John Paul Francis

The digital/online realm is presenting an interesting paradox for the concept of “place”. On one side, the digital realm allows us to gain information and knowledge about places that would otherwise be entirely unreachable from the comfort of our homes. Places can be explored virtually through Google street view, live streams, and real time data with an accuracy that is almost indistinguishable from the place itself. Beyond that, the level of information we have on places, cities, etc. allows for holistic visualizations and mappings of cities that would have otherwise been infeasible. The digital world has allowed us to understand places as an amalgamate product in a way that we never have before. We can travel the globe and discover information about places from our home that we may not even be able to gain after months of physical travel. Therein lies the paradox.

Out supposed understanding of place through the digital realm has almost made the place itself irrelevant as a physical entity. The conception of the place lies more in the digital imagining of it than the location itself. The world is becoming more and more borderless and it will be interesting to see whether or not digital globalization will lead to the dilution of endemic communities.

Ultimately, we’re just learning that the idea of place and “local” communities is a more abstract concept than previously imagined. Place has always been about the resources you have, people you can access, and mindsets you identify with, but we’re learning and seeing all this have less and less correlation with geography.