The
USA is undoubtedly both the main recipient of other cultures’ elements and the major distributor of its own culture.
America’s influence on globalization is really (too?) great.

Actually it’s quite difficult to analyze the phenomenon of americanization objectively: the majority of Americans regard it as a natural process, whereas non-Americans are inclined to recognize only the bad influence of cultural globalization.  As a matter of fact, americanization has both positive and negative impacts, which should be considered.

Let’s begin with the drawbacks of americanization, which are quite obvious:

·        Other countries are likely to lose their cultural identity.

·        Low quality of certain American production (e.g. fast food and meaningless movies) endangers physical and mental health of customers.

·         Elements of American culture, copied by other countries, often turn out to be even worse than originals, so human culture as a whole deteriorates.

Without a doubt, the aforesaid consequences of cultural globalization sound threatening. However, there are some significant pros of americanization:

·        The aspiration to copy from
America pushes other countries to develop.

·        Cultural unification often helps people understand one another better.

·        Americanization cancels borders: people all over the world, regardless of their ethnicities, learn English.

As we can see, americanization can be both constructive and destructive. The question raised in the title of this article is therefore extremely controversial; the possible answer to it could be: “Americanization is shining poisonous flow.”