The World Can be Flat
Friedman, in Chapter 2 of The World Is Flat, describes the 12 items or perhaps phenomenon that helped trim the globe and added to the still-globalizing world. The tenth flattener, in his opinion, would be the “steroids” of the globalization method. His realization of this stemmed from his visit to Japan, when his friend Jim Brooke was employing his laptop via wifi connection, when travelling over a high-speed bullet train. His beliefs of how vast Japan’s virtual sites were proved when Brooke’s colleague Jake Zaun was using his Japanese mobile phone, which was capable of connecting to the Internet no matter where he was. This leads to Friedman making note showing how greatly extensive and successful Japan and Ghana’s cellular coverage sites were when compared with those that had been present in America, adding to the “amazing amount of wireless penetration and connectivity” (160) present in Japan as well as the rest of the community today. Friedman then cites examples of how new age technical has made everyday life easier for people in a wide range of situations.
All of this is caused by the “steroids” within technical development which may have pushed globalization beyond their previous restrictions. They are all regarded as being the technological “steroids” more recently because “they are increasing and turbocharging all the other flatteners” (161), including the state of constant improvement”allowing tech to operate at more affordable, faster prices than before, the introduction of file-sharing”leading to improved linkage and effort between people across nations, the invention of multipurpose devices”in which gadgets are more efficient and able of doing these days (“your Internet-enabled camera cellphone is not just a camera, additionally it is a copy machine, with throughout the world distribution material” (170), as Friedman states), the VoIP”voiceover internet protocol service, providing a newer, cheaper, more personal way in which text messages can be provided, breakthrough improvements in videoconferencing”making business communications much easier plus more efficient, and a lot importantly, the creation of wireless networking”giving us a chance to drop things and then opt for them back up anywhere.
This section relates to the whole of Chapter a couple of as it explores how these kinds of technological “steroids” are leading all the other flatteners and impacting them as well. It is also acknowledged that, without these steroids, most of the other flatteners would not become as designed as they are today. I wholly agree with Friedman’s observations and conclusions, as much of technology as you may know it today is consistently being developed based on the stated steroids. These are the driving pushes within contemporary society, through organization competition and consumer needs, that are driving various businesses to reach for new heights with their products. Since more of the products become more attainable to more people, the earth will always “flatten”, to quote Friedman, with the regularly expanding systems through which the positive effect will still spread.
