Difference between revisions of "Anomie"

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===Definition===
 
===Definition===
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In 1938, Sociologist [[Émile Durkheim]] published a study on populations called [[Social Structure and Anomie]]. In the study, he found that those of Catholic faith were less likely to commit suicide than those of Protestant faith. Did it have something to do with religion? Further research suggested that those of the Catholic faith were more likely to have stronger family ties and be part of a community, whereas those with Protestant ties were less likely to be community oriented. He found that those who were isolated from others had fewer connections and were more likely to commit suicide.<ref>Durkheim, Emile. The Division of Labor in Society. Trans. Lewis A. Coser. New York: Free Press, 1997.</ref> "Anomie refers to an environmental state where society fails to exercise adequate regulation or constraint over the goals and desires of its individual members".<ref>Durkheim, Emile. Suicide: a study in sociology. The Free Press. 1997. Originally published 1951. Pg. 241—276.</ref> In other words, anomie can form in social groups or societies that do not provide the means of connectivity to their members.  
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In everyday life, the modern vehicle and the daily commute is one of the most isolated moments an urban human can experience. The highway space is a modern anomie: nowhere is family, or connectedness established. Though individuals are connected in traffic, this connection is generally one of mutual frustration. The annoyance, while communal, pits each vehicle driver against one another’s irregularities and driving styles. Contact between drivers on the highway is generally one of misfortune or anger.  
  
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Anomie in the hyperconnected world can often be deadly, as the annihilation of geography tends to isolate the individual further than ever possible before. A social network with a high potential of connectivity does not automatically guarantee it.
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In his [[Phenomenon of Man]], Pierre Teilhard de Chardin wrote that connectivity equals life, and isolation equals death.<ref>de Chardin, Pierre Teilhard. The Phenomenon of Man. 1955.</ref> Being connected is a luxury. Modern individuals can transcend non-places like highways or airport terminals by the use of mobile telephony. A cell phone provides a virtual ‘vacation’ from the isolation of modernity. An online social network helps relieve the feelings of Anomie caused by one's nearby geography.  
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All life is mystery meat navigation. All clicks unwrap presents. We can’t see what is on the other side, but we want to get there. We are great unknowing youth. If we really knew what was on the other side we would never consume or love like we do. We would despair. Instead, we are kings, kings that reign for only a little while before being enslaved and tortured to death by endless lines, airport travel, traffic jams, physical and mental isolation, elevator music, and boring architecture. The only way out of this isolation is through reconnecting to culture and community via the iPod, the text message, or the phone call. There is no limitless value, or infinite reproducibility of objects, but rather a limited supply of connectivity.  In his [[Phenomenon of Man]], Pierre Teilhard de Chardin wrote that connectivity equals life, and isolation equals death.<ref>de Chardin, Pierre Teilhard. The Phenomenon of Man. 1955.</ref> Being connected is a luxury.
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In everyday life, the modern vehicle and the daily commute is one of the most isolated moments an urban human can experience. The highway space is a modern anomie: nowhere is family, or connectedness established. Though individuals are connected in traffic, this connection is generally one of mutual frustration. The annoyance, while communal, pits each vehicle driver against one another’s irregularities and driving styles. Contact between drivers on the highway is generally one of misfortune or anger.  
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Through the subject and the technology combined, the subject can become an Actor on the larger [[Actor Network Theory|Actor Network]]. In this respect, mobile technology can help prevent feelings of isolation that suburbia and other technologies provide. NYTimes writer Christine Pearson writes that "through our devices, we find a way to disappear without leaving the room. By splitting ourselves off and reaching out electronically, we fill empty interpersonal space and ignite our senses".<ref>Pearson, Christine. Preoccupations: Sending a Message That You Don’t Care. The New York Times Online. Published 15 May 2010. Accessed Oct 10 2011. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/16/jobs/16pre.html</ref> An individual in the middle of a traffic jam or a lonely city can escape their geographical isolation while using a technosocial device.
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To escape from modernity for a little while gives the human a tiny bit of power over their incarcerated state.
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In sociologist Emelie Durkheim’s perspective, a malnourished public sphere deprives individuals of real social connections. In the face of this Anomie, the cell phone allows an organic social network. Through the subject and the technology combined, the subject can become an Actor on the larger Actor Network. If the human spends time in a non-place, then the addition of a non-place accessed through the telephone tears through the solitary contractility characterized by the non-place. Both the place and the non-place can exist at once, because in the supermodern perspective all dichotomies blur into one another.
  
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===Mobile Phones and the Reduction of Anomie===
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“What emerges from the fading social norms is naked, frightened, aggressive ego in search of love and help. The isolated human in the non-place seeks to reconnect with those in proximity, but cannot". In the search for itself and an affectionate sociality, it easily gets lost in the jungle of the self...Someone who is poking around in the fog of his of his or her own self is no longer capable of noticing that this isolation, this ‘solitary confinement of the ego’ is a mass sentence”.<ref>Beck, Ulrick. On the Mortality of Industrial Society, in Ecological enlightenment: essays on the politics of the risk society. Translated by Mark A. Ritter. Humanities Press, 1995. Pg. 40.</ref>
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The tension of existing in an isolated modern state can be transcended by the use of a cell phone, because cell phones are social devices and can help users to reconnect in an increasingly isolated modern reality. Through the subject and the technology combined, the subject can become an Actor on the larger [[Actor Network Theory|Actor Network]]. To escape from modernity for a little while gives the human a tiny bit of power over their incarcerated state. The traffic jam warrants a cell phone for the human to escape the physical constraints that the [[Panopticon]] holds on the human body. Modern individuals can transcend non-places like highways or airport terminals by the use of mobile telephony. A cell phone provides a virtual ‘vacation’ from the isolation of modernity. An online social network helps relieve the feelings of Anomie caused by one's nearby geography. In this respect, mobile technology can help prevent feelings of isolation that suburbia and other technologies provide.  
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==References==
 
==References==

Latest revision as of 05:12, 15 August 2012

Anomie-Maggie-Nichols.jpg

Definition

In everyday life, the modern vehicle and the daily commute is one of the most isolated moments an urban human can experience. The highway space is a modern anomie: nowhere is family, or connectedness established. Though individuals are connected in traffic, this connection is generally one of mutual frustration. The annoyance, while communal, pits each vehicle driver against one another’s irregularities and driving styles. Contact between drivers on the highway is generally one of misfortune or anger.

In his Phenomenon of Man, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin wrote that connectivity equals life, and isolation equals death.[1] Being connected is a luxury. Modern individuals can transcend non-places like highways or airport terminals by the use of mobile telephony. A cell phone provides a virtual ‘vacation’ from the isolation of modernity. An online social network helps relieve the feelings of Anomie caused by one's nearby geography.

Through the subject and the technology combined, the subject can become an Actor on the larger Actor Network. In this respect, mobile technology can help prevent feelings of isolation that suburbia and other technologies provide. NYTimes writer Christine Pearson writes that "through our devices, we find a way to disappear without leaving the room. By splitting ourselves off and reaching out electronically, we fill empty interpersonal space and ignite our senses".[2] An individual in the middle of a traffic jam or a lonely city can escape their geographical isolation while using a technosocial device. To escape from modernity for a little while gives the human a tiny bit of power over their incarcerated state.

In sociologist Emelie Durkheim’s perspective, a malnourished public sphere deprives individuals of real social connections. In the face of this Anomie, the cell phone allows an organic social network. Through the subject and the technology combined, the subject can become an Actor on the larger Actor Network. If the human spends time in a non-place, then the addition of a non-place accessed through the telephone tears through the solitary contractility characterized by the non-place. Both the place and the non-place can exist at once, because in the supermodern perspective all dichotomies blur into one another.

“What emerges from the fading social norms is naked, frightened, aggressive ego in search of love and help. The isolated human in the non-place seeks to reconnect with those in proximity, but cannot". In the search for itself and an affectionate sociality, it easily gets lost in the jungle of the self...Someone who is poking around in the fog of his of his or her own self is no longer capable of noticing that this isolation, this ‘solitary confinement of the ego’ is a mass sentence”.[3]

References

  1. ↑ de Chardin, Pierre Teilhard. The Phenomenon of Man. 1955.
  2. ↑ Pearson, Christine. Preoccupations: Sending a Message That You Don’t Care. The New York Times Online. Published 15 May 2010. Accessed Oct 10 2011. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/16/jobs/16pre.html
  3. ↑ Beck, Ulrick. On the Mortality of Industrial Society, in Ecological enlightenment: essays on the politics of the risk society. Translated by Mark A. Ritter. Humanities Press, 1995. Pg. 40.
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