The World is Flat, by Thomas Friedman, presents the role of individuals in our progressively globalized society. In our era, “Globalization 3.0 is shrinking the world from a size small to a size tiny and flattening the playing field at the same time” (Friedman 10). It is significant to mention that this playing field is not just for countries or even large corporations—small companies and most importantly individuals are able to compete globally.
Friedman focuses on individuals, but still concedes that group work is both necessary and desirable to the well-being and development of the internet—whether it is American companies with foreign workers or people collaborating on open-source software. He says that “this era of Globalization 3.0 is about individuals globalizing themselves” (Friedman 57). Individuals have the ability to empower themselves through means such as blogging, shared software, and YouTube and become active producers instead of a passive audience. Individuals have the ability to work for any company in the entire world from anyplace they choose through fiber optic cables. The greatest ability of humans, though, is the ability to work together on these things. Not only can humans work together with their neighbors, family, and workplace, but now people can work together with anyone in the world!!
Friedman specifically mentions individuals when he notes that a single global network “could usher in an amazing era of prosperity, innovation, and collaboration, by companies, communities, and [emphasis added] individuals” (Friedman 8). He also claims that during Y2K, independence was given to Indians—not the country of India (Friedman 136). This distinction is so important because Indians, not the bureaucratic country, now have the potential to work and learn with a greater number of people. With the internet (and free ware) people have a seemingly unlimited resource to do things like create websites, communicate with others, sell products, and research topics.
The motivation for this collaboration, according to Friedman, is that of human nature: it is a “very deep human longing for individuals to participate and make their voices heard” (Friedman 125). The Microsoft executive who Friedman interviewed agrees that the role of collaboration is important, but his thoughts on motivation differed. He said that “’it is true that scientific research will increasingly require more of a community effort, but I would argue this is more of a requirement for multidisciplinary collaboration due to the complexity of the problems, rather than a belief that the fundamental insights that lead to a real innovation come from groups now rather than individuals’” (Friedman 110).
Friedman views individuals as intrinsically valuable ‘participants’ in the game of the internet and as necessary components to the power of community, opposed to Foucault’s view of individuals only as part of the machine. Although countless communities are developing through the internet, this would not be possible without individuals. In order to foster the global community, it must also be important to foster individuals, something that may be overlooked in our technologically-hyped society. Hopefully, the flattened playing field will bring more competition which is thought to bring greater prosperity to a greater number of people.
