BY CHEROTICH FAITH

The new electronic independence recreates the world in the image of a global village

Marshall McLuhan

Media and communication theorist Marshall McLuhan coined the term global village based on his observation of technology becoming the new central nervous system of the world noting the effect of the advancing technologies in breaking down spatial and temporal boundaries and allowing for unprecedented global communication. Despite not living to witness the advent of social media, his theory can be understood and interpreted in light of such platforms including twitter as they further contribute the increasing the inter-connectivity of the world brought about by digital technologies. McLuhan’s metaphor of the village works to highlight the smallness of the space which people can now easily communicate and experience events occurring on the other side of the world in real time.

Twitter for example, contributes to breaking down these spatial and temporal boundaries as whenever something happens in the world, someone somewhere will tweet about it.

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Furthermore the micro blogging site twitter amplifies McLuhan’s notion of the global village as an integral aspect of the platform is a belief in the power of an integrated global community. This concept is best evidenced through the ability of regular citizens to use their twitter accounts to engage with people in power effectively holding them to account or to address various topics of interest. For example, most politicians, influential people and companies have twitter accounts thus effectively enhancing accessibility and ease at which everyday citizens can question and scrutinize those in power.

Similarly use of twitter to reach out to people in different geographic corners of the world demonstrates the ability of the micro blogging site in allowing for cross cultural communication. When interpreting twitter through the lens of global village, McLuhan’s utopian tech becomes highly apparent. It is overwhelmingly clear that the internet tech twitter presents a contemporary example of his concept as the platform amplifies the ability of the internet to connect individuals in all corners of the globe to anyone anywhere and at any time