tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8819453.post5872018313490596056..comments2023-10-24T04:18:08.409-05:00Comments on J880: Human geography and mass communication: Some thoughts on Simmel and ModernismGreg Downeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09154543464555817869noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8819453.post-23585651633798962742008-09-13T14:16:00.000-05:002008-09-13T14:16:00.000-05:00I find it interesting that we think of urbanites a...I find it interesting that we think of urbanites as withdrawing from other urbanites. I think of it more as a single individual can only interact so much, no matter where they are, city or country. So, in the city, we notice this because there are more people than can be maintained positive interactions. For all we know, people in the country may be less prepared to handle many interactions, lacking practice and expectation, and actually withdraw more when confronted with an urban setting.<BR/><BR/>I think it might also be important to think about what medium the city dweller is communicating their individuality and the size of the audience. I've noticed that metropolises will have many more modes of physical expression (clothing, makeup, mode of transport etc) than smaller places. These physical modes, like blogs, being published typically to anyone who chances by, and that's a lot of people. In such mediums, asserting your particularity/extremity of identity becomes much more important because of the wider audience to compete with. Finding your own cranny is more difficult. In other mediums, like talking on the phone, or having a small party at home, or on a personal blog, or living in a small town, you're limited to a handful of listeners, and suddenly the particularities/extremity of your personality becomes more important than a constructed identity. Simultaneously, fitting in may also become more important. Maybe this relates more to the ideas of inside and outside. You have an inside identity and and outside identity in the city, and in the country, your outside identity is less developed because there's less outside.<BR/><BR/>I do feel as though I've made a lot of assumptions about non-city dwellers and may be out of touch.Sarahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07898496156628519518noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8819453.post-80720659916433106552008-09-10T21:43:00.000-05:002008-09-10T21:43:00.000-05:00I agree that communication networks allow us to ex...I agree that communication networks allow us to express our individuality. We choose as consumers which outlet or network to pay attention to, which puts us in control of the content and type of communication we wish to engage in.<BR/><BR/>We can and often do bump past each other, talking on our cell phones as we're swallowed up by the city. But I wonder if it's necessary to know everyone you pass by in order to feel the insideness that Relph talks about in the space of your life, in the place you live?Chris Rencontrehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14023770123671165332noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8819453.post-32873077432932800212008-09-10T16:10:00.000-05:002008-09-10T16:10:00.000-05:00I thought Simmel's concept of how people interact ...I thought Simmel's concept of how people interact in the city leaves a perfect gap for a discussion of the role of communication in city life. Simmel stresses the potential for an individual to be swallowed up in the mass culture of city life, and iterates the tendency of city dwellers to withdraw from emotional and personal interaction with fellow urbanites. But Simmel also says that the assertion of some form of individuality is a necessity. The need for expression is a void communication fills. I can be in a crowd of people I don't care about, yet carry on an individual conversation with MY friend on MY phone. We may all share a media market but I can make individual choices about which media I consume, and then express my individual opinions on the state of the world on a blog. I'm interested to hear if others think that sharing a communications network - like sharing a city - dissolves the individual in mass culture (as I think Simmel would argue) or creates outlets for individual expression.Dalehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11082302287861195911noreply@blogger.com