Global Homogeneity Has Made The World Boring And Ruined Adventure

In today’s (rather dark and nefarious-looking) video, I share something I’ve been reflecting on for quite a while as a new parent which has made me increasingly sad the more I realize it.

Here it is:

We are at a point in history where we have discovered literally every place, people and culture on this earth.

This is really the first time in human history that we can honestly say we’ve dominated every corner of our planet. We can look at any square inch of ground in any country on any continent at any time of the day with a simple swipe of our finger (e.g. Google Maps).

Nothing is new anymore.

Think about that for a moment.

Even for people growing up just a few decades ago there was at least some sense of awe and wonder about remote places and people. There was an appreciation of the “otherness” of what lies beyond our own boundaries.

I just don’t know if my son’s generation and onward will ever fully experience that. No child in future will ever aspire to discover the unknown because there is no unknown (space excluded obviously).

Technology has made a guy living in a remote town far away no different to the guy living down the street.

The implications for language learning and cultural immersion

Those who favor this trajectory believe that it’s helping cultural and linguistic diversity.

In fact, the complete opposite is true.

The more the world becomes interconnected, the more homogeneous and boring we all start to become.

The world becomes dull.

In the video above, I ask the question:

“How will this affect language learning decades from now?”

I think this is a really important and relevant question to start asking.

What are your thoughts?