Scales of Social Space

Social creatures we are, thus equipped with sharp senses to acknowledge everyone else’s presence, intrusion, proximity or threat. But we do not live in the wild anymore. Our daily routine is a massive pattern of confluence in public places. We spend more and more time forced to remain outside of our comfort zone, our own home, our private and intimate rooms.

Since I was born, two decades ago, more than 50% of the rural population migrated into the urban and suburban settings in my country: México. Since then, public transportation systems fully subsidized by the federal government, have become traps for over sixty million pairs of eyes in Mexico City only. People crowd, their gazes avoid and cope with steering from all directions.

Although I imagine the situation has been researched extensively, the use of personal stereo causes on me an intense reaction. I use an i-pod and at times I see myself trapped this way.  Being absolved or being rescued by technology is what we consider the best option to create a niche of our own. Who else in the world does it? What is the purpose of a cricket’s song, of a butterfly scent, of a bee dance, of a flower’s colorful petals if not attracting….!?  In reality if we only dared to make eye contact, we would commune, relax, engage and belong to the moment. Hiding in manipulated sound is only a source of deeper alienation because the overwhelming feeling we get from human presence, proximity and contact, is an element of neglect. Our inner nature and personal stereo, although familiar, pleasant and manipulative, brings us back into solitary confinement.

The moment we plug in our earphones and immerse ourselves in the personal stereo we become judges of our own human condition; naively, we place ourselves aside regardless of the same fate. When we hide within, as we place ourselves aside from the crowd, we phenomena of strategies to build personal space. The use of personal stereo being devises to retrieve and protect a person’s identity and space.

How are we going to learn, how are we going to provide ourselves with the most comfortable feeling which is the presence of other humans on an average peaceful situation?

The answer is not simple and the point we have reached to need isolation reveals our numbers have exceeded the balance and density which we can tolerate as a social species.

Consequences of this forced existence could be worse, personal stereo providing us with relaxing calming sounds is a very simple solution. What will come next? This step is already a virtual reality, how far could we go, why do we want to go?

Personal stereo devises create already more of the same as if we had not enough forces pushing to erase in us any trace of individuality and personal convictions. By using these devises we are not creating an individual by allowing the system to enter in our brain and be manipulated not only in our ideas but also our emotions. The title is biased; all elements could be analyzed to prove our social space shortens or vanishes absolutely when we attempt to protect ourselves and motivate our individuality by an unreal comfort zone.