Do you ever wonder what it would be like to have been alive about 100 years ago and then somehow frozen, like Brendan Fraser in Encino Man or something, only to be unfrozen now? Because I think about that all the time. Maybe this is a self-centered way of looking at things, but this has to be the strangest point in human history. We are seriously living in the cosmic age, the future our grandparents read about except without hover cars (damn it). While laptop computers, iPhones, and robotic limbs are becoming all the more normal to us, this was all once-upon-a-time the stuff of science-fiction. Thanks to globalization, we live in a world that is oddly interconnected, and civilizations that used to be worlds apart, are united within seconds via fiber optics and satellites. Everything is increasing at such a rapid pace, and though I consider myself pretty tech-savvy, I can hardly keep up.

This technological and cultural phenomenon has yielded radically mixed results, sociologically speaking. On the one hand, we see in Roger Chao’s “Modernizing China” that globalization has led to something like a sexual revolution in the East, affording women and men more agency in their romantic lives. While this all seems fine and dandy, he also cites an increase in poverty-stricken women turning to prostitution. It has also definitely lent a hand to an alarming sexual phenomenon here in the States, as well; the January 2009 issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine featured a study on Myspace and teens, citing over 20 percent of teens’ Myspace pages displaying references to sex, and about four percent publically revealing sexual behaviors. Are we just working out the kinks (no pun intended), or are we completely debasing humanity?

One benefit of globalization is the amazing amount of information available to (almost) anyone. But sometimes it seems like there’s almost too much information, leading to the media morphing into this giant manipulative, spectacle-producing machine. When it comes to current events, it’s difficult to decipher the truth, and often we have to read between the lines of “fair and balanced” journalism to find it, and even then, it’s uncertain. In Kevin Bednarz’s “A Continuing Conflict,” the media’s role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is explored. The fact that we even know about a war happening across the globe is one thing, but we have to get this information through so many filters that it becomes difficult to understand the situation honestly—to know what’s sensationalized and what’s real. We aren’t there. We aren’t seeing this story through our own eyes, and even those who are there are getting mixed information through a media outlet that is often emotionally charged and politically aligned.

So where do we go from here? At this point, globalization is irreversible. It’s effects on Third World nations, and the “Westernization” that has followed is already a moment in history. For all its evils, is it impossible to say that globalization could harness the capacity to enact good on the world? I don’t necessarily have an answer, but it seems like tools like the internet and all digital media, if put into the hands of those who need them most, could be powerful tools for organization and communication. Just some food for thought.

I think the students at the end of Bednarz’s article have the right idea. In order to stay afloat in this quickly evolving world, we have to keep ourselves informed. The more outlets one gets their media from, the easier it gets to spot bias. So, yeah, that means maybe you shouldn’t rely on Generation exclusively for your news on current events (and whether you agree with me or not, you really, really shouldn’t rely on Generation for anything, believe me). Pick up a New York Times or a USA Today, both of which are available for free on campus. The internet has made news easier than ever. Set up a Google Reader and RSS feed all of the major publications. Who would have thought that the solution to understanding and keeping up with globalization would be something as archaic as reading? Well, as the great LeVar Burton says, “You don’t have to take my word for it.”