Globalisation and the Cultural Flow Through the eyes of my Japanese Grandmother

Before the internet, before mobile phones, before the world was a little more accepting of other cultures, before Justin Bieber ruined music, the world was quite a different place according to my Japanese grandmother. 

Using my mobile phone, I gave a (very expensive) call to my 81 year old Japanese Grandmother on the topic of how globalization, media and the cultural flow has and will continue to affect her life. Globalization is defined by Giddens as “the intensification of world-wide social relations, which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa.’ (Rantanen, 2005). This involves the clashing and merging of a variety of other cultures, something my grandmother wanted to point out the most on the topic of globalization.

 

She explained to me that when she was young there was almost no cultural diversity in Japan. People who were not Japanese was seen as “different” and didn’t fit in. I asked her why this was the case and she explained to me that this was not an act of racism, but this was because she and most Japanese people living in that time did not know any information about other culture and thus found it hard to make a connections with other people. She continued to explain to me that information on different cultures was hard to obtain in her time, and she said she envied my generation for having instant information about anything literally only a click away from our fingers.

(This is not my grandmother, she is just an example of how Globalization has effected everyone)

As my grandmother continued to explain to me that because of globalization, the media has helped the world become one by contributing to the growth of information of other cultures, and thanks to internet sites such as Facebook, Skype and Google, the world has become a GlobalVillage. She now does not see people that are not Japanese as different but sees them as just another ordinary person like herself. She believes that media has shaped the world into a global community and the world has morphed into one. 

Now we have a free and unlimited source of any information and we can contact anyone from nearly anywhere in seconds. As my grandmother stated we should use this amazing privilege wisely and responsibly...right after i make fun of my friends over Facebook.  

P.S

My Grandmother also said she liked to point out that religion was much more accepted in her time, apparently before Google was around people use to go to god for answers.

References:

Rantanen, T 2005, ‘Theorizing media and globalization’, Media and globalization 2005, Sage Publications, London, pp. 1-18
Link:
Link 1: http://www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/10/globalization-developed-countries.asp
Link 2: http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/global-village.htm
Image:
Image 1: https://sites.google.com/site/sarkona/globalization-large.jpg
Image 2: http://exposedplanet.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/globalisation-tibet-nike-woman.jpg