The
increasing globalization of telecommunications and the rising
interdependency of the economies of the various countries
of the world cannot be denied. News and other information
can be transmitted around the world in a matter of seconds.
Banks in hundreds of different countries can almost instantaneously
transfer money to almost any other bank in the world. As
these global networks become even further developed, the
world will become even "smaller" than it is today.
While there is no doubt that most aspects of society can
and probably will benefit from these interconnections, there
is doubt as to whether all aspects of society will benefit
greatly from international influences.
Education
probably has the greatest opportunity to benefit from these
global networks. Students' access to the Internet and the
World Wide Web brings an endless supply of information from
all over the world. In-depth research on any subject can
be done now while simply sitting at a computer rather than
by tedious searches through stacks of books or rolls of
microfilm in a library. Real-time international exchanges
of ideas and information can and do occur by linking schools
across the globe through teleconferencing via live video
satellite transmissions. It is possible that a student in
the United States can "sit in" on a class at a
university in China. The possible benefits for education
are endless and constantly expanding as global communications
continue to improve and become less expensive.
The
sciences also stand to gain tremendous benefits from global
networks. Research and development departments of a company
in one country can instantaneously transmit information
to all other R&D departments in the company worldwide.
Medical research and information can be shared worldwide,
reducing the amount of time it takes to make rapid advances
in medicine as efforts no longer have to be duplicated by
each individual researcher. All kinds of scientific knowledge
and information can be quickly shared, tested and refined
through joint efforts by scientists linked by global networks.
Again, as with education, the potential benefits of a global
scientific network are constantly growing and unlimited
in scale.
With
the field of politics, it becomes a little less certain
on the subject of potential benefits. On the one hand, the
people of most countries now have direct access to the people
of other countries via email, instant messenger services
and chatrooms and thus can find out about the political
environments and conditions of almost every other country
in the world. This could potentially lead to great advances
in democracy as more people demand to have a voice in their
governmental representation. On the other hand, governments
may see this as a threat to their power and strive to eliminate
access to these types of communications, which would clearly
not be a benefit to the population as a whole.
As
for the arts and culture in general, global networks may
actually be more of a threat than a benefit. Although fans
of the arts now have greater access to the arts and cultures
of other countries than ever before, this could lead to
a type of "globalization" or homogenization of
the arts by creating an international standard that could
potentially eliminate cultural artistic differences in the
future. As one example, the French government mandated that
only a limited amount of information could be broadcast
in English in an effort to preserve French culture and language.
It would seem to be a natural progression for the arts and
culture to actually lose national identity as global networks
become more widespread.
Almost
all aspects of society probably stand to benefit from the
rapid growth of global networks. In general, the more that
people are connected to each other, the greater the chances
are that they will learn to understand each other. But in
the rush to understand and communicate with each other,
it is important that individuals do not lose those unique
cultural characteristics that make them different than everyone
else.
(697 words) |
