Democratizing Intimacy

A long time ago people worked where they lived. Farmers farmed on their land and craftsmen made their trinkets at homes. With the start of the industrial age and modern bureaucracy there emerged a clear separation of one’s public and private sphere. People had to leave their homes (with their families and non-work friends) to work away in factories and offices. The situation became that when you entered your public sphere you completely left your private sphere behind. People were expected to dedicate their full attention to the tasks at hand. And while contact with one’s private sphere was not completely non-existent it was very limited. Access to it was a function of a person’s status. The higher up you were on the ladder the more access you had to your private sphere. An example would be the manager who most likely had a phone or direct line on his desks to his house while the flip side of it would be the factory worker who had to contend, together with all his co-workers, on a single public phone if there fortunately ever was one.

Advances in communication technology have democratized access of everyone to the private sphere. Access has no longer become a function of one’s status. The factory worker is, to a certain degree, able to stay in touch with his family and friends to the same extent as his manager. This whole idea of how these advances have democratized intimacy was the idea of a cognitive scientist, Stefana Broadbent. The ability to keep in touch during office hours might not seem to be such a big deal. However when we think about the millions of OFW working outside the country for months or years far away from their families, this democratizing effect has given them similar access to their private spheres allowing for some form of parental relationship to take place, an effect on people’s lives which cannot be lightly discounted.

Linus Madamba
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