At the end of his chapter on The Triple Convergence (from the World is Flat), Tom Friedman has this to say; ” You know the ‘IT revolution’ that the business press has been touting for the last twenty years? Sorry to tell you, but that was only the prologue. The last twenty years were just about forging, sharpening, and distributing all the new tools with which to collaborate and connect. Now the real IT revolution is about to begin….”. And Friedman wrote this almost 15 years ago!!
So, we might define the relationship between technology and globalization as continuing and rapid innovation in digital communication and computing that is making the world even more connected and accessible; the ongoing developments in reality-changing technology such as artificial intelligence and virtual reality.
Postman, however, suggests to us that there is no neutral technology; that there are always winners and losers with technological change, and that technology changes everything, including our very understanding of reality.
So. What are the “mechanisms” (institutions, policies, laws, habits, practices, phenomena) that promote, develop, and encourage this phenomenon? What contemporary global issues does technological globalization contribute to? Benefits? Problems?
Shin, Johnny, and Natsuki
Globalization is the process of international interaction and integration of people, politics, goods and services through trade and investment. The advance of transportation, information, and technology have been major factors in globalization. Among them, the development of technology is strongly related to globalization. It is the one of the main reasons that globalization has escalated in the early 21st century global market boom. The advance of technology affects globalization positively and negatively. It gives us the power to access to interact with people and buy goods using internet no matter where we live, and it makes travel easier and faster, but otherwise, technology can make us lose traditional lifestyle; what we used to before, and compound the privacy problems.
Technological globalization has some benefits for us, for example the Internet, Skype, amazon, airplane etc. These bring the world closer and more connected. For instance, people can communicate with their friends even if one is in the US and the other is in Japan. People can buy whatever we want by using Amazon, you do not have to go out for shopping. However, before technological globalization came out, we had to write a letter and it took so long time to receive the letter. Likewise, our life is getting more easy and more convenient.
Despite the benefits, there are downsides of technologies being so advance today. People have been so dependent on the internet, which leads to constant usage that only increase the dependency and less interaction with others. The heavy use of internet leads to privacy hazard. The internet contains so much information that it has become very difficult not to leave your personal information on it. Also, the constant improvement of technology has changed the society so much that the traditional values are slowly disappearing. The interaction between people has become the lower and lower as the technologies improve. Technologies has brought us more convenient and modern way of living; however, problems do come with all the benefits.
Justis, Raven
Friedman talked about “flatteners”. Flatteners are the way technology has flattened the world by connectivity and creativeness. This made the world seem like a smaller place and more connected. for example People are able to have a computer in their home, which made technology more accessible. Having this option for people were able to become more technologically advanced.
Mechanisms promote, develop, and encourage this technological globalization include companies such as Google, Apple, Tesla, twitter and even our own tartan.The globalization of technology is also used by militaries and corporations. The Military research and develop technology and Corporations play into this globalization part well, as they make their technology as widely as possible. Anyone that can afford it can have it.
Contemporary global issues that technological globalization contribute to can include such protest like black lives matter with the use of social media. With the growing use of this platforms wide spread media can be and breaking news can be announced faster than ever. and growing military technologies such as drones also is a factor in global issues with the growing tensions of ISIS and the Taliban.
Benefits to this would include having a presence of free speech and security. Knowing that when there is wrong going on in the world people can be aware of the problem and having threats be stopped. Problems with this can include that the power possessed by the companies can be used for something else other than their intended goal.
In the medical field, technology has opened the door for longer life. It has healed diseases that we thought were incurable; however, it has weakened our knowledge. We are forced to take whatever medicine is prescribed to us and pay whatever the cost. The average life span of a human has been lengthened, and it costed more than money. Corporate medical businesses have gained overwhelming power and control. So there are awards to both sides (doctors and civilians), but civilians have lost knowledge and control. If we look at VR (virtual reality) as a way of technology advancement it is the next big thing in many aspects of life. It is involved in entertainment, medical field, and engineering to list just a few aspects VR is going to impact positively in my opinion. For entertainment it has already been released for gaming consoles and phones, but for engineers it is starting to happen. Instead of having to build on a computer the engineer has the ability to walk around a virtual design and see all the good and bad things about it. This increases the ability of the engineer to be creative in a different way, and for the engineer to see his work in a new way. For the medical field there are many possibilities for this to influence our medical prowess. Just like the CAT scan or MRI this will be like those, but it was be able to be moved and changed with your hands in a 3-D perspective. This could help us understand more about the body than ever before.
Technology has revolutionized transport and; therefore, the ability of humans to move. The invention of engines, air vehicles, and automobiles has increased human capacity to move ideas. The rise of airplanes, for example, has aided numerous business people, writers, and scientists to visit foreign localities and bring new ideas. The automobile has resulted in increases sense of human individualism by providing each person with their own means of transport. The rise of technological changes in transit has caused easier transfer of ideas.
Technology is one of the most important things that had happen to this world. I think one of the most important changes that is came out of social media. Social media is really popular around the whole world, we believe social media has change the whole world in many ways for example; meeting new people, talking to your friends, family members and others and others. It’s a way to express yourself and interact with others at the same time.
Yoshino, Risa, Brittney
People’s expectations of advanced technology are increasing, mostly in entertainment. Many of these expectations come from movies that portray the future, such as Back to the Future 2. As people are always wanting something new, so to keep up with people’s expectations technology must continue to evolve. Also people try to contribute by raising money for medical advancements to find cures and help others. Technology has a duty to evolve for medical purposes. In addition, there are many issues that many believe can be solved by technological advancements.
As Postman says, there’s no neutral technology and there will always be winners and losers. Technology, though can bring us together, has created a kind of competition between nations. Which nation can advance further in technology? An example of this is the race to the moon between the U.S and Russia. Another issue is that technology can spread negative trends, for instance the clown pranks. It first started in Virginia, but since as spread all over the country and is moving to Europe.
Technological globalization brings us both benefits and problems. The first beneficial point is that people can communicate easily whenever they want. In addition, it is easy to know what is happening in the world because of spreading social medias, such as Facebook and Twitter. For example, on Facebook, they can watch live broadcast so they can share the moment even they are not in same places. The second beneficial point is people can live longer because of medical development. For instance, people can use medical devices, such as AED (automated external defibrillator) so people have high possibilities to survive even they get heart attacks. Technology are replacing human works. People used to get job done by themselves, but technology has improved and computer can automatically finish work. Company do not hire many people because the computer is more efficient, advanced, and low cost. However, they also lose jobs at the same time. Furthermore, people can communicate on SNS, so they do not have opportunities to talk with other people in person.
Technology is an ever changing aspect of life, and Friedman had it right. As a nation and as a world we were just getting started with this technology revolution. Part of the reason for this is because we learn something new with every piece of technology created. Not only that, but as more technology comes available, it is easier and faster to use and produced more technology. Also, through the use of technology, we have been able to connect people and ideas throughout the world for increased learning and expression.
The technology revolution has taken place in many forms, and through many mechanisms. For example, the education system has embraced the technology revolution by teaching and supplying children with different pieces of technology. When the current college age generation was in elementary school, they were assigned floppy disks by their teachers to save school work. Today, children have advanced to using electronic “clouds” to store their information in cyber space. This is an important means of globalization because people are continuing to teach children how to use the latest technology, so that they can communicate with the same knowledge as most other people. Also, by learning the technology earlier, they will more likely understand how to improve it as they continue to learn and age.
Almost every current global issue involves some sort of technology. For example, the technology that the United States military has access to is incredible. They have heat sensing goggles, GPS wired tanks, and many other important pieces of technology. A current issue in the news dealing with technology came about with Hilary Clinton. Just as technology can help us and be beneficial, it can also be misused and detrimental. Hilary Clinton, one of the current Democratic presidential candidates was caught misusing a work email address as a personal email address. This big issue arose when the emails seem to disappear as if Hilary was trying to hide something. Although Hilary may not have divulged any national secrets on her email, she could have. Plus, if she breeched the United States security, then the information would have spread across the world in a matter of seconds due to the lightning speed of the internet.
Technology is an amazing thing, and it has enabled the world to do things they never thought possible. Who would have thought people would have the technology to perform surgery by robots, or practically fly a plane completely on autopilot. As a global nation we have made great strides, but most technology is human operated, which means there is always the chance for human error or misconduct. We will continue to improve technology because it is human nature to be innovative and develop, but it is important to understand the impact technology can have if people begin to misuse it.
Haleigh, Zeke, Aryne
Friedman talks about these “flatteners” that have made the world seem like a smaller place and more connected. The rise of the Personal Computer. People were able to have a computer in their own household, which made technology so much more accessible. Having PCs as an option for people really pushed technology into a rise that has been continuing on ever since. The internet coming into existence was another large part of technology growing.
Companies started to outsource, which Friedman says is another “flattener”. Outsourcing is one company gets another to do something they could do, but elsewhere, typically cheaper than what they could do it for. Companies doing this and offshoring are a part of Friedman’s theory. For example, Denso is a Japanese company that is located in the United States, and because of business technology, which we will explain later, there are ways to have businesses interactions via online.
Technology changes many aspects in life, and there are both pros and cons. There is transport technology, which includes the advancement in technology regarding transportation like airplanes, buses, trams, Segway’s, subways, etc. There is also information technology, which includes informational programs such as Google, Siri, and other search engines. Along with technology regarding the internet, there is communication technology. With communication technology, there are new ways to maintain a company or a business without having to meet in person. Communication eliminates aspects such as “snail mail” and can be done faster and more efficient.
With technology growing, there are people that are getting left behind. When Friedman talks about winner’s verses losers, the losers are the people who cannot afford the technology or cannot maintain access to it. This is also a problem in poor countries as well, because not everyone is able to have the opportunity to have new technology. However, on the other side, the winners are considered the ones who do have technology. Countries who lack or used to lack a more powerful stance, are now able to emerge as a more dominant country due to technology. Due to this, it evens the playing field for countries who are able to access technology.
Hannah Chretien and Chris Payne
Technological globalization refers to the ongoing phenomenon of widespread technology. Institutions such as governments, military, and research institutions are all at the center of this form of globalization. Governments, in need of a faster, safer, more efficient way of communication, invest into technology. Military technological advancements in weapons and warfare also are to blame for technological globalization. As weapons advance in one country, other militaries will advance themselves to be able to combat the new weapons. Research institutions, such as MiT, also advance technology. By continuously analyzing the current technologies and applying new methods, minor perfections are able to be made. Over time, these minor perfections multiply to form entirely new systems. An example of this is with telephones. Starting from a landline, small advancements were made over time to turn the telephone into an essential device that people are able to keep in their pockets.
These advancements, starting with the government, trickle downwards until they reach civilians. The internet, which was once not used by civilians, can now be accessed on smartphones and tablets globally. It allows us to gain access to information that we would have otherwise never heard of in our lifetime. A simple google search can tell you seemingly everything that you need to know. This has many positive effects. One prominent effect is the ability for people to band together globally. If there is a disaster in Japan or India, people from the United States or other countries can send aid. Technologies such as jets and planes allow for people to travel the world in mere hours: something that would have never been possible with wooden ships like were used for years prior.
While there are many positives to technology such as the internet, there are also major downfalls. Hackers from other countries can, if they have the skill, access top-secret data bases from our country and gain information that would have otherwise been inaccessible. At the same time, information can also be more easily erased, as seen with Hilary Clinton and her emails dealing with Benghazi.
Postman uses the wisdom of a centuries old Egyptian myth to explain the relationship of globalization to technology. Reflecting on the article at large seems to make the integration of this myth much more strategic than it appears.
“The Judgment of Thamos” story makes easy work of analyzing 21st century information, technology, and the dynamics between the two. While Friedman’s tale of a spherical world rapidly leveling tells the story of technological innovation hammering markets, media, and entreprenuership into a flat, fiber-optic playing field, Postman hails back to a timeless story and thus the timeless lesson it evokes: Technology creates the same pattern of change, and the same series of integration to accompany it, throughout human history.
Therefore, Postman chooses an ancient myth because it represents the unchanging wisdom of the ages that can be applied to any technological achievement. For Thamus, this achievement is writing. For our present world, the achievements are rapid and numerous, but generally summed up by Friedman’s Triple Convergence. It seems that Friedman explains the phenomena that is unfamiliar to us (the ten flatteners, the horizontalization, the injection of steroids into these two factors) and Postman explains to us the familiar (monopoly of information, changes in our conceptualization of language, and the adaptation of the community to technological change).
For example, before coming to college I (Grace) deleted my Facebook. However, I quickly discovered that not only would my friends and family not tolerate this digital disappearance, but my extracurricular activities required it. I acquired Facebook again for the purpose of communicating with the choir, but this would result in an ongoing relationship between myself and distant acquaintances connecting via social media, such as group members in class, party-throwers, campus events sponsors, and even personalized ads facilitated by the Facebook itself.
Technology rules the world, and frankly it can make life boring. I (Jennings) worked at a summer camp where we were not allowed to have our phones or computers. This allowed us to connect with each other and build relationships face to face rather than behind a screen. We learned a lot about each other and on the weekends I realized how much of the world’s happenings I missed from being out of the technological loop. At camp we played games and constantly had fun. We were not worried about documenting every second of our day on instagram or checking in on Facebook.
Technology truly does have its grasp on and rules our world. To not have it can cause panic and chaos. When I (Graham) was a sophomore in high school, we had a tornado outbreak and knocked out our power for 8 days. I remember seeing people playing outside and having to make their fun due to the fact that they couldn’t be entertained by technology. It caused me to realize that technology does rule our lives and that we rely on it on a daly basis.
Friedman explains this revolutionary social media experience as a result of flattening social borders due to a shared online space, horizontalization of businesses adapting to interconnected websites feeding them browser history in order to target likely customers, and the introduction of a new platform of communication for academic use.
Postman explains the compulsory recruitment of my Facebook enrollment to be explained by a social conception that connection to social media and technology is equal to being informationally savvy, that those who created Facebook also indirectly created a culture of followers that feed off of blind optimism without understanding the negative impact that social media might have on former social institutions, and that Facebook has redefined our meaning of things like “social life”, “friend”, and “status update”.
Both points of view acknowledge the destruction of former social and economic structures in the wake of technological innovation, though with each author accompanying this destruction with a different set of benefits and problems.
Friedman’s take on technological change is that as the world is made flatter, people have easier access to means of transportation, information, medical care, and consumer needs such that they can bypass former “middle man” jobs and connect directly to their end goal. For instance, Friedman uses the airplane ticket as an example to demonstrate the evolution of buying and securing a plane ticket in a way that emphasizes the eventual replacement of the airline employee with the consumer himself. One might say that in similar situations where convenience triumphed, a worker was sacrificed. If productivity is raised, though, the problem resolves itself.
Olivia, Renee, Josh
The rise of the PC, social media, and general technological development all encourage digital communication and technological globalization. That being said, Postman’s argument that there is no neutral technology is valid—there are always “winners” and “losers” as technology develops. For example, the people that are developing the technology themselves and are able to capitalize and utilize it in their day-to-day lives could be considered the “winners.” However, the people that do not have access to technology, or whose jobs have become outsourced because of technology, are the “losers.” Thus, technological development can encourage these roles in our everyday society.
That being said, there are many benefits to technological development and globalization. Social media encourages communication and collaboration between countries, which can result in a better understanding of different cultures and beliefs. Social media can also encourage social movements; for example, the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag on Twitter and the usage of Facebook has ignited a revolution. Many politicians, such as Bernie Sanders, are acknowledging the hashtag and finally recognizing the importance of African-American lives in America. The rise of technology also creates a variety of jobs available. These jobs can be anything from vlogging on YouTube, computer engineering, software programming, or web security. Thus, the unemployment rate drops.
There are also many negative aspects to technological development and globalization. Through technological development, it is easier to hack and corrupt data, and it expands the gap between first and third world countries. For example, Internet usage is hard to regulate, which makes more difficult to track illegal activities. Thus, it is more difficult to track terrorist activities; for example, ISIS has recruited a significant amount of members via online resources. Also, countries that do have ample amounts of technology, such as first world countries, are given a hefty advantage compared to those who do not. Computers allow students to learn efficiently and with a higher quality compared to students who do not have access to technology. Higher quality education can lead to a higher quality of living, which ultimately is what third world countries desire.
Hunter McGinnis
Funa Yamagishi
The globalization of technology is facilitated by a number of institutions including militaries and multinational corporations. Militaries research and develop technology mostly in private, but these developments inevitably make their way to a civilian market. Corporations in particular play this part well, as they are invested in distributing their technology as widely as possible. Anyone that can afford it can have it. As Postman states, this creates a situation of “winners” and “losers” since only those with a degree of wealth can afford to buy these technologies or develop them on their own. Those that can’t afford to do either are at a severe disadvantage. The phenomenon of exponential growth also helps this along. With every new development, future developments become much easier. This can account for massive and sudden proliferation of technology that we have seen in the last 20 years.
Postman also says that technology fundamentally affects our experiences and beliefs about the world. We have incorporated technology into all facets of life, so it comes as no surprise that it has contributed to many global issues. As previously stated, technology helps the powerful become even more powerful through unequal distribution, creating vast differences in the quality of life among nations. Military technology has become so advanced that modern warfare is almost unrecognizable from battles fought just 60 years ago. New and more devastating weaponry, better equipment, and increased intelligence have changed how battles are conducted between nations forever. Tech like automobiles and factories pollute the environment, contributing to perhaps the largest ecological threats of our time. Consequently, we have developed technology that provides clean energy to counteract this. This in particular shows that technology neither adds not subtracts from society, but fundamentally changes it. This comes with a slew of benefits and problems. Perhaps the most profound is the ease of communication between people around the world. We are experiencing unprecedented connection to people we would otherwise never meet, simply by connecting to a global infrastructure (Internet). This same infrastructure provides us with a way of shopping, banking, entertainment, and access to nearly unlimited knowledge. These are all huge developments with far reaching implications. Though generally considered positive, they come with some negative consequences. With people being more interconnected, it is easy to use someone’s information for surveillance of harm. Though our transportation and industrial complexes pollute our world, they have made living much easier in general, and in some cases are necessary for a manageable existence. It is easy to look at technological globalization and see either only good or only bad aspects, but the reality is more grey. The global proliferation of new technology has changed our world fundamentally, not just for better or worse.
Rachel Manning, Mariah Franklin, Arik Stuvek
Technology has played a vital role in increasing the overall interconnectedness between the people and places of the world, and the increasingly rapid rate of technological innovation has, in many cases, paved the way for a marked rise in global standards of living. The diffusion of technology throughout the world has facilitated immense gains in communication; it has also allowed for a more equitable dissemination information. Nevertheless, its detractors point out that technological globalization has failed to affect everyone equally, and that many of the widespread changes touted as technological triumphs have at times contributed to societal problems both old and new.
The shape of technological globalization as it exists in 2015 first began to cohere with the rise of the PC in the early nineteen-nineties. Although the history of computers begins earlier, with the PC’s most recognizable ancestors used for military purposes during the Second World War, the mass-production of personal computers by Microsoft gave technology an importance which it continues to retain, and the use of modern technology has a significant role in countless aspects of public and private life. Nearly concurrent with the development of the personal computer was the gradual evolution of the internet and, later, the invention of Netscape, a web browser which enormously simplified the process of using the internet, making it more accessible and helping to popularize its use. Within the past three decades, the development of digital technology has begun to play a substantial role in education from the elementary level to the post-secondary, with many projects dependent on its use. Many organizations have formed groups to better understand and promote technological development on a global scale, including the United Nations, which instituted the Commission for Science and Technology for Development.
The spread of technology has altered society indelibly. The most readily apparent societal change that technology has engendered is the newfound ease with which people may communicate with one another, and the popularity of technologies such as cell phones and instant messaging services has given people the ability to connect regardless of physical location. These changes have affected humanity on a global scale; news reports from the summer of 2015 revealed that Syrian refugees made frequent use of smartphones to communicate amongst themselves and locate missing relatives. The rise of social networking platforms, foremost among them Facebook and Twitter, has allowed for protests against authoritarian political regimes to take place in an ever-more organized fashion, as the Green Revolution in Iran and the Arab Spring protests aptly demonstrated. On a more mundane level, digital storage of medical records has allowed for a far more streamlined type of communication between medical professionals and their patients, lending greater efficiency to medical undertakings and helping to prevent unnecessary error. Technological globalization also has made collaborative efforts increasingly more effortless; workflow software such as Google Docs has made real-time collaboration an important aspect of research and professional life, and open-source technology such as Wikipedia has contributed to a noticeable broadening of access to information. Many universities have posted free online lectures from their institutions, and the formal barriers to education have begun to erode in a serious way. To those with access to technological innovations, technology itself might appear to be a kind of panacea.
Technological globalization has provided many with a higher quality of life, but, as its critics note, it has not only intensified numerous pre-existing societal problems – it has also created unique dilemmas of its own. While the adoption of technology brings with it the potential for heretofore impossible advances in communication and the accessibility of information, the process of creating that technology has at times contributed to entrenched societal divisions between the well-off and the poor. Mining operations within the Congo to extract resources necessary for technologies utilized by Apple, HP, and Samsung are often performed by children as young as thirteen. Similarly, the factories at which these technologies are assembled have been the subject of criticism regarding the labor conditions of their employees. Apple’s factories in China particularly have been the focus of criticism, as intolerable working conditions have led to the suicide of a number of workers. Specific to technological globalization, however, is the situation that has arisen with regards to technology’s relationship to privacy. Privacy concerns have taken on a new prominence in the wake of revelations that many Western countries have engaged in previously unheard-of amounts domestic and international spying, facilitated by the mass adoption of new communication technologies.
The progress of technology appears, for better or worse, inexorable, with the rapid pace of innovation continuing over the protests of technologically ambivalent. The development of new technology, has, in some instances, furthered the old problem of society inequity, and access to technology is becoming increasingly synonymous with opportunity, leaving those without it doubly lacking. The exploitation of communication technology for governmental data collection is striking, and suggests that enduring concepts of privacy may be nearing their ends. The positive changes that technological innovations have affected are clearly evident, but the misuses of those innovations call into question technology’s supposed ability to act as a revolutionary force. Whether technological globalization can be considered an equalizing force or an oppressive one is highly subjective, and appears likely to become progressively more polarizing as it continues.