The Importance Of Space-Time Distanciation

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Space-time compression and space-time distanciation are characteristic of our current globalized world and result in the speeding up of socio-economic processes and the stretching of our social world. They are concepts that have changed the way humans inhabit space and in my life are terms that have directly enabled long-distance relationships between family members and myself while I have been away at college. While space-time compression and distanciation have allowed for the expansion of my familial ties across a massive distance, it has not been without change to the nature and tendencies of said ties. Space -time compression is a constructed term to reference the transportation and communication advancements that have minimized the importance …show more content…

I feel selfish if I cannot find a few minutes to call my family members, but at the same time I get extremely irritated when they express unhappiness over my inability to stay in contact. The ease of long distance communication associated with space-time compression has also inserted new expectations about the temporality of my relationships. While living at home, if I missed a text or call there was no sense of urgency to respond as I knew I could answer the question or continue the conversation in person. Now, an unanswered text or call remains hanging in the air as face-to-face contact is no longer viable. Space-time distanciation has imposed a pseudo-requirement for my family in which we all expect prompt replies to our modes of virtual communication. This however, can cause my immediate social world to feel crowded. For me, my immediate social world has doubled since I left for college as I have created a new social life embedded in my current locality as well as continued connections with people from home in a virtual manner. The breadth of my social world has increased, and virtual connections are made to feel immediate through communication advancements such as

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