Pascual, Vincent R.
July 18, 2024
GED105 – A8 M2AT5
Cultural Globalization to Feel at Home
We produce culture to create a meaning in whatever we do, feel think and believe in, In this
sense, culture helps us identify distinct collectivities it is an intrinsic part of our human nature. Culture
traditionally is a differentiation between high and low culture where high culture refers to the dominant
elitist form of a culture, dominant in a way where it tends to be shared by a minority of people at the top
where they have the highest socioeconomic power, low culture on the other hand refers to the way of life
that is shared by the majority of people of all social back-grounds, like, cuisines, preference in sports,
their festivities, clothing, and taste in music. However, democratic and global processes has been
watered down, the separation between the high and low culture by valuing all forms of cultural
expression, nevertheless, it is still a useful distinction to capture power in culture dynamics in a particular
contexts (Crozet 2017).
The task at hand is to asses and to reflect the effects of cultural globalization to me and my family
and what are the drawbacks and benefits of cultural globalization. To start with, what is cultural
globalization? According to (Watson 2024) Cultural globalization is a phenomenon in which the
experience of everyday life, as influenced by diffusion of commodities and ideas, reflects a
standardization of cultural expressions all over the world, it is propelled by appeal or efficiency of
electronic commerce, wireless communications, popular culture and international travel. We could say,
globalization has been seen trending when it comes to homogeneity, where it could eventually make
human experience everywhere else essentially similar, well this might not be the case, it is an
overstatement of the phenomenon, homogenizing could possible exist but we are still far from creating
anything akin to a single world culture.
There are multiple ways of defining what cultural globalization is, different people of different
opinion has their own take on this “phenomenon”, But in my opinion, Cultural globalization is a
generalization of common doings and way of life, as a Filipino citizen who lives in Luzon, my culture is
different from the people in Mindanao and other countries, In this sense we can look at culture as a
dividing factor of common doings in the different societies that we grew up in, but in cultural globalization,
in my understanding, it aims to create a space where we would understand and experience similar
concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions and norms. We could argue that the English
language is one of the most basic example of cultural globalization, why? Because the English language
is the universal language, where ever you in the places of Earth, there is a big chance of people knowing
the language. We have different languages in different nations but the English language unites us all, in a
sense that it breaks on of the most prominent problem when traveling in a different place in which is the
language barrier. With that said, Cultural globalization for me is something that could unite us all wherein
we could possibly have no issues when it comes to grasping other cultures and trying to fit in the places
where we don’t belong.
My mother is living in a different part of the world and one of the most common thing I hear with
regards to her problems abroad is her homesickness, finding the feeling of “at home” a common problem
where one person living in a different part of the world wants to feel what is like to be back in their own
home, and to cope up to this problem, she usually go to a restaurant that fills her with the traditional
cuisine, whether it is a fast food restaurant or a fine dine, I myself have experienced traveling in a different
country and the normalization of having a country where the industry is open to a global market helps us
be connected even if we are not in our own nation, the globalization of economic industry is one of the
benefiting factor that my family has been experiencing since, globalization creates an opportunity for my
family to not only work outside of the country it also creates a better financial state, while cultural
globalization helps in terms of interconnectedness as mention in the benefit of having global industries in
other parts of the world. Another benefit that I notice is the social media aspect of Cultural globalization,
with the current state of the world where information is generally free, social media gives me and my
family free sources of information to what is happening around us and on the different parts of the world,
as mentioned earlier, I live in a household where we create a better financial status by grabbing the
opportunity to work abroad while social media makes us feel connected. There are multiple platforms of
software that are free to use in order to connect to each other, it also helps us to connect to other people
of different nationality. With that said, social media is a platform where Cultural globalization is presented
and the interconnectedness between people is served freely.
Cultural globalization could be the answer to the general connectivity of the whole world, but in
my opinion, to aim homogeneity is not the best move, homogeneity by definition is the quality or state of
being all of the same kind, with that said, as a person who likes variety it might be a boring approach
since culture is a unique practice of one’s nation, it gives a nation its color, it gives the country its own
kind of flavor. One of the drawbacks that I see my family could experience in Cultural globalization is the
lack of uniqueness in one’s culture. If we experience everything at once, at some point we might get
bored or used to doing the same thing over and over again. The existing local culture we have is
characterize by the experience of our everyday life, specifically our identifiable localities, our feeling of
appropriateness and comfort it define a personal preference and for me, locality still matter. The
standardization of experience is a good thing but it could possible change the diversity of the people, and
this diversity is what makes our world unique, if we experience the same cultures as the other we would
be stuck living the same life and experiencing the same thing for the rest of our lives. Another drawback
that I think is worth mentioning is that the Cultural globalization that me and my family is experiencing
right now is the westernization specifically, some of my relatives would argue that it is much better to live
of with the western culture as opposed to living the Asian culture, since we tend to believe that most of
the elitist cultural wise are western, with that said, the difference between the ideology collides whether
we go for either local produce product or the international products, not only it affect my family but the
whole Philippines I believe. The distinction between local produce and the produce abroad lessens the
economy of our nation, we are being filled with non-local product hence possibly degrading our own
economy, since the circulation of money is not coming back to us, rather I goes out to different nations,
hence why I mention why it is a Cultural globalization drawback. In addition to that, it felt like the idea of
working and finding opportunity abroad makes us separated much more, since the ideology of being
richer is easier if you work outside of the country and that is why it is a negative effect for me, pursuing
something beneficial away from home while having the problem of wanting to feel at home.
