The shrinking world
People often say the world is 'getting smaller'. The planet is the same size it always was. What has changed is how easily people, goods and ideas move between places, so that great distances matter much less than they used to. Today you can video call someone on the other side of the world, work on a shared project with people on another continent, or travel to almost any country.
The process by which people and places around the world become more interconnected, driven by developments in transport, communications and trade.
Globalisation appears to be speeding up. The main reason is the internet, which plays a bigger part in daily life every year and lets people connect with others anywhere on Earth.
Internet access is not spread evenly. In January 2015 the share of people using the internet in each region was:
- North America 88%, West Europe 81%, Oceania 69%
- East Europe 58%, South America 56%, East Asia 51%
- Central America 43%, Central Asia 38%, Middle East 36%
- Southeast Asia 33%, Africa 26%, South Asia 19%
The global average was 42%, so fewer than half of the world's people were online.
Compare two regions. In North America almost nine people in every ten used the internet. In South Asia it was fewer than one in five.
Someone in South Asia without access would find it much harder to video call relatives abroad, find information for school or sell goods to customers in other countries.
This matters because the internet is one of the main ways people take part in globalisation. Regions with low access gain less from a more connected world, which means the 'shrinking world' is smaller for some people than for others.
9 more sections in this topic
Pick this up in your Library: it holds the whole topic, notes, cheatsheet and questions.