Globalization and You!

The way the world works now is actually kind of incredible. Now, I don't have to send a message to someone via the postal service. If I want someone to know something, I can let them know immediately via a small piece of plastic, metal, and glass in my pocket. The way we discussed globalization this week really put things in to perspective. The world we live in now is a crazy thing. The fact that we can have friends, as discussed in a presentation this week, in other countries that we can talk to any time we want is just unreal. Compared to thirty, forty years ago, the way we have instant communication at any time of day, in any place, is something of total awe. Its also something that people are going to grow up to just expect now, and that's something even more crazy to me, but for a different reason.

I belive it changes the neighborhood dynamic completely. When I was growing up, we had email and whatnot, sure. It wasn't anywhere near as big as it is now, though. It was still forming, and people were quoting the AOL "You've got mail!" slogan way more, because people were still being wowed by how far we've come as a technological world. We all went outside and played sports, went to the park, etc. Now, from what I've seen, kids spend way more time indoors on their games, on their tablets, watching television. Sure, we all did that, but we didn't have the access to them that we do now as a globalized society. Kids are now becoming more used to being connected on a whole other level. Skyping is becoming more popular, and I think that alone changes the neighborhood level with the kids that are growing up now. I used to have to go to a friends house to hang out with them, but now kids are playing their games and skyping, or using just in game voice chats. That, I feel, is a community.

The community for these kids goes way past what we were raised on. Kids are making friends, or not even just kids but people in general, with people they haven't even met, and becoming a community of people that all have their same interest. They base their community on that shared interest, and start to flock to that community, instead of the one that is in their neighborhood. It changes the way that people are interacting with their physical community. There is less community interaction and effort being put in, because why go outside and interact with people when its entirely possible to sit on a couch, turn on a machine, and then talk to your friends from all over the world that have your shared interests rather than go outside and interact with people that may not have the same interests as you, and actually have to have a conversation to learn something about them rather than already have something in common with someone over the internet? I feel this has changed how people are going to view the neighborhood and community dynamics. People are starting to just become people that we have to see and interact with, rather than people we could learn about and become friends with, and diversifying ourselves.

What I took away from our talk about globalization, is as I stated above. The world is transitioning in to a place that is always connected, and always online, instead of a place where people go outside to have their community events and participate in their world around them. The world is slowly becoming various communities, only varied by the types of interests the members of those communities have.