The Global Impact of
Technology
Concepts and Definitions
The Global Village
A phrase invented by a Canadian
professor Marshall McLuhan in 1962.
Refers to the idea that modern
communications and transportation
technologies have created a “smaller
world” that is like a large village.
Just like in a village news can travel
around the world quite literally in the blink
of an eye by the internet.
This means that we have a much greater
awareness of people’s lives in other parts
or the world than ever before… and they
are more aware of us and our lifestyles.
Time-Space Compression
The impression that distances between two locations have decreased because of the advances in communications and transportation technology.
Halifax to London
1800s: 1-2 weeks (sailing ship)
1920: 5-7 days (diesel power engines)
2011: 5 hours (jet plane) 1 second via webcam
This phenomenon is even more true when
we consider the speed at which
information travels.
Until 1835(the invention of the telegraph)
information traveled as fast as the person
carrying the letter.
The telegraph was the first time that
information travelled along wires and could go
much faster than people.
In today’s “Information Age” knowledge,
data and news can be sent around the
globe in seconds.
MSN chatting with someone in Japan is as
easy as chatting with the person next door.
This is also true for jobs that use digital
information. Partners can be working together
anywhere in the world using programs like
GoogleDocs.
This means that for many technology
based jobs North Americans and
Europeans will have to compete with
people from Asia:
India has the largest English speaking
population in the world and is closely
followed by China.
GLOBAL INEQUALITIES
One of the greatest changes that
technology has created in the past 50
years is the increasing gap between the
richest and poorest countries in the global
village.
http://www.globalrichlist.com/
1960
The richest 20% of
the population
controlled 70% of the
global wealth
2010
The top 10% of the
world's population
owned 85% of global
wealth.
The bottom 50% own
only 1% of the world’s
wealth.
40% of the world’s population live on less than $2.00 a day
More than 870 million people suffer from hunger and malnutrition,
783 million people do not have access to clean drinking water
2.5 billion people do not have access to improved sanitation/toilet
POVERTY kills 21 000 children everyday.
http://www.makepovertyhistory.ca/e/video2.html
World on fire
SHIFT HAPPENS
Did you know
Miniature Earth
If the world was a village 1
If the word were a village 2
NORTH-SOUTH GAP
The 10% of the world’s population
that controls the 85% of the wealth
lives almost exclusively in the
Northern Hemisphere (N.A. ,Europe
and Asia).
New Zealand and Australia are the
exceptions
This is called the North-South
Gap which is the term applied to
the great difference between the
richest and poorest nations and
their relative locations.
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