronin et al., 2018).
• Non-material culture refers to the intangible aspects of culture (Macionis & Gerber, 2011, p. 54), such as values, beliefs, norms, and symbols.

Cultural lag can occur within both material and non-material cultures. In the case of material culture, it might refer to the slow adoption of new technologies or innovations. For example, if a new type of transportation is introduced, it might take time for people to get used to using it.

In the case of non-material culture, cultural lag might refer to the slow adoption of new ideas or values. For example, if there is a shift in societal attitudes towards a particular issue, it might take time for the new attitudes to be fully embraced and for the related social norms and values to be updated.

Cultural lag can also refer to the gap between the two. For example, when non-material culture cannot catch up with the development of material culture and vice versa.

10 Examples of Cultural Lag

• Changes in attitudes towards gender and sexual identity : There has been a significant shift in attitudes towards gender and sexual identity in many societies in recent years, with an increased acceptance of non-binary gender identities and a greater acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community. However, it can take time for these changes in attitudes to be fully embraced and for the related social norms and values to be updated. These changes have led to debates about the rights and protections of these groups. In this case, socioeconomic or political policies might not be as developed as non-material culture.
• Changes in attitudes towards marriage and relationships : Attitudes towards marriage and relationships have changed significantly in many societies in recent years, with an increase in cohabitation and acceptance of non-traditional relationships. These changes have led to debates about the role of marriage in society and the legal rights of non-traditional relationships. In this case, socioeconomic or political policies might not be as developed as non-material culture.
• Changes in education and employment : The education system and the job market are constantly evolving. It can take time for people to adapt to these changes and for the related social norms and values to catch up. For example, the rise of the gig economy has led to debates about the role of traditional employment and the importance of job security. In this case, non-material culture might be lagging behind material culture.
• Changes in environmental attitudes : There has been a significant shift in attitudes towards the environment in many societies in recent years, with an increased awareness of the impact of human activity on the planet. It can take time for these changes in attitudes to be fully embraced and for the related social norms and values to be updated. For example, while there may be widespread support for protecting the environment, people may still engage in behaviors that are harmful to the environment, such as using single-use plastics or driving instead of using public transportation. This means that non-material culture has developed further than material culture, and the latter might be failing to catch up.
• Changes in fashion and beauty standards : The fashion and beauty industries are constantly evolving, and it can take time for people to adapt to these changes and for the related social norms and values to catch up. For example, while there may be a shift towards more inclusive and body-positive fashion, traditional beauty standards and the objectification of the body in the media may persist.
• Changes in food and nutrition : The food industry is constantly evolving, and it can take time for people to adapt to these changes and for the related social norms and values to catch up. For example, the rise of plant-based and vegan diets has led to debates about the ethics of animal agriculture and the environmental impact of the food industry.
• Changes in healthcare and medicine : Advances in healthcare and medicine can lead to significant changes in the way people live and manage their health, but it can take time for people to adapt to these changes and for the related social norms and values to catch up. For example, the widespread use of telemedicine has led to debates about the role of face-to-face consultations and the privacy of electronic health records.
• Changes in housing and urban planning : As cities and communities change, it can take time for the physical infrastructure and built environment to catch up to the changing needs and values of the people who live there. For example, while there may be a shift towards more sustainable and walkable communities, traditional attitudes towards suburban sprawl and car-centric planning may remain.
• Changes in transportation : As new modes of transportation are introduced, it can take time for people to adapt to the new ways of getting around and for the related social norms and values to catch up. For example, while electric and self-driving vehicles may become more widespread, traditional attitudes toward car ownership and the environmental impact of transportation may persist.
• The adoption of new technologies : New technologies often bring about significant changes in the way people live and work, but it can take time for people to adapt to these changes and for the related social norms and values to catch up. For example, the widespread adoption of the internet has changed the way people communicate and access information, but it has also led to debates about online privacy and the role of social media in society.

Cultural lag is the concept that some aspects of culture change more slowly than others (Ogburn, 1922; Ruggiero, 2018; Woodard, 1934). It occurs when one part of a culture changes faster than another, leading to a gap or “lag” between the two. This can result in tension or conflict as people struggle to adapt to new ways of doing things.

Cultural lag is a vital concept in sociology and anthropology, as it helps explain how societies change and adapt over time. It also highlights the importance of considering the social and cultural impacts of technological and other types of change. Understanding cultural lag can help policymakers and individuals anticipate and address the potential challenges and conflicts that may arise through cultural change.

Aronin, L., Hornsby, M., & Kiliańska-Przybyło, G. (2018). The Material Culture of Multilingualism . Springer International Publishing.

Macionis, J. J., & Gerber, L. M. (2011). Sociology . Pearson Education Canada.

Ogburn, W. F. (1922). Social Change with Respect to Culture and Original Nature . B.W. Huebsch, Incorporated.

Ruggiero, J. (2018). Culture, Change, and Cultural Lag: A Commentary and a Challenge. Sociology Between the Gaps: Forgotten and Neglected Topics , 3 (1). https://digitalcommons.providence.edu/sbg/vol3/iss1/8

Woodard, J. W. (1934). Critical Notes on the Culture Lag Concept. Social Forces , 12 (3), 388–398. https://doi.org/10.2307/2569930

Tio Gabunia (B.Arch, M.Arch)

Tio Gabunia is an academic writer and architect based in Tbilisi. He has studied architecture, design, and urban planning at the Georgian Technical University and the University of Lisbon. He has worked in these fields in Georgia, Portugal, and France. Most of Tio’s writings concern philosophy. Other writings include architecture, sociology, urban planning, and economics.

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Culture Lag and Conflict Theory of Change Essay

Culture is one of the central concepts in sociology, and it incorporates material and non-material elements. Culture can transform due to social alterations, which can be rapid or slow. For example, intense scientific and technological development is both exciting and frightening for humanity. Three theories that help explain social change are known: evolutionary, functionalist, and conflict (Schaefer, 2019). The evolutionary theory states that society is improving, while functionalists believe the community wants to maintain stability (Schaefer, 2019). Conflict theory claims the importance of change to correct inequality and injustice.

However, social change may be met with resistance because some groups are accustomed to a particular lifestyle and do not want innovations. Such opposition is caused by the gap between the actual change and emotional adjustment of people to it. This gap is known as the cultural lag, which “results when people, groups, organizations, and social structures experience problems in mastering the challenges created by this lag … that occurs between material and non-material culture” (Ruggiero, 2018, p. 2). One of the prominent examples of cultural lag is a refusal of older generations to accept freedom of self-expression in social media.

The appearance of various social media platforms where young people could openly discuss their thoughts and share pictures became disturbing for the older generation. Indeed, the Internet and digitalization’s freedom revolutionized people’s understanding of communication and expression (Schaefer, 2019). For example, my grandparents still cannot understand why youth share every minute of their lives on Instagram and how they create large audiences for culturally empty profiles. Furthermore, my grandparents, born in the late 1940s, are very responsible about posts they make on their Facebook pages which I helped them create.

Although the older generation accepted the comfort of technological advancement, many of them still resist approving online behavior. This response can be considered as culture lag because of the inability of their beliefs and values to adapt to changes (Schaefer, 2019). Three years ago, my grandparents and their peers created a group that offered to introduce parental control over Instagram posts and stories of teenagers and young adults in our city. However, these attempts to convince the municipal government were unsuccessful because, after multiple meetings, they concluded that social media posts became an essential part of modern society.

The social restructuring that came with the invention of social media can be considered as a conflict change. Indeed, social media removed the borders between classes, allowing all people to post their understanding of beauty, share thoughts about political and social issues, and even see the lives of famous public figures. These new privileges were not available to older adults; thus, they perceive them as immoral behavior because transitioning people’s lives to an online mode erased the borders of privacy.

This situation is an example of how cultural change can lead to social change (Schaefer, 2019). However, not all older generations reacted equally to the societal transformation. For example, baby boomers in our neighborhood had an overall positive view of social media development because they are active users of these platforms, too. Moreover, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube opened broader job opportunities for people who want freedom of creative expression, stable income, and a flexible work schedule.

Digitalization has some hidden disadvantages that are not related to cultural degradation that concerns the elderly. According to Schaefer (2019), social platforms simplified violation of people’s confidentiality for criminals, for-profit organizations, and governmental agencies. Specifically, the spread of malware that can retrieve personal data became easier now: “The ever-present cell phone enables the most pervasive and sophisticated attacks on people’s privacy and anonymity” (Schaefer, 2019, p. 313).

Furthermore, censorship of social media profiles is another example of culture lag among countries’ leaders. Considering the fact that most governments consist of older adults, this lag is understandable. Although surveillance is a valuable method for preventing terrorist attacks and other criminal activity, the personal lives of the citizens are affected. Indeed, the Court of Appeals agreed on the lawlessness of the U.S. mass surveillance, exposed by whistleblower Edward Snowden in 2013 (Satter, 2020). Overall, the need to control people’s thoughts shows that the old generation is still resistant to cultural and social change caused by social media.

In summary, cultural and social transition are interrelated concepts that may elicit a positive or negative response. Specifically, conflict theory of change suggests that societal alterations can cause a disturbance, but they result in eliminating inequality and injustice.

Indeed, rapid technological development removed sharp social boundaries, allowing people of different classes to have equal access to information exchange. However, older generations, our grandparents and lawmakers, appear to remain in cultural lag. For example, many of them want to censor Facebook and Instagram posts to protect people from potential material and non-material threats, which indicates the reluctance to accept these social changes. Still, the digitalization age brought more benefits than disadvantages to humanity because it allowed millions of people to connect their interests and created freedom in people’s lives.

Ruggiero, J. A. (2018). Culture, change, and cultural lag: A commentary and a challenge. Sociology Between the Gaps: Forgotten and Neglected Topics , 3 (1), 1-3.

Satter, R. (2020). U.S. court: Mass surveillance program exposed by Snowden was illegal . Reuters . Web.

Schaefer, R.T. (2019). Social movements, social changes, and technology. In Sociology matters (7 th ed., pp. 296-317). McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

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Cultural Lag Essay

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The thesis of “cultural lag” formulated by the North American sociologist William F. Ogburn can be considered among the earliest sociological attempts to explain social change from social-cultural premises and not psycho-biological ones. Indeed, social change is one of the most important theoretical problems in sociology. Almost all the sociologists that belonged to so-called classical sociology sought to understand the process of social change.

The thesis of cultural lag is well-known among scholars of technology because Ogburn has been considered a technological determinist for his explanation of social change with respect to material culture (or technology). Ogburn developed the theory of cultural lag mainly in Social Change with Respect to Cultural and Original Nature, published in 1922 (cf. Ogburn 1966). Throughout the book, Ogburn builds the explanatory key to social change, not appealing to the traditional explanation in terms of evolution of inherited mental ability or, as he also calls it, ”original nature”. Previously, sociologists emphasized biological factors as variables of social change. However, with the elimination of the biological factor, Ogburn appeals to purely cultural factors to explain social change, and here is where he introduces his theory of cultural lag formulated in the following way:

A cultural lag occurs when one of two parts of culture which are correlated changes before or in greater degree than the other part does, thereby causing less adjustment between the two parts that existed previously. (1966: 96)

According to Ogburn, material culture is the field that changes first and the rest of socio-cultural environments – organizational, axiological, juridical, ideological, etc. – have to adapt to it in order to avoid the temporary maladjustment or the lack of harmony between technology and cultural ambience. However, he recognizes that material culture does not always change as it has before, although in modern societies this is, in fact, the main form of social change – usually the social dimension adjusts to changes in the technological dimension. This means that the several parts of a given culture react with regard to changes at different rates and in different ways. According to Ogburn, this process of adaptation or adjustment of the cultural non-material fields to technology can take a great deal of time, and through that transition what he calls cultural lag takes place; that is to say, a ”cultural delay” or ”maladjustment” between the new technology and the diverse aspects of the social field. In other words, culture tends to lag behind the advances of technology. Thus, for

Ogburn, the explanation of social change in modern societies consists fundamentally in four factors related to the material culture: inventions, accumulation of inventions, their diffusion and the adaptation to them.

This approach implies a ”middle” technological determinism (neither ”hard nor ”soft”), because Ogburn puts the emphasis on a temporary maladjustment. That is to say, technology does not cause a mechanical and instantaneous change, but rather the theory of cultural lag only shows that the technical invention chronologically comes before the subsequent changes in the social field. These social changes then have to adjust to the technological invention. In this sense, there is a ”middle” technological determinism because the adjustment has its own rhythm marked by society and not by the technological innovation.

References:

• Ogburn, W. F. (1966) Social Change with Respect to Cultural and Original Nature. Dell Publishing, New York.
• Romero Monivas, J. (2007) La Tesis del Cultural lag. In: Reyes, R. (ed.), Diccionario critico de ciencias sociales. Plaza & Valdes, Editorial Complutense, Madrid.
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