Global Village in the Modern World

Marshall McLuhan’s Global Village theory states that greater availability of connection created by increasing communication technology causes a sociological phenomenon of cultures becoming smaller as they bond together. At the time McLuhan was alluding to the early development of the computer, but his theory is still applicable to the status of cultures in the modern world. The development of social media technologies gives the users access to social or informational contact at a finger's reach, resulting in extremes of McLuhan’s theory. Cultures are interchanged every second through the internet, which cultivates its own culture entirely, mirroring the effect McLuhan predicted. Thus making an individual’s cultural identity reliant on their own intersectional connection to others on their device rather than those around them. This conjoining of cultures is socially isolating, because even though there are connections being made, there is a severe lack of in-person connection in comparison. So, McLuhan’s theory of a global village is sadly true, and very prominent in today’s world.