About this video
This unit overview introduces globalization: the way the world has become more connected economically, politically, socially and culturally over time. Using Millennials, the first generation to grow up with the internet, it explains how the last few decades became an era of intensive globalization, then weighs its benefits (cheaper goods, shared culture, faster spread of ideas) against its dangers (inequality, exploitation, environmental damage, loss of local cultures, fragile supply chains and disease).
You'll be able to
- define globalization and explain why the last few decades are called an era of intensive globalization.
- describe how the internet made generational culture more global.
- list benefits and dangers of intensive globalization.
Key words
- globalization
- The process by which the world becomes more connected economically, politically, socially and culturally over time.
- social generation
- A group of people who came of age consuming the same culture and using the same technology, like Boomers, Millennials or Zoomers.
- intensive globalization
- The recent era in which global connections have become more frequent, more extensive and more impactful than ever before.
- interdependent
- Depending on each other, so a problem in one place can quickly affect others.
Transcript
Millennials are old. Not as old as Gen X and not nearly as old as Boomers, but way older than Zoomers or Gen Alpha. Millennials were also the first generation to grow up with the internet. And that made their lives different. Most importantly, it made their lives more global.
Labels like Boomers and Millennials and Zoomers refer to something called social generations, groups of people who came of age reading watching and consuming the same culture and using the same technology. But until Millennials, those shared cultural cues were mostly confined to one country. There were some cultural values that went global, like blue jeans and The Beatles, during the youth of the Boomer generation. But overall, each country held distinct generational patterns. Then came the internet. The internet was born on January 1st, 1983—right alongside Millennials. Suddenly, people could communicate instantaneously across the world. As technology improved, the internet spread and grew. Innovations in video, music and social media
allow the millennial generation to go global for the first time, sharing common cultural experiences no matter their country of residence. The result was an era of intensive globalization. What is globalization? Globalization refers to how the world has become more connected economically, politically, socially and culturally over time. It's a process that's been going on for centuries. But it intensified during industrialization. Globalization slowed at times, like during the global conflicts of the 20th century. But in general, the trend has been towards an increasingly interconnected world. However, the last three or four decades of world history have been an era of unprecedented globalization.
As our connections have become more frequent, more extensive and have produced bigger impacts. How has this era of intensive globalization affected people differently around the world? What are the benefits and dangers of intensive globalization? The connections forged by intensive globalization have brought us lots of good things. Some are physical objects: Electronics, consumer goods and local food and drinks move all over the world for people to enjoy—often cheaper than we can make them at home. Industrialization has combined with globalization to give more people access to more stuff from more places, more cheaply than ever before. And then there's culture. Mexican Telenovelas, movies from Bollywood and Nollywood, K-Pop and Japanese
Anime have joined Hollywood films and YouTube influencers as essential parts of the global cultural landscape. Cross-cultural exchange has always moved ideas as well as goods. And in this period of intensive globalization, the internet speeds up the transfer of ideas, research and scientific knowledge—all accessible at the click of a button, accelerating the pace of innovation.
Yet as you will learn, globalization is not inherently good. in addition to its benefits, globalization has also produced inequality, exacerbated the economic exploitation of people in less wealthy regions and taken an enormous environmental toll through the production, transportation and shipping of goods and services around the world. Globalization also has the potential to erase local cultures and to raise tensions and conflict. When those conflicts erupt, or natural disasters intensify, our globally interconnected interdependent economies and systems of production and distribution can quickly become compromised. Finally, the ease with which people and goods can move across the oceans and continents has also made it easier for diseases to
spread more rapidly than ever. We're living in an era of intensive globalization and it presents us with many challenges. But these challenges aren't insurmountable. Our globalized generations today can choose to leverage the opportunities of our interconnections to overcome the challenges we've created. Young people today are as likely to share a favorite food or TV show, or ownership of a product, or even a set of social values with someone their age in another country, as they are with someone in their own own country. These connections might offer today's younger Global Generations a great deal of power and influence over how conversations and policies unfold. The future is likely to be even more globalized. Your generation will define its
direction. Will you embrace its opportunities or surrender to its challenges? Will we create a world of walls separating the wealthy "haves" from the "have-nots" who struggle to meet their basic needs? Will we continue exploiting the environment to produce and distribute the things we need? Or will your generation build a global future that sees us all knit together in a tapestry of prosperous sustainable healthy and connected communities?
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