In the past, a journey from Singapore to Thailand may take months and years but presently, the time taken to travel from Singapore to Thailand will not take more than half a day. In the past, people had to leave their homes at least 2 hours earlier so as to be able to walk to their workplace in time however now, the trip from their homes to the workplace takes less than an hour by car. The use of phones nowadays allows people to be able to contact with each other easily and television and radio channels allow people to know the happenings in the world. Present technology has made everything so accessible that the time requires for something to be done is much lesser. This is present in almost everywhere, globalization.
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Airplanes are one of the most important discoveries done by man. In the past, if I were to ask people to travel from Singapore to America in less than 2 days, people might think that I am crazy. But this is possible with the creation of airplanes. Airplanes reduce the time taken needed tremendously and also reduce the danger of traveling overseas. In the past, traveling from the west to the east requires much more time as people either walk or make use of an animal to travel however, it is a total different situation in today society. Imagine if you were to walk from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, you will just faint upon hearing it, not even mentioning walking to further countries. As airplanes were not invented still, people have to rely on their legs to travel from one part of the world to the other. The journey may take years and people may die in between due to hunger, dehydration, diseases etc. It is not easy for people to travel around. This clearly shows that in the past, the world is so big that years are required just to travel from one end to the other but in today society, with the use of technology, the world is not as big and traveling require much lesser time. Technology has enabled people to be able to travel around the world, seeing different parts of the world, knowing different kinds of people and appreciating different types of culture present in other countries. Technology has therefore benefited people as people can understand each other better and be able to know more new interesting things. Cars are quite similar to airplanes as it shortens the time needed to travel from one place to the other.
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Phone is another important invention for man as it allows people to be able to contact each other easily. Image if you were to meet your friend in school but she did not turn up after waiting for half an hour. Without having handphone, how would you have settle the problem? Would you wait for her or would you just leave and don’t bother about her? At that moment, you will realize the importance of handphones as with handphones, you can easily contact her and know what actually happens. Handphone is a device that is portable and useful under these circumstances. People are able to contact each other under emergency situations allowing people to be aware of the situation they are in. Technology therefore benefits people by being able to keep in touch in far distance. Phones nowadays can send picture messages to friends and able to chat, using the 3G phones, looking at the other party surroundings. So if you have gone to somewhere interesting, you can easily let other people have a look too through this function. Phones therefore come in handy to many people. It indirectly shrinks the world as even if the distance is far, people are still able to communicate with one another easily.
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Media has also made our life more interesting. For most people, they spend their free time watching tv programmes or listening to radios. With advanced technology, it is possible to enjoy shows produced in any part of the world. News is played through television and radio to educate the public about the happenings around the world. People are able to know the natural disasters that happen within a day through news. People can also learn interesting facts about nature through documentaries. All these programmes that I have just mentioned are happening all over the world but with modern technology tools, we can obtain them just by switching on the television or the radio. This is another example of how technology has shrunk the world. In the past, people rarely know what is really happening out there as the information obtain will be months or years later and these are not reliable. But as time passes, with these technology tools, people are able to obtain these information in less than a day. This is the drastic difference as it clearly shows how men have shrunk the world allowing people to know happenings in much faster time.
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Therefore to conclude, technology has shrunk the world as people are able to use shorter time to be able to communicate, travel and obtain news around the world. The distance has not changed over the time but it has seems that the time needed has reduced tremendously. That is why technology has control over the world system as men can easier travel from one part of the global to the other. M en have somehow be able to know everything around the world.
Technological Expert,
Michelle Ng.
