Global Village: A smaller or larger world with Tech
Think about a time when the population of people in the world was just about a 100? Not the movie. Gradually, it became a thousand to a million, a billion and maybe now, we are even more. But now the question is, with the evolution of the use of technology in communications, away from the numbers, has the world gotten smaller or larger with tech?
According to Wikipedia, the world population was estimated to have reached 7.6billion as at December 2017 and may get 11.8billion by 2100(United Nations).This is about 6.5% of the total number of people ever born.
Technology has broken the distance barrier—at this point, we can describe tech as a major innovation that has defined civilization. Now we can clearly communicate with other people, thousands of miles beyond our physical reach. What a small world, don’t you think?
Recently, I overheard a conversation between two passengers on their thoughts about tech turning the world to either a smaller or a larger community. This necessitated this article.
One of them cited the example of the Whatsapp video call, he argued that it had made the world a smaller entity, as he could hear and see his distant cousin without having to travel down to China via whatsapp video call- “tech is fucking mad, the world don turn small’ he said.
While the other friend, a lady, countered the position, “small ke-it has made it larger”, she argued. She said that the increase in technological inventions has made the world a bigger place. Bigger and bigger due to new inventions and innovations…but I wonder, do you really feel the world is bigger with tech?
Well, a confused me kept ruminating over this—has tech made the world larger or smaller? In the quest for an answer, a chat ensued with Oluwagbuyi Abimbola, a software engineer in Planet NEST.
“Small of course”, he said.
“You don’t know how interesting and easy it can be to connect with others who are miles away from you… like the next-door neighbour.”, he added.
To buttress his opinion, he said “stress can’t be found in tech”. He gave an illustration using the library, juxtaposing how tech has changed the conventional means of getting information about some topics.
“How stressful do you think it would be if one still goes all around a library seeking information from books – archaic at times. Google has solved this. Even in language learning, Google translate avails you the opportunity to know the meaning of words in languages you don’t understand. So dope!” -Oluwagbuyi Abimbola
Although, I know a lot of the paper books people will still argue. I respect your wishes but shey you will consider the possibility of this thought as revolutionary?
“Using just data subscription or even hotspot, you can be engaged in a business meeting via Skype for as long as you want. This has said NO to travelling cost and stress. Connectivity in tech has made the world smaller”
– Lawal Oluwatosin.
Falua Temitope opined that “tech has in no way made the world bigger. In fact, it has compressed it.” Why? “It has helped the world see the possibility of compressing an action or event, which can cost you miles to achieve by bringing it to the tip of the finger.”
People say tech has made the world a global village—at least we should agree on one thing, it is a village with ready communication access with no distance barrier, even outer space—but what do you think, a larger or smaller village?
