The world is indeed, closer in our time than it was some centuries back. Globalization is the connectedness and interdependence of nations or cultures around the world for economic and technological purposes. One can trace this agenda to bringing the world closer to the period around the 15th century when Christopher Columbus went on voyage to discover the cultures. The discovery of silk, spices and whatnot encouraged more voyage to Asia and other continents.
Globalization has helped in diverse ways. In this post, I will take you through what effects globalization has on our culture.
Socio-Economic Changes
Our world is now a small unit despite the large land mass. This is one importance or resultant effect of globalization. On the political front, from the time of Mungo Park and other explorers who came to see how other parts of the world were fairing, we have been induced with a different system of governance, though keeping our culture intact. Democracy, which is the most popular style of government in our time, was promoted by the forces of globalization, such as human rights and the United Nations Declaration for Human Dignity. It is also through globalization that we have learned a new economic system through which our national economic problems could be solved. There is no doubt in the fact that globalization has brought about these new ideas and it has widespread effects around the world.
Before now, language barrier has been a stumbling block in commerce and inter-relations but that isn't an issue any more.
Industrial Advancement
Discovery of machines in the twentieth century has brought about a high change in the manufacturing industries. Nations of the world, including those on the African continent have taken a cue from the effects. Hence, high quality products like automobiles, textile, software and hardware can be seen on a large scale. This is another important effect of globalization.
Before now,in Nigeria where I hail from, only the crude and primitive methods were used for production.
For instance, to cook our foods, we have to burn woods but now, with the aid of gas cookers and even electric cookers, life has become a lot easier than it was in the past.
Another area where globalization has really helped is in the mass production of consumer goods, heavy duty machines and tools, electronic appliances and so on. If you ask me, I simply tell you that globalization is the best gift that Africa received from the world, especially from Europe and America.
Such goods are cheap likewise. This is owing to the competition that has resulted from globalization. Finished goods from different nations that are moved to other nations are bought per price. Therefore, individuals now have more than one option to choose from, which makes it easier to get what the individual wants, considering the available money with him or her.
Cultural Diffusion or Cross Culture
A closer look at our traditional culture, one will see that there is a little drift from what operated in the time of our forefathers from what operates now. There has been some sort of diffusion of other cultures into other cultures.
Typically speaking, it is through globalization that a man from Germany would suggest to study the Igbo language and also learn how to beat the Igbo drums and learn to cook the Igbo delicacies. Same goes for an average African. He wants to learn to dress in the European style, or sing the music of other ethnicities.
Transportation and Travel
The movement of people, goods and services have been made very smooth and easy with globalization via technological advancement.
In my study of History, I learned that explorers like Henry Townsend, Mary Slessor, Bernard Bourdillon, Mungo Park, Christopher Columbus and many others travelled the sea under very risky conditions. With boats or wooden ships, they searched for cheap labour and to introduce western cultures to other parts of the world, Asia and Africa in particular.
The movement of consumer goods from place of manufacturing to where they are highly needed has become very fast. For example, the ships that sail our seas are not burning coal or locomotive engines to run. And the time for which the goods are delivered have reduced drastically.
On the other hand, globalization has also helped the movement of passengers from one place to another through aeroplanes, ships and motor vehicles.
There are so many cases where individuals may decide to live outside their place of birth or origin. This is just like how we have a lot of Portuguese who live in Jos Plateau in Nigeria. Likewise, we have a lot of Nigerians living and working and even participating in the local politics of their host communities across Europe and the Americas.
More insightful evidence of the effect of globalization is the use of the internet. This is one thing that has brought us closer than anything else. Using Hive as a case study, you will find out that people from across the globe, even as far as Australia are present here. It would amaze you to learn that there are folks from Bulgaria like @projectmamagb, from Spain, Croatia, Ghana, Nigeria, the USA and the United Kingdom. This indeed some of the effects of globalization on my country as it cuts across other nations of the world.
The End
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You shared really good points about what Globalization has contributed in our lives as humans.
You just reminded me of how life was when I had to prepare meals with firewood the last time I stayed with grandma 😃 it wasn't easy to use it really, eyes kept aching me lol.
Good thing, we have awesome gadgets now thanks to Globalization.
But now, the tide has changed. Everything has become wireless, all thanks to globalization. Even our phones are wireless.
Yeah, that's right
The cooking aspect is really true. I remembered when gas finished at home and my mum chose to use charcoal instead of gas. I could see the stress she went through using charcoal to cook. it is not as easy and stress-free as using gas. One reason why I appreciate globalization.
Globalization for me is the influence of one culture over the other. It is not necessarily an advanced culture.
There are typical examples of some individuals from a more advanced culture who have attempted to learn the strokes of a primitive but learnable culture.
The cooking stuff came with so much ease. That is one influence too good to forget when talking about globalization.
Looking at manufacturing, globalization has play a vital role as well. The mega machines and equipment, courtesy of technology via globalization has made production easy for mankind. I can't imagine trekking for a long distance had it been we are cut of with the transportation we enjoy today. Our forefathers suffered indeed
There are many positive impact just like u mentioned above and the cooking part is what every lady of today's generation can relate with. I crave for more development
Development will not stop at what we have seen so far. What we see are a level of development in our time may be outdated in the nearest future.
So far, globalization has made life easy. We have been able to imbibe new culture and some other people have taken our culture as something spectacular and are living the dream.