Proximity, interaction, and distance in physical and virtual personal mobilities

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Chapter 4 in Understanding Personal Mobilities, 2023, pp 46-65 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Social-spatial interaction constitutes basic human mobility. During modern pre-Internet times, the ability to maintain instant and online remote social ties was restricted by the petrifying powers of space and distance, both being unchallenged at the time by communications technologies, other than the rather limited fixed-line telephony, as of the twentieth century. Thus, it was for face-to-face communications to constitute the leading mode of social communication at the time, implying fewer albeit relatively rich exchanges. The introduction and adoption of the Internet has enabled individuals to enjoy the optionality of distance in the sense that the Internet has permitted the establishment of close and remote virtual ties with the same ease. However, individuals have still tended to establish and maintain spatially closer ties over remote ones, alongside the use of virtual communications. Hence, they revealed their continued preference for proximity to each other. The human need for physical proximity was obviously there already during pre-Internet times, as well, but it was hidden by the inexistence at the time of the alternative option of virtual communications, which also facilitate remote social ties.

Keywords: Economics and Finance; Environment; Geography; Sociology and Social Policy; Urban and Regional Studies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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