By: Syeda Huma Tahir
The objective of this article is to vividly describe the phenomenon of the global village in a broader sense. The effects and influences of the global village and daily use of social media will be discussed to clarify the concepts regarding the increasing use of social media, and it’s negative and positive impacts. The importance of Children’s Literature and its role in the development and grooming of children’s minds is also elaborated in the article. Furthermore, it throws a light upon how literature plays a basic function in making children aware of their basic roles and gives them a glimpse of their environment, society, and culture. And how does it make them prepare to deal in a world that has now transformed into a global village? Finally, it also evaluates the connection between children, the global village, and children’s literature to highlight the importance of literature in the global village.
After the industrial revolution in 1760 mankind entered a new phase of progress in scientific domains. As man advanced himself in technology, his preferences and way of leading life used to change as well. In the late ’20s and the 21st century the new trend of using the internet, using it excessively, once again tried to change the direction of progress of humanity in history, and after the invention of social media, this process accelerated more. So, time by time, the Internet and social media became a vital part of man’s life and the whole world shrank and transcends the barriers and borders to come up into a form of a global village where everyone was connected virtually.
The Global Village not only changed the interest and taste of men but of children as well, and got very popular in them. It is said that approximately 51% of children visit social media sites at least every day. This means that a strong connection has developed there between children and the global village. So, in this age of global village, it becomes more important to think that how should we educate and bring up our children, so that, they must become able to conceive a positive impact from social media rather than negative. In this case, it is important that the children, who are rapidly being addicted to social media, should be brought towards reading literature. So, meanwhile, the importance of children’s literature in the global village increases more in that kind of situation.
Children’s Literature whose roots belong to the ancient history of mankind plays a very important role in the education and training of children. Children learn from their environment and family, surroundings, society, language, and literature are the things which collectively make up an environment for the children to bring in. So, it is very necessary to check upon children’s literature and its importance in global village, because, if it is said that, in the present age, the global village has also become a part of Children’s environment, it will be true. Then necessarily, in this globalized world where children tend towards the internet and social media more than books and literature, it has become important to make them connected with books and children’s Literature.
According to research, just 30 to 35 percent of children like to read books. It might be for this reason that a unique and interesting type of literature is not being produced for them. They don’t like to read most of their literature which mostly consists of magazines, storybooks, and poems. So it’s now our social duty to make these things interesting and reachable for them.
It’s a well-known saying that the social existence and environment decides the conscious level of a person. If children will waste most of their time using the internet and social media where most of the content is uncensored, then only that virtual world will become their whole environment and in that case, they will be more familiar with the rules and ethics of social media rather than the values of the real world and human society. In this whole scenario, children’s literature is something that can play a major role in introducing children to social norms and we cannot deny its social importance. Because, literature is itself the reflection of human society and it is also a critic of society and it is, that decides the direction of a society.
In this age of globalisation where all the men along with children tend and like to use technology and the internet, it has become more important to demonstrate the role of literature in children’s awareness, because, literature could be more helpful in the intellectual nourishment of children. Moreover, those ethics and values that they learn by reading the literary stories cannot be learned by any other means. It important to determine the environment in which a child brings up, and literature is the only thing that can do this thing truly. It can educate them that what is life and how to lead it properly and positively.
By analyzing the characters used in literary writings children can better be prepared to examine the community around them and could be more aware of their surroundings. So, in this way children will be more prepared to live and play a positive role in a particular society.
Another point is that positive uses of the internet to widespread the children’s literature, as it can be very helpful in making children’s literature popular among them and it could be very helpful. Like digital libraries, encyclopedias, and blogs might be very helpful in the digital publishing of literature kind of things. Facebook and other social media websites can be used to start a series of posting literary stories and books to increase children’s interest in these things and in this way they would be enjoying Literature and social media at the same time.
It will not wrong to say that children’s literature plays a crucial role in developing the fundamental sense of values in them. In this age of globalisation, children’s literature is something that can DE familiarise and decrease the negative impact of the global village. The global village is the main driving force behind the construction of new and post-modern ideologies in children that can reshape their view of looking at and behaving in society in a negative way. This construction of false beliefs and ideas can only be deconstructed by making children familiarise themselves with children’s literature. Furthermore, literature can give children a better understanding, of the values and of a culture or society, than anything