Is the world larger or smaller?

People tell me the world is getting smaller because we are more able to get information from any corner of the globe in a short amount of time. Generally, I agree with it in principle. There's a but coming... we have to actually acknowledge how large this world is before we can shrink it on to a computer screen. I have to first know there are people in this community I call the World who look different from me, speak a different language, practice a different religion, eat different foods, and a host of other things that are foreign from my daily life or culture. If I don't acknowledge it first, I have done these people a disservice. I have compared them to me as the apex of how to live instead of letting them be themselves in their way of living. While my philosophy/theology professor would tell me I need to use "or" instead of "and," I have to say the world is expanding and shrinking at the same time for me, and to do it any other way would just be wrong for me.