Tuesday, September 7, 2010

"The World is Flat"

Thomas Friedman's viewpoint that the world is flat was delivered very well in his speech and definitely made me think further into how much technology has influenced the workforce we as students will soon be entering. On one hand, you can see how great the internet and technology has made the world, creating opportunities for people to work towards success with people they otherwise would not have been able to. On the other hand, the idea that the world has in fact become flat is threatening to those Americans seeking employment now and in the future, such as in the case of college students. I felt this was quite negative and threatening in the sense that the flattening of the world through technology has made the outsourcing of many jobs the norm in our country. Regardless, Friedman made his viewpoint very clear to the viewer, citing both personal experiences and obvious aspects of everyday life that people seem to have missed.

However, I found that Friedman left out many important, and somewhat obvious, ideas in his speech in order to draw more support for his argument. For instance, while discussing the McDonald's order-taker possibly being in another location far away from the restaurant, the fact of that matter is that this is simply one job in the restaurant, while most other jobs, such as managers, cooks, and maintenance, cannot be outsourced form the restaurant. Other jobs, such as the practical entire health care field and civil service jobs, will never be outsourced for obvious reasons, which leads me to once conclusion. After listening to Thomas Friedman's speak about the ideas he based his book on, I find many of his views do open our eyes to how technology has vastly changed the world, but it is important to remember that this is as threatening in all aspects as it seems.

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