Essay Globalization

Essay: Globalization

The pros and the cons of Virtual life created by globalization:

We are the Y generation, who today cannot live without constantly checking our cell phones to see if a text message has been received, updating our Facebook status or visiting our Twitter account… Globalization’s phenomenon has led to a massive development of communications; particularly social medianetworks, but also online games, dating sites etc… This has turned our real world into a kind of virtual world. This virtual world that counts numerous followers has benefits but also harmful effects; that’s what I’m going to tackle at present, dealing with the positive points of this technology in our societies in the first part, and finally the negative ones in the second part.

To start with,before exploring the positives effects, let’s define the concept of ‘the virtual world’. The word virtual began to denote something created by computer networks, related to computers and the internet. A long line of new words have been coined to define new things and phenomena of the virtual world just to oppose the real reality like virtual friends, virtual family, virtual cash, avatars… Therefore,we find this virtual environment through social networks, but also online video games or dating sites, and according to the number of users of these technologies nowadays, there are obviously many good reasons to use it. First of all, globalization has aided the communications media’s development; a fall of the frontiers where people using Facebook, Twitter or even World of Warcraft (video games)can easily speak with people from all over the world. News, ideas, music, videos and fashion can be exchanged with a simple click of mouse. That’s a real transfer of culture which operates thanks to these ways of communication and consequently globalization. But this is not the only reason why billions of teenagers use social media networks. These technologies could be considered as a source ofpersonal development, i.e. developing oneself behind a computer, writing a blog, playing in a game or creating an avatar. We can be anyone we want to be, it’s no longer a question of shyness; by way of example, when I was a child, I was quite introverted and found it very difficult to speak to people, but as I have grown up during the process of globalization, I’ve seen the birth of socialnetworks and all the other ways to express ourselves on the Internet, and I have to admit that it really has helped me; it has been a tool to make me more friendly and open-minded. Moreover, websites like “VirtualLife.com” make it possible for people to create their own avatar in whatever form they wish, in the idea of living a virtual life they imagine as the perfect life. This may seem useless andridiculous, but for many people, it appears like a helping hand, something like a salvation. Indeed, “Second Life” offers a very positive experience to people, especially with regard to understanding disabilities and offering opportunities to those with disabilities. For example, as a student, Niels Schuddeboom travelled to Australia and was a reporter in Sydney for the 2000 Paralympics Games. Basedin the university city of Utrecht in the Netherlands, he was confined to a wheelchair and was forced to drop out of his media course due to an uncompromising academic regime that was unable to work around his physical disabilities. Known as Niles Sopor in “Second Life”, Niels has found an opportunity to forget his disability and experience walking life through his avatar. "Perhaps the mostprofound difference I have experienced is that people have treated me differently" he said. "In real life, due to my wheelchair and lack of physical coordination, people often regard me as intellectually as well as physically disabled." . Second Life has offered Niels the opportunity to break the mould. Another point on which we could look into is the issue of security; how reassuring to know that...