global village

noun

: the world viewed as a community in which distance and isolation have been dramatically reduced by electronic media (such as television and the Internet)

Did you know?

The term global village is closely associated with Herbert Marshall McLuhan, the Canadian communications theorist and literature professor hailed by many as a prophet for the 20th century. McLuhan's mantra, "the medium is the message," summarized his view of the influence of television, computers, and other electronic information sources in shaping society and modern life. By 1960, he had delineated his concept of the "global village," and by 1970, the public had embraced the term and recognized the idea as both exhilarating and frightening. As a 1970 Saturday Review article noted, "There are no boundaries in a global village. All problems will become so intimate as to be one's own...."

Examples of global village in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Blockchain has allowed people to think beyond their borders, imagining a global village where everyone can participate in the economy. —Lisa Loud, Forbes, 5 Nov. 2024

Modernization does not mean Westernization, and the global village will remain fraught with tension. —Martijn Lampert, Foreign Affairs, 6 July 2016

The two companies built devoted followings by promising to build populist technology for a changing world: X, formerly known as Twitter, with its global village of conversations, and OpenAI, the research lab behind ChatGPT, with its super-intelligent companions for human thought. —Drew Harwell, Washington Post, 23 Nov. 2023

The panel touched on issues of identity, generational change and the development of the post-pandemic, streaming-era global village. —Variety, NBC News, 9 Oct. 2023

We’re each assigned a spot in that global village, the homelands reflecting the international nature of the refugee crisis: Syria, Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Somalia all get competing, squabbling enclaves. —Peter Marks, Washington Post, 28 Mar. 2023

Nair feels that with the streamers transforming the world into a global village and an increasing international awareness of the Indian film industry, there will be widespread interest in the series. —Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 17 Jan. 2023

The entertainment industry is an increasingly global village, and this list surely reflects that. —Andrew Wallenstein, Variety, 29 Dec. 2022

Rather, the modern global village expands the scope of those in your potential social network up to whole world. —Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 16 June 2013

Word History

First Known Use

1959, in the meaning defined above

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