The term globalization evokes various meanings for different people. It can mean the integration of economic systems across multiple nations. Some may think of globalization as the ease of the spread of information over a short period of time. Globalization has brought the world closer to each other in many ways. One of the factors that aid globalization is the invention of the World Wide Web. It has become such a staple in developed communities and societies that can afford the infrastructure.
With connections being made across the globe, social media also plays a large role in connecting people from different corners of the world together. With sites like Twitter and Instagram, anyone can keep up with what their favorite actor is wearing, or what their favorite singer is doing that day.
Applications that share pictures and text (Twitter) have been around for some time now, and it is well integrated into people’s lives. Whenever someone has some free time on their hands, they can often be found checking out the latest on Twitter or Instagram.
Recently, there have been live streaming applications that allow people look
in on what others are doing. Basically how this works is that the program is connected to your twitter account. You would be “broadcasting” an event or something you were doing at the time, and your Twitter followers could watch the live stream. That, to me, is a little strange and opens up opportunities for bad things to happen. Although it may be true that what people can or can’t see is up to the owner (broadcaster), and there are very cool opportunities of how the app can be used, it can encourage stalking behavior. Also, with many hackers roaming around the Internet, what is to say that someone without permission will get to see what is being broadcasted? Applications like Meerkat and Periscope allow others to see live broadcasts of your daily activities and comment in real time. These applications seem to be bringing us closer and closer to each other. How close is too close? What will be the next new app craze?