Global Villages

Social media has redefined the way people communicate and socialise. Social networking sites like Facebook have achieved what other communication technologies failed, which is to imitate the social environment of the tribal village. This materialises the global village Marshall McLuhan predicted half a century ago.  The globalised world is often assumed as the actualisation of global village, but this view is problematic as a village by its defining characteristics cannot be global. It also overlooks McLuhan’s key emphasis that technologies promoting instantaneous oral communication replicate social conditions in a village that favour the “retribalization” of man.

On the basis that social media will increasingly encourage non-literate communication and social relationship will become the determining factor of inter-personal connections on the Internet, this study proposes that more and more people will gravitate towards communities online defined by unique and exclusive vernacular cultures. These “globalised villages” will be in the image of the tribal villages from which they derive cultural identity, except that they will not be not confined to a physical location but prosper in the global village ecology.

Using a multi-disciplinary approach and netnography (also known as online ethnography) as the method of research, this study examined im Teochew, a Facebook group linked to an overseas Chinese vernacular culture, and positively demonstrated its status as a globalised village and highlighted the ways its members use social media to preserve and promote their tribal identity. By reconciling the im Teochew Facebook group with its online environment and the collective consciousness of its members, it provided clarification into how the opposing concepts of global and village juxtapose in the context of social media.

Key words: Global Village, Facebook, Collective Consciousness, Overseas Chinese, Teochew

Herbert Marshall McLuhan taught at the University of Toronto for nearly 35 years and published extensively. He is widely known for coining phrases such as “the medium is the message” and “the global village”, along with his breakthrough theories on hot and cool media. His ideas on the impact of media technology on shaping culture and transforming humanity are as relevant today as they were 50 years ago.

One can certainly argue that society has always been influenced more by the type of media used than by the content of its communication. As the McLuhan Centenary Conference was recently held, what will the next 100 years bring to communications and media? Of course, nobody really knows – or do we?