In just 5 short years, the number of people on facebook is approaching the size of the total U.S. population. Type in any of the approximatly 250 million names of facebook users and you’ll likely get a photograph and a country/city where they live. For some, the “current city” information on facebook means so little that it remains unchanged for years after the individual moves on. For others, a particular city carries so much meaning and nostalgia that they keep the name of, for example, their birthplace or where they went to college, even after they have left the place behind. Between sentiment and indifference – there are those who just want accuracy. Some residents of Kashmir, a disputed territory between India and Pakistan, are upset because facebook only allows them to choose India as their country. Tensions that have long existed on the physical borders between countries have now emerged in cyberspace.
So where do we really live when many of the activities once associated with life in a particular city have shifted to the Internet? I have more friends on facebook than I have in my current city, New York, and I do much of my shopping online. Additionally, while I still get a portion of my news from the online version of my hometown paper, The New York Times, the vast majority of the news I consume comes from a unique batch of ever-changing, worldwide sources. I like the legendary artist and architect Vito Acconci’s take in the video below. Instead of fretting over the loss of the “hometown” as it was 50 years ago, we should re-define what a city means. This is our chance to manifest our fantasies, make the world into a new creation. Though our physical community is less and less a place where we find a mate, start a business or go to school, maybe it can be appreciated as a unique place where the intersection of virtual and real reality are actually experienced together – an enriched junction where flash mobs, celebrity sightings, and elaborate hoaxes are possible. While the once mysterious cyberspace is becoming a common location for our more mundane tasks, actual reality is becoming a more exciting, creative space than it’s ever been, even if it means getting comfortable with our new “homelessness.” And that’s Killin’ It!
