Understanding Today’s Geography

 

The need for understanding geography doesn’t go away.  Place matters as much as it ever did.  However today, place looks different, as we have two spaces.  We have physical spaces that individuals reside in and virtual spaces in which we choose to engage. 

Geographic Characteristics of Physical Spaces

 Physical spaces have remained relatively the same physical distance from one another. Physical spaces on our planet do move due to plate tectonics. However, that movement is usually so slow that we often do not notice a change in direction or distance. 

Access to physical spaces have barriers of time, distance, physical barriers, economic barriers and geopolitical ones as well. They have different terrains, landscapes, flora, fauna, seasons and climates. The built environment, population densities and cultures in these physical spaces vary. London, England, for example, is very different than London, Kentucky.

Depending on distance, geopolitical barriers and your access to transportation modes and the modes themselves, the effort and time to arrive at another destination varies between almost effortless and nearly impossible.  Covid lockdowns, wars, environmental disruptions, and transportation routes are all examples of times and situations where traveling from one place to another is not always a straightforward possibility.

We exist in physical spaces.  They are ever present. We visit virtual spaces. Virtual spaces are fluid and temporary.

Geographic Characteristics of Virtual Spaces

Virtual spaces are growing, and their pace and use was accelerated during the Covid pandemic. Anyone with access to virtual spaces can live in one location and interact with people, work, attend classes, webinars, conferences and more in another.  Captioning provides access to sound information, such as speech and background noises, for those without audio and those who are deaf or hard of hearing.  Subtitles and apps translate languages.

Virtual spaces have their own geography determined by cyberspace infrastructure, connectivity and gaps in connectivity.  Virtual spaces rely on radio, satellite and WIFI signals or access via internet and fiberoptic cables. While our physical world is always present, the virtual world must have electrical power, cyberspace infrastructure and access points (platforms and user devices, such as phones, tablets or computers) to exist. Carrier platforms do not cover the same physical geography. They do not always overlap coverage, and gaps in coverage exist. 

Not only do individuals communicating with one another in virtual spaces need to be using the same platform or application, they may also need to be a member of a particular organization or pay a fee to have access to a particular virtual space such as a webinar, class or conference.  An invitation is needed to join a particular virtual meeting. 

Virtual spaces do not rely on physical proximity to a person, they rely on connections between people.  Geography in virtual space is not determined by physical location, it is determined by connections between people using the same platform.  One does not have physical neighbors in the virtual world.  One has friends and connections.  Friends and connections may be first tier; but physically live halfway around the world.  Virtual spaces allow us to live in one place while working or attending school in another.

Social Media allows people to communicate via posts and videos across the world; and at the same time, it divides the world into platforms (countries), groups (cities/states) and social circles (neighborhoods).

Telephone calls, texts and emails provide instantaneous communication opportunities. Social Media influences what one sees and reads based on algorithms, information access controls and connectivity. You must be connected in some way to see a post or video; and that post of video must be accessible, not censored, blocked or removed.

Applications such as Zoom, Sessions, Teams, GoToMeeting, Discord, Facetime and many more provide real-time audio-visual connections between people.  These spaces facilitate audio-visual communication with people near and far.

While still under development, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (XR) take it one step further.  These artificial, simulated universes can look and feel like our physical world, but the restrictions of time and space are different. 

Such virtual spaces enable us to live and work in a space that looks and feels like our physical world.  They can make it seem as if we are communicating in physical proximity to individuals in different physical locations.  At the same time, they keep you disconnected from your physical location and people in that space. So, while you may be vividly aware of the virtual space you are in, you are in many ways blind to the physical space in which you are located.

It is important to remember that virtual does not replace physical.  While you may use a variety of devices to talk, chat, electronically message or video chat with someone at a distance, you can in all those modes only access a small fraction of their actual physical environment and their physical presence.  Their sights, smells, physical surroundings and more cannot be experienced the same way virtually as they can be in person.

We have the ability to operate in two different geographies.

And many of us do that each day.  Each geography provides opportunities and difficulties that the other does not.  We need to distinguish between the two geographies and be cognizant of how we interact in both spaces, not only for our own safety, comfort and growth; but also to be able to benefit from what each has to offer. 

Both worlds are complex. Be aware of your environment.  Just as some physical spaces require more vigilance than others, so do virtual spaces.  The virtual world is easier to manipulate. This provides many opportunities for instantaneous interaction and modeling that are not available in physical spaces.  It also requires more vigilance and verification. 

While people can hide their identities in the physical world, the virtual world provides more opportunities to do the same.  We need to ensure that the person we are interacting with online is the person they say they are.  We also need to understand if they are being authentic or not. 

We need to verify the stories we see and read online.  Often, we need to wait for the full story to emerge, as many are published before all facts are available. Be aware of bias in coverage. Be aware of your own biases as well.  Is our virtual world an echo chamber?  Or do we interact with people who may think differently or hold different opinions than we do?

When our physical environment is not behaving as our models say it should, we need to stop, ask questions and rethink our models.  While models help us understand our physical world, our physical world is more realistic than our model.

Take time each day to unplug.  Be present to those around you.  Maybe take even longer periods of time in the physical world.  Get to know it. Get to know your surroundings and the people, flora and fauna that share that space with you.