Should Globalization Shape Identity?

Globalization shouldn’t shape identity because many people would start to speak the same language. This could be a big problem because if we lose many different languages then we would lose a part of our history/ heritage. An example of this would be, if the French culture stopped speaking French and started speaking English only then the French language would “die out”. Eventually no one would be able to speak French or even read it. Therefore we would lose whatever historic things we had in French because the younger generations wouldn’t know what it was or the importance of it either.

Globalization shouldn’t change our identity or anything, but it should connect the world together better. Globalization only affects and shapes your identity as much as you allow it to. Millions of people worldwide allow globalization to shape their identity. A good example of how globalization affects and shapes other people around the world would be McDonalds™. They are a transnational corporation, so people over in China or even in Dominican Republic can have American fast food.

But the McDonalds™ doesn’t serve any of their cultural food, therefore this affects their identity because then they will start eating a different cultural food instead of their own. This could also be a form of assimilation. Globalization doesn’t really shape my identity, but in some ways it does. For example, I find it a lot easier to just dress in American Eagle clothing then actually finding out about my heritage back around and wearing traditional/ cultural clothing.

I also fit in with other people a lot better than if I were to wear cultural clothing because it’s what everyone wears or knows.

This also shapes others identity too, more people rather wear something that is well known then wear their traditional/ cultural clothing. They don’t want to be discriminated against, plus it makes it easier to fit in with other cultures if you have something in common i. e. clothing. Our individual and collective identities are affected by communication and the media in many ways. One of those ways being, how we easily can talk to people on the other side of the world within minutes even seconds, between sixty and eighty years ago, we wouldn’t be able to talk to people on the other side of the world.

But with all the advanced technology there are many ways we can connect, communicate, and interact with others far away within minutes. Facebook is one way millions of people communicate now, it has brought the world so much closer together, because now we can find family members online and also chat with them, even if they live in another country. The media also affects our individual and collective identities because without the media we wouldn’t know about issues happening in other places around the world. For example, without television we wouldn’t know about the earthquake that just recently occurred in Japan.

We as a group aren’t powerless in how globalization affects our identities. As individuals we are because we can’t really stop it or change it. But as a group we influence globalization because we are constantly trying to connect with others and learn about their heritage and culture. Also, we put many of our transnational companies over in their country, which is part of globalization; we affect their identity as much as they affect ours. There are many other things what we do that influences globalization. Globalization has allowed a better communication flow with less and more developed countries.