Globalization

The world we live today is often referred to as a global village (McLuhan

54). It reflects the globalization process, describing the world considered as being
closely connected by modern telecommunications and as being interdependent
economically, socially, and politically. Just as almost everyone in a village knows
each other, modern technology has made it feasible to get to know about everything
in the whole globe. Although globalization has several interrelated factors, modern
technology, the increasing number of transnational companies and global financial
system are three main driving forces.
One major cause is significant advancements in modern technology. They
have lead to the growth of global media. At present, one third of the world
population has access to the Internet. As a result, finding about the news on the
other edge of the globe has become a matter of a few buttons. To quote Stephen
Hawking, We are all now connected by the Internet, like neurons in a giant brain
(Hawking). With increasingly more access to the Internet, new methods of media
such as online news blogs have been invented. Online blogs have become so
prevalent that it has turned into one of the most effective mediums to keep people
aware of what is going on in the world. Furthermore, improved telecommunication
has made it far more convenient and easier for people to keep in touch with each
other regardless of the distance. For example, whilst before it took months for
people to send letters overseas, now it is only a matter of a second, thanks to the
social network system or e-mail service.
Another cause is the increasing number of TNCs. The quotation by Euardo
Paes describes the effect of TNCs in an obvious way: The TNCs do not abide by
political boundaries. A computer ordered in Brazil is designed in California and

assembled in several other countries (Paes). Another way that TNCs spread
globalization is through the concept of the 'Uninformative Product' which is where a
company will release only one product, one after the other. For example, Apple
releases the Ipod Classic, then the Ipod Nano, shuffle, Iphone, Ipad etc. This means
that everyone will desire the latest and the best product the company has to offer.
TNCs also spread globalization by destroying local competitors in low-income
countries. Many companies will invest offices and factories in developing countries
and then, by attracting plenty but cheap labor, quickly dominate and crush the
lesser companies and businesses. This means less competition, which equals more
money, sales and success in the TNC.
Finally, the last factor can be seen in the increasingly global nature of the
financial system. Over recent decades, there has been a steady increase in crossborder financial flows around the world. First, various financial institutions including
banks and institutional investors have expanded their activities geographically. In
this process, they acted as an intermediary to channel funds from lenders to
borrowers across national borders. Second, the more mature securities markets
have gained a clear cross-border orientation. These developments have reflected
the progressive dismantling of controls on cross-border financial flows as well as the
liberalization of national financial markets more generally. As a result, individual
countries have become more interdependent. The effect of the recent financial crisis
in the U.S can clearly illustrate the scope of this interdependence: Once the crisis
occurred, globalization provided a buffer against the crisis for some countries,
whereas it amplified the crisis for others (Lane 35).
In brief, modern technology, the increasing number of transnational
companies and global financial system have factored into making globalization
inevitable. Of the three factors above, in my view, modern technology has the most

influence on accelerating the inevitable globalization process. The quotation below

indicates the impact of modern technology on changing our lives: Recent advances
in our ability to communicate and process information in digital form - a series of
developments sometimes described as an "IT revolution" - are reshaping the
economies and social lives of many countries around the world (Dahlman 5). As a
result, countries are becoming more interdependent on one another, leading to
globalization.

References

McLuhan, Marshall. The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man.

Toronto: New American Library of Canada, 1969. Print.
Lane, Philip R. Financial Globalisation and the Crisis. Basel: Bank for Internaitonal
Settlements, Monetary and Economic Dept., 2012. Print.
Dahlman, Carl. "Information Technology and Globalisation." Information Technology
and Globalisation: S. K. Bansal: 9788176482530: Amazon.com: Books.
Georgetown University, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, 12 Mar. 2015.
Web. 25 May 2016.
Hawking, Stephen. "Stephen Hawking Opens up." USA Today. Ed. Jon Swartz.
Gannett, 12 Jan. 2014. Web. 25 May 2016.
Paes, Eduardo. "The Effects of Globalization." C40 City Diplomacy Addresses
Climate Change. Brazil, Rio De Janeiro. 12 Dec. 2013. Speech.