Question #72e88

Today, the world seems less large than ever has, and it continues to "shrink". This is because it is now easier than ever for a person, message, or idea to travel the world.

Where in much of history a journey from Europe to China was a multi-year affair, if conceivable at all, today [insert British celebrity/public figure] could get on a plane and be in Beijing in a matter of hours. Where a message from Delaware to Germany would have previously taken months, at least, to be delivered and then the response sent back to the U.S., someone in Delaware can today turn on their laptop or phone and send a message to a friend visiting their German grandparents without even needing to go outside or get out of bed and receive a response in seconds.

To a degree, we measure distance by the time it takes to traverse it. Thirty miles is over eight hours of walking but only two hours driving at 60 mph. So, it follows, when communication is almost literally instantaneous and travel is incredibly fast as well- and both getting faster- distances that once seemed insurmountable are now a few hand movements or an airplane flight away. In this way, our world has shrunk and continues to shrink. As the population mounts, too, there are fewer places left unsettled and fewer unpeopled stretches between areas in which people reside.

So "the world shrinks", or our perceptions of the world's size change as we develop and acclimate to new ways of traveling it.