“The infrastructure of communication was long a monopoly of the state, requiring massive capital investments in copper wires and landlines that rarely reached beyond urban centers in developing nations. The arrival of mobile telephony and satellite links in the late twentieth century dismantled these barriers. By bypassing the need for physical copper networks, remote rural communities in East Africa and South Asia suddenly gained access to global financial and information networks. The cell phone became not just a tool for conversation, but a handheld bank, a market price-ticker, and a primary connection to the global economy.”
—Adapted from a report on international development and telecommunication networks, 2004
Which of the following best explains how the technological developments described in the passage affected global economic structures in the late twentieth century?
- AThe rapid homogenization of global culture as rural populations abandoned local languages and customs in favor of standardized Western lifestyles.
- BThe growth of environmentalist movements that successfully pressured governments to limit the use of chemical fertilizers and genetically modified crops.
- The reduction of geographic distance as a barrier to economic activity, allowing developing nations to participate directly in global financial networks.Cevap
- DThe initial transition from coal to petroleum as the primary source of power for industrial manufacturing facilities.