Global Village
Although it sounds like some sort of 21st century buzzword that’s merely bandied around by telecommunications, marketing and sales companies, the term ‘Global Village’ actually has a much more theoretical meaning, one that resonates significantly with our daily lives and experiences of interaction. The term originates with Marshall McLuhan in his books The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man (1962) and Understanding Media (1964). Writing over 50 years ago McLuhan described a means of communicating via technology where the radio and telephone would become our ears, and the television and computer our eyes, connecting people over distances further reaching than their physical ability. McLuhan explained that these technologies would connect people across the globe in such a way that the world would become one mass connected pan-continental village.
McLuhan predicted an ‘extension of consciousness’ where information is shared across electrical and technological systems in such an intricate, constant and normalized way – arguably McLuhan predicted the internet culture of the modern day. The ‘world wide web’ allows individuals and communities across the world to communicate instantly, with loved ones or perfect strangers. Physical distance, it seems, is no longer a barrier so long as you have an internet connection.
I think that the advent of technology, particularly online, has created a sense of this ‘global village’. I have friends who live in far flung places of the world who I communicate more frequently with than those who live in the same city. I have friendships that have lasted over distances because we are able to connect regularly online and continue a sense of shared experience and community. However, I also find that this inter-connectivity makes the unknown or unconnected seem captivatingly different. Cultures that have not embraced digital technology have it imposed upon them, as documentary crews and journalists arrive to create a web-series to educate the rest of us. Almost like there is a sense of entitlement. Or rather, the global village is not optional, which is a wee bit frightening if you think about it.
(Oh, and it also the name of a mega mall shopping complex, of course)