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Awesome post! You've made some great connections between Jensen's article and Bauman's "Identity". You've also asked some puzzling and heavy weighted questions regarding the potential for the loss of cultural identity due to globalization. In my opinion, I do see the potential for the loss of cultural identity in the future. The vast amounts of information that is accessible due to globalization can reinforce the idea of individuals applying a general identity to an entire population; eliminating a sense of individual identity altogether. Globalization has also encouraged a loss of commitment and cultural significance. Friendships and relationships are viewed as disposable; society now treats people like products, constantly looking for the next best thing (Bauman). Therefore, in regards to your last question, I am not entirely sure that globalization will encourage a unified culture. Globalization has continued to expand into a more negative nature which may in turn subliminally separate cultures.

I enjoyed reading your post because you gave a lot of great examples of how it is hard in this day in age for relationships to work by using Bauman's examples about how a lot of couples no longer want to be monogamous. Another great example of how globalization ruins relationships rather than strengthens them is in Gary Shteyngart's novel Super Sad True Love Story. Despite both Lenny and Eunice having an unlimited amount of ways to keep their relationship alive ie. through texting, emails, cheap plane tickets, video chat etc. Globalization allows people to connect all over the world with a click of a button; globalization also makes it extremely easy to cheat, lie and no longer be monogamous. It is easy to stay connected thanks to the increase of social media, but it makes it almost too easy to be unfaithful when you have websites like Facebook, Instagram etc where you can talk to anyone in the world with one click. This is how Eunice cheats on Lenny. Eunice is able to hide her affair from him because they began to exchange romantic emails with Lenny's boss Joshie. So with a click of a button, Eunice and Joshie were able to set up a date and time and just like that; a monogamous relationship is now ruined. Like Shteyngart, Bauman also makes the same claims and I believe that globalization is the direct cause of failed relationships because temptation is right at your fingertips.

The connections you made between Bauman and cultural identity are great. It is true that people these days do not look at monogamy or relationships the same way people used to. There are also many more ways to go about having different types of romantic relationships and being able to be with anyone you want to. Just as the causes and resources for the changing relationships in today's society are easily available, so is the idea of cultural identity. With the different forms of technology these days, it is easy to get lost and wrapped up into different cultures and not know where you belong. I read an article by Lama Amer discussing the loss of cultural identity and she states, "Our pride and individuality made us who we are, let us hold on to that so it can last for generations to come. We should not allow it to change who we are or we came from." It is easy to get wrapped up in relationships that are not healthy for us like in Bauman's "Identity" and to mold ourselves to be the person others want us to be. It is also easy to become wrapped up in different cultures and to have one unified culture rather than multiple cultures. At the end of the day though, we should be celebrating who we are and where we come from and not completely lose who we are.