On Many-to-Many, i was surprised to find an article discussing Eric Paulos and Elizabeth Goodman’s Familiar Stranger work in relation to my own contemplations. Anyone who knows me knows that i adore Milgram’s work and have always had a deep appreciation for his four page piece on The Familiar Stranger. I think that the familiar stranger is such a strong concept that is rarely discussed, and yet so relevant.
That said, i should tease out my use of Milgram’s ideas from what Intel is doing. Intel is truly looking at the physical space, how we relate to familiar strangers offline. A large part of what i’m curious about is how we use the digital space as a secondary context for relating to strangers. Do we become more curious to know who they are when we see them online and recognize them as an offline familiar stranger? What role do these people play in our social network? How do we negotiate their physical presence once we have observed them online?
That said, if you’re a researcher, you must read Milgram’s work on The Familiar Stranger (it’s all of four pages, one of which is a large picture).
Did you happen to read the article Disconnected Urbanism?
Author Paul Goldenberger talks about the growing use of cell phones. His contention is that using such devices destroys our notion of public space, replacing it with a physical locale in which people are, umm, less “there” because they are connecting to other people in other places in a virtual way.
I blogged about it a day or so ago, but I am still thinking about it.
Your link was fascinating. Thanks!
Ahh- now I REALLY want to read Milgram’s original essay. Do you happen to know if it’s posted somewhere?
Travia/Milgram, S. (1974). Frozen World of the Familiar Stranger. Psychology Today, 8: 70-3+, Je ’74.
– Emilio (defeated googler by the thousands of references to it on physichology websites)
PS: Thanks for the awesome space!
I highly recommend the whole book: The Individual in a Social World. I don’t believe that any of his essays are online.
I really don’t get the big idea of the famililiar stranger 🙁 . Why should i wear such a device from Intel?