The Negative Aspects of Globalization

In this day and age where the Internet reigns supreme, globalization indeed does seem inevitable and accepting it is probably the wisest course of action. Nevertheless, this does not mean that we should overlook or justify the negative aspects, especially when they easily outnumber the positive ones.

Possibly one of the biggest such aspects is the vanishing national identity. Nowadays the primary source of recreation for adolescents is the Internet. This in itself is perhaps not a cause for concern if it wasn't for the fact that in the last fifteen or twenty years English has become the new lingua franca, which makes the Internet culture extremely anglocentric. Of course learning and imbibing other cultures is generally a good thing, completely assimilating another culture whilst not living in a foreign country and thus setting aside your own country's values, way of life, and culture, is not. It is quite common for teenagers and youg adults to use English words to describe or denote things that have a perfectly adequate equivalent in their own language. This may lead to words being dropped out of utilization which will result in an impoverished language. This is a language suicide.

Another negative aspect of globalization is the corporal hegemony of the developed countries. This causes unemployment to rise in the developing countries. In Asia some big companies exploit child labour to produce cheap manufactured goods.

Health is also affected negatively by globalization. Thanks to the increasing levels of tourism and trade, infectious diseases such as malaria, leprosy and tuberculosis in the past, and Ebola in the present day, spread much more easily.

Even though globalization, like most things, has its positive sides, the negative aspects should not be ignored or neglected. Only through acknowledging them we can try and alleviate their effects or eliminate them altogether.

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