Maps

[supergee]

It is a well-known psychological fact that people tend to think that those far away from them are close to each other. When I started sending a zine out around the world, I had to deal with a feeling that I had a number of readers on the same block (Australia), with a few over across town in New Zealand. Some people have political maps where Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are neighbors.

Comments

[cmcmck]

I think this is partly you guys with your huge tracts of space- Brits have far less of a sense of distance- fifty miles is a big deal to us.

'I know the Smith family in England- do you know them?'

Equally, a thousand years is just yesterday.

[redbird]

The weird version of that I got that in the US was "you're from Queens, do you know so-and-so?" (Queens is relatively compact, but had a population of 2 million).

Even weirder, when my friend L and I were in Hong Kong, she asked someone we were chatting with "you're from Australia, do you know so-and-so?" and he did.

[cmcmck]

We lived in a biggish conurbation in Kent about the same size but moved recently to live in a small town in Shropshire where the chance of actually knowing people would be a great deal bigger, but even then, it's about 24k population!

[bluegreen17]

24k is considered a small town? i grew up in a small town in new hampshire in northeast usa of about 1,400 people. now i live in a 'big' town of 15k. i realize it is 'relative',and i find that interesting.