Blog Topic Number 5

Rather than past one cartogram, to acurrately depict my topic I need to post two of them and they are the following.

Map #1- Number of telephone lines in 2002.

Map #2- Number of cell phone users/subscribers in 2002.

     The research and data for these maps comes from 2002 so it is fairly recent and still close to the same percentages we would see if the data were from today.  The way these maps illustrate globalization to me is by simply showing the access to means of communication across the world, yes there are areas more deprived in this field mainly Africa for example, but there is still access.  A more interesting thing I noted, and the reason I needed to use both cartogram maps to exhibit this point is that countries such as ours that have had their system of communication established for a longer period of time, as well as many European countries appear to be more dominant on the first map, illustrating phone lines.  This makes sense because these countries are where the innovation and invention took place and they have had the ability to communicate for a longer period of time, and have more of the dominant technology of the recent past, as cell phones are a relatively recent invention.
     Where I notice it starts to get more interesting to me, and further illustrate the topic of globalization is when you look at the second map in relation to the first.  The second map shows the number of cell phone users/subscribers, and as I said before the fact that even Africa appears substantially larger on this map than the first, shows the increased connectivity of countries in more recent times for free trade and idea exchange, as well as the tendency for the desire of increased communication to them.  The fact that the newest technology is more widespread in other words tells me that in more recent times, it has been easier to communicate with other nations to share these ideas and the materials themselves.  This very much illustrates globalization.  However as a disclaimer I am aware that the 'older' technological nations are still much more dominant than those I say increased in size, but nonetheless it shows progress in the development of these nations and globalization.