Does Globalization Unite or Separate Us?

Does Globalization unite or separate us? If we find out about the term “Globalization” in different dictionaries we can realize that there are too many meanings like “the increase of trade around the world, especially by large companies producing and trading goods in many different countries” or “when available good and services, or social and cultural influences, gradually become similar in all parts of the world”. So, does Globalization unite or separate us? There are two opposite positions, good and bad, of the effects of Globalization. But, I think, there is a third one: Globalization is good because enriches culture in many aspects, but we have to be careful about using the new communication technologies because we can lose the habit of talking face to face. With the meanings mentioned above, we can discern that Globalization is a phenomenon that involves the development of transportation and communication. Thanks to these advances emerged the worldwide production markets and we can access to a range of foreign products that previously we cannot consume. International trade in manufactured goods increased more than 100 times (from $95 billion to $12 trillion) in the 50 years since 1955. As this example, there are too many aspects the Globalization affects to our life in a good way like information, job market, culture, competition, politic, finance, social, etc. However, answering the principal question, I think we have to focus on the social side. It was clearly exposed that the Globalization facilitates de relations between countries. But, what about personal relations? In the last years, we have seen an explosive growth of social networks (MSN, Facebook, Twitter, My Space, Skype, LinkedIn, etc.) that are very easy to use and allow us to communicate with people around the world. To prove this, there are shocking numbers. In 2010, Facebook reached 500 million users and the number of monthly users in Skype was 124 million. With this numbers, I want to explain that the effects of Globalization are very useful to unite people from different parts of the world. On the other hand, we have people who live very close. The same social network phenomenon has a negative side. Many people are replacing face-to-face conversation with a relationship via chat. I think this situation is very harmful to the proper development of social skills that anyone should have, which could trigger a major social crisis in a medium-term future. Even today, a new study suggests that spend time surfing the Internet for many hours would be associated with depression. Also, there is another dangerous collateral effect: the sedentarism. Physical inactivity is one of the 10 leading causes of death worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that by 2030 secondary disease mortality will be 65% of total deaths.

So, does Globalization unite or separate us? I think that the positive effects of Globalization make our life much easier. But, we have to pay attention to the other side. We must return to the customs of the old-school: talking face-to-face to share and solve our problems. If we do not correct the direction we could finish in a serious social problem that will be very difficult to fix. We are still on time for Globalization means only good news in this aspect.

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[ 1 ]. Cambridge Dictionaries Online
[ 2 ]. “Globalisation shakes the world”. BBC News.
[ 3 ]. http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics
[ 4 ]. http://blogs.skype.com/es/2010/08/
[ 5 ]. Sociedad Chilena de Pediatría, website, published 02/25/2011
[ 6 ]. World Health Organization – Data and Statistics