COVID Pandemic: Impacts on Globalization

COVID Pandemic: Impacts on Globalization
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COVID Pandemic: Impacts on Globalization
Globalization is a unification process spurred by the unprecedented growth of technology and means of communication and trade. Globalization is an ongoing process that makes people more and more interconnected and interdependent at various levels such as trade, culture, economics, and communication. Regardless of the expansive nature of globalization, its growth or shrinking depends upon many factors. One recent phenomenon is the emergence of anti-globalization tide that encourages the internalization of trade and commerce. Unexpected events such as an outbreak of disease further hamper the pace of globalization at various levels. For instance, the emergence of the outbreak of SARS in 2002 brought about profound upheavals at the social, economic, and political level and decelerated the process of globalization (Suarez-Orozco & Qin-Hilliard, 2019).
Similarly, the most recent pandemic of COVID 19 has also caused two-way effects on globalization trends. At the communication level, this pandemic has enhanced global contact at various levels; on the other hand, it has also markedly reduced global trade and negatively impacted education. Since detrimental effects of this pandemic on the wave of globalization may prove fatal for the future of humanity, this essay aims to analyze the two aspects of this pandemic to evaluate the extent and nature of its impact on globalization and to suggest possible remedial measures.
The COVID 19 pandemic has brought about unprecedented changes in human society's social, political, economic, religious, and moral fabric. In many ways, this pandemic has accelerated the already ongoing process of globalization and digitization of human societies. Measures such as the imposition of lockdown and restricted movement have compelled people to stay indoors and carry out their routine business through digital and online platforms. Since traditional ways of communication and public dealing are being discouraged, people worldwide are resorting to the Internet for almost all of their daily life activities. Indeed, even before the pandemic, the rapid growth and availability of the Internet worldwide and easy and inexpensive availability of means of communication such as cell phones had already expedited the expansion of globalization. Furthermore, increased online interaction of people at the individual level, social level, and national level had already grown substantially and signaled the increasing influence of globalization (Bloom, 2004). It implies that contemporary developments of technology and the ubiquity of modern artifacts support the process of globalization.
However, the surge of the COVID 19 pandemic has brought about an unexpected expansion in global communication, and it appears that the world is shifting towards living in a virtual world forever. Online communication now dominates almost all aspects of a person's individual, professional and social life. It is more than likely that this new way of life will further take root in human societies since the end of the pandemic is not foreseeable ...