Elijah Hollowell
Application Assignment #2
For the majority of humanity’s existence, its members were in a state of relative isolation. Cut off by physical (mountains, deserts, oceans, etc.) and ideological (religion and politics barriers, the liberalization of mankind’s values and morals has been a slow and crawling process. However, advances in technology and, more specifically, communication technology has rapidly sped up this process. The technological advances have also had other major effects on the sociological landscape of the world as a whole. The creation of consumer cultures along with the global economy, the spike in informationalism, and the varying structures of different nations has completely changed how each and every group of people goes about their daily lives and coexists with one another.
Globalization is defined as the flow of cultural, political, and economic characteristics between regions and other types of borders. Globalization affects multiple aspects of my life. Through my use of social media, communication between myself and people of different cultural backgrounds, ethnicities, and nationalities is instant and quite commonplace. My enrollment at a major public university has an effect on communication similar to that of social media, the main difference being the contact is face-to-face. In a more general perspective, plenty of the products (food, clothes, gasoline) I purchase are imported from other regions of the world.
When speaking of globalization, a term that is often thrown out is “global culture.” This simply refers to cultural aspects that can apply the world as a whole. With the United States being a cultural hub of sorts, Americanization has had a marked effect on global culture. Americanization occurs when other nations appropriate aspects of American culture into their own native culture. I personally believe that the evolution of global culture and the evolution of Americanization in regards to social media are really one in the same. My opinion on this based in the fact that the United States is different from every other country in the world in that its purpose is to be a refuge for people from all parts of the world in order to seek freedom and opportunity. Theoretically, American culture should be reflective of global culture. This also gives credence to the idea that cultural hybridization has a firm hold on the existence of social media.
As you evaluate the effects that global culture and Americanization have on individuals around the world, one major avenue to explore is the global economy. In the United States, a consumer culture has taken hold and dominates the daily lives of Americans, and because of Americanization, the daily lives of people all over the world. A consumer culture is a culture that is deeply rooted in commercialization which is the use of a servi...
