ON HOW THE INTERNET CHANGES THE WAY WE DEAL WITH TIME AND PLAN IN CHINA AND IN GERMANY

This article explains the way people in Chinese and German cultural context deal with time and plan accordingly. First, a theoretical framework is developed of the social notion of time in German and Chinese cultural context. It considers Confucian notions in order to take an emic approach for Chinese cultural context, as it is mainly based on Western theories. Second, it will be identified how internet-mediated communication can change temporal behavior. Through the development of habits and eventually through institutionalization, objectification and legitimizing, cultural change is explained. Therefore, this process crosses the individual level and becomes a cultural one. In an outlook, it is asked how quantitative empirical research can cover these issues.