Global Awareness, is that Possible?

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“Why do pepole focus on (insert topic here) while there is more important things going on?” #firstworldproblems

– said by anyone questioning the World’s priorities

Humanity’s knowledge of the world and its happenings are limited. Despite man’s very long time on planet Earth, our understanding and awarness of it is infantile at best. However, despite Man’s vast time on Earth, the knowledge gained, and the advancement of technology, Is humanly possible for large body of people to be aware of a world event? In other words, is it possible for 7 billion Humans to be conscience of a world event?

To answer that question, let’s look at this from a physical anatomy and technological stand point.

Humans have proverbial vision. They can look straight ahead and see as far as there is light yet can notice activity without having to turn their eyes or heads. With that in mind, even with a wide viewing range, it is impossible to know what going on around them that is out of view.

Another example is the range of hearing. Humans can only hear sounds frequencies within 20-20,000 hz. Anything beyond that range, our Ears can not detect it. Plus there is also a limit in distance as well. As the saying goes “If you can not hear a tree fall, did it make a sound?”

With the advent of the internet and social media, people can voice their opinions, facts, and news at the speed of light. Back in the pre-internet days, the few outlets of learning about the world’s events was through Radio, Mail, Newspapers, Magazines and Television.

The information shared through these channels was handpicked and delivered to masses. With social media and the internet, access to information is less bottle necked and is shared virally. With this in mind, one can assess that with the advancement of technology, information pertaining to the news can reach audiences far and wide very quickly.

With technology advancements and many portals of information that Humans can “google”, is it still possible for all us to be conscious of a world event at the same? We are close to it.

We are close because as Humans, even with our phenominal capabilities, are still limited to our basic senses and the channels to the information we choose to have and/or are allowed to have. What this means is that if a person has access to information thats within a limited scope, including social media, the likelihood of them gaining new/additional information or gaining another channel is slim.

For an example, using the social media site, Facebook, a user can upload images, status updates, etc … A person has the ability to read the info (Current Events for an example) on their News Feed. If person A found news about a country and wanted share it on their Facebook account, anybody who is not person A’s friends or in their network, will not be able to see it.

In addition, the timing of it as well. People post information, logged on, and also use Facebook at different times. In other words, if news is flooding the Facebook News Feed at 9 A.M. because of a world event and if you do not log on Facebook, watch the news, or even read the paper, how would one know be adept to world news at the same time as everyone else?

To use a real life example of a world event that would be the Election of the U.S President. News coverage will be consistent throughout the race (Predominately in U.S.) and social media sites will have the coverage trending in the news feeds. Its a fair shot to say that the majority of world will know who the President of the United States is. But what about the individuals who don’t have access to the known information channels such as TV, Magazines, Internet, Facebook, etc…? The likelihood is slim but they are ultimately at the mercy of anyone who goes to that group of people who are not “in the know” and shares with them.

So to conclude, is it possible for 7 billion people to be aware of a world event at the same time. Its plausible at best. It can be a factual reality, if nearly everyone on the planet who can understand a language has the same access to Information globaly.  With addition to Social Media and advancement of technology, that day is soon to come.

Stay Empowered!

For more blogs by this author, go to eps3000.blogspot.com

Jonathan Lane