Reminds me of a discussion I had in 1991 with people in a publishing company client of mine about how many people each of us would meet over the course of our entire life. Defining “to meet” as “to exchange names”, my clients thought they would each meet fewer than 1000 people over the course of their life. My estimate for myself was 20,000 people. Since then, and the growth of the Internet, my own estimate has risen considerably. Plenitude rules, OK!

But what about not necesssarily unstable relationships but differently structured relationships? What does it mean to ‘know’ someone now? I am often stunned by how quickly someone wants go get ‘linked in’ with me…hey, are we really at that point in the relationship already? I have found (and excuse me if this is a generalization) that for people born in the late 70s/early 80s, one encounter at one event or one meeting qualifies you for linked in status. How utterly unthinkable this would have been to the great grandparents in the old country, some of whom may have only met a few hundred people over the course of their lifetime.

Note: British sociologist David Morley has done quite a bit of work in this area of geographies of the new and the impact of media and technology on identities.