Coping Globalization

Globalization is a process of interaction and integration among the people, companies, and governments of different nations, a process driven by international trade and investment and aided by information technology. This process has effects on the environment, on culture, on political systems, on economic development and prosperity, and on human physical well-being in societies around the world. The development of telecommunication and transportation, including the invention of the telegraph and the internet, is one of the major, significant factors, in globalization. Basically, globalization takes place fast and affects all countries at the same time and period.

The term ‘globalization’ is often used since mid 1980s and more often since mid 1990s. In the year 2000, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) identified four aspects of globalization. The first is trade and transaction. The second is the movement of assets and investation. And then the third is migration. And the last but not least, the freedom of knowledge. The process of globalization affects and is also affected by business, economics, socio-cultural aspects, and also the environment.

In reality, globalization brings a major impact to lives of groups, communities, and people. How is it possible? Because in an era of globalization like this, teenagers like us can easily access the news, musics, films, and the lifestyle of foreigners through the internet. The speed and the openness of these informations is the one that will change a person’s point of view and lifestyle.

With the appearance of globalization, our beloved country’s culture is slowly but surely replaced by the western countries’ culture. The impact of globalization on the young is so strong, it has caused them to lose interest, and lose their feeling of loving and caring about this country.

Globalization brings the people to a culture shock, where the people is not in a ready state, or surprised by the new cultures that enter to their daily lives. Because of that, old habits that are good are starting to be gone.

There are some things we can do to cope globalization. The first is using products that are made by our own country. Using our country made products can help us avoid excessive lifestyle. The second one is to take habits or cultures from other countries that is according to our morals, ethics, and beliefs. These cultures that come in to our country has to be selected first so that it will fit well in our society and community. The third is respect our countries’ culture. Even if we are living in the modern times where there are already lots and lots and lots of other countries’ culture and habits, we should always and love our countries’ culture and habits. Other than those, we should also see globalization not as a threat, but as an opportunity for us to improve and do business.

To survive in the era of globalization, we need to improve our life skills. Our life skills can be the asset in facing the globalization era. Increasing our self confidence is also one of the ways to deal and cope with globalization. By having a firm confidence in yourself, you will have the faith and power to withstand the effects globalization. Studying can also be done to cope globalization. Having a habit of studying will be an asset for us to face the era of globalization. We also need to be selective towards culture because we should only take the good ones and combine it with our culture.

Increasing our sense of nationalism can also be done to face this globalization era. We should also accept the development of technologies, instead of neglecting it. This needs to be done so that the people can filter informations which are good and also not easily fooled by false informations.
We should also be less consumptive. We don’t need to live in a fancy lifestyle, rather, we can just buy simple things with almost nearly the same quality from our own country. This also relates to the economy. To reduce globalization effects, the production and quality of our country’s product can be enhanced even further so that it can compete with other country’s brand. Promoting local products through social media can also increase the people’s knowledge about local products and also attract people to buy local products more often than buying other countries’ product.

Now it’s pretty clear that globalization, be it good or bad, it is definitely and unavoidable thing. Rather than dealing with the problems of globalization head-on, we should be taking advantage of the situation.

William I.T. XIIA2/46