Watch free video Rao: Push and pull of technology and culture

I think the answer to the connection between technology and culture is two-way. One is, definitely technology does shape culture. For instance, if you look at the culture of learning now. Many people begin with doing a Google search or a Twitter search or something to find something. Second, you can't really push culture the way you want to sometimes. Sometimes culture must decide when to adopt a technology. Finding this balance between push and pull of technology versus culture and culture versus technology is a whole Holy Grail of innovation, marketing, new kinds of media, etc. .
For instance definitely Google has changed the way a lot of kids these days do their homework and schoolwork. But at the same time, suppose I want to push 3G in a new country, I can't just tell people: "Hey, do 3G." And they will do it. So that's a good example of the push and the pull. The students who pull Google into their working habits, but a marketeer cannot push the technology into a culture.
So a lot depends on when a culture is ready to accept new ideas and when a culture is innovative enough to accept new kinds of things and new types of tools. Only then will you find the correct answer between these.