Learn Italian: Il mondo digitale diventa sempre più grande. - The digital world becomes bigger and bigger.

In Italian, sempre più (literally "always more") followed by an adjective is the standard way to express a progressive increase. While English usually uses the pattern "-er and -er" or "more and more", Italian sticks to this set formula. Therefore, sempre più grande means "bigger and bigger" or "increasingly big".

Could I say sempre maggiore instead of sempre più grande?

Yes! Maggiore is the special, irregular comparative form of grande (meaning "greater" or "larger"). You will often hear sempre maggiore used in exactly the same way to mean "greater and greater" or "increasingly large".

How would I say the world is getting "smaller and smaller"?

You have two natural options. You can use the opposite structure from this lesson, sempre meno (less and less), and say sempre meno grande (less and less big). Alternatively, you can just use sempre più with the opposite adjective: sempre più piccolo (smaller and smaller).

Why is the simple present tense diventa used here instead of a continuous tense like "is becoming"?

Italian uses the simple present tense (diventa) much more frequently than English to describe ongoing, continuous processes. While you could technically use the continuous form sta diventando (is becoming), the simple present is perfectly natural and very common for stating current, gradual trends.