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.

http://www.solarnavigator.net/solarnavigator.htm

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.