Globalization Essay

Globalization is the idea that people, regardless of their geographical status, can be connected to various cultures and products around the world. While critics disagree on the idea of globalization, it is difficult to argue the exponential progress that globalization has taken and the social change that is occurring across the globe due to social media. The idea of globalization becomes more attainable as the Internet continues to evolve. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are growing, forming large global communities acting for social, environmental and even political change. This ability to unify multitudes of people via the Internet is a step towards a utopia, instituting equality and reducing poverty worldwide. However, critics argue this global connection only causes societal chaos and political instability.

Speaker Erik Qualman, author of Socialnomics said, “We don’t have a choice on whether we do social media, the question is how well we do it.” Qualman has coined the term “Socialnomics” for this revolutionary change in how we process information. Social media sites integrate a path for positive globalization because they are interactive and communal (Hutton & Fosdick, 2011) . Social media is making a radical movement to include users all over the world. According to Erik Qualmans’ research, it took radio thirty-eight years to reach fifty million users, television thirteen years, and the Internet four years, whereas Facebook was able to reach two hundred million users in less than one year. The massive expansion of social media is incomparable to the reach of previous means of communication due to its limitless capacity. Social networking has become a global movement and continues to grow by the second.

This ability to conne...

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...a revolutionary change in how we send and receive information. Erik Qualman states in his Socialnomics book “if Facebook were a country, it would be the third largest country in the world”. This progressive change in communication is affecting our lives in all aspects

The idea that geographical status plays no part on how cultures circulate seems farfetched. But with the growth of social media and the Internet, more and more online communities are being formed and making powerful changes. While some oppose the idea that globalization is good, there is no arguing that social media has made the idea of globalization more realistic. This type of unity is progress towards a world culture, ideally instituting equality and reducing poverty. Global connection allows countries to influence each other, the controversy is whether these influences will be beneficial or harmful