The growth of cities in the 18th century weathered a storm of change and transformation in the societies over time. Although having industrial revolution brought about new technological advancement and facilitated people’s lives, this drastic change affected them severely by undermining the social fabric of families. However, the radical change of rural areas to developed cities not only weakened families but also demoralized societies.
Conceivably, having a high rate of strangers, anomalies and the breakdown of integration are attributed to the growth of cities. Therefore, the rise of urban areas fosters individualism and encourages people to become rootless due to the loss of traditions, morality, and ethics. Feasibly, many sociologists have explained the relation between individualism and populated areas. Thereby, they brought to light that the more population and developments people have, the more separated they will be. To emphasize my point, postmodern societies played an enormous role in dissociating people with each other. Consequently, there is a strong correlation between individualism and modern urban spaces in all walks of life, thereby the most important connections between them are; having high population, having different economic classes and globalization.Having high population is one of the most substantial relations between being individualistic and living in highly populated areas. To start with, Having Various types of cultures in one particular spot plays an immense role in separating people, because they will have diverse beliefs, religious, racial, patterns, values, and lifestyles which forms an obstacle between people with different features.
On the basis of these arguments, people can understand that everyone has his/her comfort zone and they terrify from adding people from different cultures to their circle of friends and acquaintances. For example, a Palestinian guy maybe afraid of being friend with a Jewish guy due to the difference of beliefs and religions. Subsequently, the physical shape of today’s societies and buildings is altering as a result of the high population, thereby people are getting less contacted by time. Nowadays, people live either in towers or skyscrapers which affects the relation between people roughly on account of the having no neighborhood. Hence, inhabitants who live in these types of building have low opportunity to meet and know people from the same building resulting from the huge number of people who live in such a tower.
To illustrate, a skyscraper maybe resided by 1000 persons, which devastates social life by making it impossible. Furthermore, the eclipse of community and the rise of social, not only because of having different statuses in terms of education, religion and wealth but also because people in the past were living in a typical rural life in which everyone knows each other, thereby the sense of togetherness was dominant. Whereas, people these days communicate with each other because their jobs or their duties require them to be in touch with each other. However, these conversations are governed by their role in the society and it’s usually formal and based on their commitments.
For instance, the workers in Starbucks are consist of cashiers, waiters, and cleaners, all of them accomplish their missions and get their salaries without socializing or they contact because the work compels them to converse. According to the sociologists Tönnies & Loomis (1957), people in the past had strong integration because they were living in small rural areas and they shared the same level of education and wealth. While now, due to the high population and the industrial cities, most people become strangers.
To sum up, having several kinds of cultures, the change in the external appearance of societies and the fall of communities are the three tremendous reasons why having high population affects people socially and make them more individualistic.Another significant factor proves the relationship between the rise of individualism and modern cities is having different economic classes. Initially, class struggle was emerged between lower classes and upper classes as a result of the rise of the civilized areas which broke down the social ties between people. Chiefly, the modern cities divided people to many categories because of the new types of jobs. Indeed, with the growth of the new cities, many industrial factories was created which contributed in monopolizing the money.
Hence, money in general will be monopolized by some people, while others is exploited and oppressed which evokes conflicts between people. To give an example, when someone works for a wealthy person with a low salary, this makes the relation between the employers and the employees. Moreover, by the emergence of the new industrial and technological cities, people have been classified and prioritized according to their ranks in the societies which generates power structure. Arguably, people with high positions have much more freedom of action than people with futile positions because they have more money. Hitherto, the societies mutate to jungles because there is no equality between the individuals and the strongest always survives. It turns out that power structure leads to inequality, envy and injustice, thereby the society will be scattered and dispersed. To expound, a prominent figure could have special treatment because of his/her position and salary, such as a doctor could use his/her authority for his/her own interests.
Ultimately, the remarkable transformation from mechanical societies to organic societies influences the social ties sorely. In the past, people shared the same experiences and since that everyone interacts with does basically the same tasks and responsibilities they would have the same features, benefits and functions which consolidates relationships between people. Whilst, people these days have different characteristics, attributes and missions, thereby this impact on society extremely in negative way.
This is congruent with Robertson’s (1987) theory that the transformation from similarities to rapid growth of labor, language and religions led to breakdown of integration and scarcity of ethical social standards. In brief, the most important and economical reasons why having modern urban spaces led to individualism are; having class conflict, division of labor and conversion from dependence to interdependence society.The last clue of having a massive linkage between being isolated and living urban life are, globalization and alienation. To begin with, after the information revolution many people preferred to complete their educational career via the internet. In spite of reducing humans’ effort, money and time, it doesn’t offer social and friendly atmosphere, thereby student’s will be affected negatively because they cannot interact with their classmates and professors. Nevertheless, people who study online will be deprived of collaboration, participation and social entrepreneurship, which diminish their social desirability, benefits and experiences.
To clarify, if a group consists of 1000 persons study the same department online, they will not have the opportunity to know each other. Additionally, firms and factories include a large proportion of labour force. However, people who work there sacrifice their social life because most of them are isolated from the external life and even inside the factory they deal with machines. Wendling (2009), argued that people who used to work in factories were recruiting all of their time and effort for their jobs, which makes them not only isolated from their societies but also prevents them from participation in the society.
To exemplify, if someone works in a factory for 8 hours daily, he/she will be unable to meet people from outside which affects their social and psychological life strictly. Eventually, people are secluded from the exterior life due to social media. Feasibly, most people use social media sites to communicate with each other which shrinks people’s meaningful lives, because their interactions and meetings will be replaced by verbal or written messages on the social media. Consequently, people will limit their realistic friction and contact with others due to the facilities that social media provides. Therefore, real social life will be disintegrated and superseded by delusive social life based on mask, lies and unreal emotions.
Besides this, people will be obliged to macerate their harmony unconsciously. To elucidate, people may prefer to open face-time with someone instead of visiting him/her and they could exploit ignorant people by cybersquatting, which destroys trust between people. In short, the world becomes a small village by virtue of the new developments, thereby people are getting more and more individualistic due to three affective factors which are; being educated, socialized via the internet and working in such a jail like factories.In conclusion, having heavily populated areas, having various economic categories and having the globalized world, are the most paramount points which explain the relationship between modernization and the rise of individualism.
To summarize, people have been affected by the passage of time
