A village is known as a village located in a rural area, which has a very small number of houses and inhabitants. Global, on the other hand, is what refers to the globe or to a group.
The idea of a global village was developed by Canadian Marshall McLuhan (1911 – 1980). This Canadian sociologist and philosopher played with two terms that seem contradictory (the village is somewhat local, on a small scale, while the global refers to the entire world) to explain the consequences of the development of the mass media.
Simplifying his theories, we could say that, for McLuhan, planet Earth became a kind of enormous village since people, thanks to television, radio and other media, can find out at any time what is happening anywhere. In this way, the entire Humanity functions as a village, where the villagers can find out what happens immediately thanks to the reduced dimensions of the environment where they live.
McLuhan maintains that the development of this global village modified the human being in its essence, since it altered from the way of communicating to the social organization. In the global village, even, symbolic questions may have more value than real ones. An example of this is that a war, to cite a case, is not simply won by force on the battlefield, but must also be won in the media so that society knows and understands that a victory was obtained.
The global village supposes the disappearance of the physical distances to generate knowledge. The immense amount of information available, on the other hand, implies that people access only a small part: that which is cut out and decided to be shown by the mass media.
Many are the defenders and also the detractors that the global village has. Hence, the former consider that it is very important because it has allowed us to enjoy advantages such as these:
-We are more informed than ever, thanks to elements such as the Internet.
-We can establish communication directly and immediately through different means with people who are in another part of the world.
-We have become culturally rich because we have access to the ways of understanding life, traditions and norms of any country. In other words, there is a more than remarkable cultural exchange that is gratifying for everyone.
-New technologies have allowed everything from achieving important scientific advances to developing sectors such as the economy.
In the same way, there are also many people who absolutely speak out against the global village. They position themselves this way because they consider that it has brought with it numerous disadvantages, such as these:
-It has significantly increased contamination.
-Over the values, the feelings and the principles the consumerism society has prevailed, where it seems that “you have so much, so much worth”, as a song by Manolo García says.
-In order to become more powerful, there is no hesitation in “stepping” on the most disadvantaged countries in order to get the wealth they may have.
-New criminals have emerged, such as cyber bullies.
-Ancient traditions and customs are being lost, as well as face-to-face communication in favor of that carried out through the Network.
