In 1989, an invention changed the world. The World Wide Web (www) connected millions of people. This creation made the internet usable to everyone. It provided a quick way for the world to communicate. Today, the internet connects billions of people.

The internet sped up the age of globalization, allowing people across the world to become more connected in sharing ideas, trade, travel and business.

The internet makes it easy for people to connect, yet some online experiences are created for each person. We’re often sent news and ads based on our interests, so people can have very different online experiences.

The internet can make us feel both alone and connected. The internet isn’t bad or good. However, it can be put to both good use and bad use.

An age of intense globalization

With globalization, the world’s communities are more tied together. New technology can improve many lives quickly. Or, it can create great suffering. We must try to shape new technologies to help people.

With the internet, we can learn more about how people in other places live. Countries can become more diverse culturally when they learn about people and cultures in different places. People can also buy more products at low prices.

There are darker sides to globalization, though. Smaller cultures and languages can be lost. More trade can mean more pollution. And people in some areas can lose jobs when companies hire people in countries where jobs pay less.

Globalization doesn’t always spread money evenly. Only a small number of people have money and power. There’s still great inequality in the world today.

Globalization didn’t cause inequality, but it’s not solving it yet either. There appears to be enough money for everyone, but many are still poor. Can globalization be changed to make things better?

Social transformation

With inequality, globalization is both part of the problem and a possible solution. That’s because globalization isn’t just about business. It’s about our rights and freedoms.

Many historians say the twentieth century, or 1900s, brought people more freedoms. Countries agreed that slavery should end, workers should be kept safe when they work, and citizens should pick their leaders. Women won the right to vote. New laws tried to protect everyone equally.

After World War II in 1945, almost every country in the world signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The UDHR created a human rights law for countries around the world to follow. It pushed for a new kind of globalization—protection of human rights with treaties signed by different countries.

So why haven’t international groups stopped wars and protected minorities around the world? Sometimes, the groups created to solve problems are causing problems themselves. International trade deals sometimes cause workers to lose rights at their jobs.

People are now torn between their roles. People are part of global, national, religious, and local communities. Some people are looking to their local communities to protect them—not international groups.

What comes next

Globalization has both good and bad effects on the environment. Globalization caused more pollution. The world’s rising demand for goods means overuse of natural resources like oil. Habitats, the areas where people and animals can live naturally, are sometimes lost.

The pollution from factories causes climate change. This can create deadly weather events and problems for people’s health.

Still, globalization is part of the solution to these problems. We need the Paris Agreement, for example. It will help countries come together to fight climate change. We need companies to share technologies that will help save the environment. We need countries to urge each other not to harm the environment.

We can’t simply go back to living within small communities. Most of us wouldn’t want to anyway. Yet that doesn’t mean we have to surrender to pollution or inequality. We have the power to shape how globalization happens. What kind of future would you build if you could decide?