If you are physically present but mentally absent, where are you exactly?

It is a complicated but seemingly simple answer to me; you’re at home in a foreign place. When (most) people leave what they claim as “home” for however long, they still never fully escape it. Home is also in that little 4.5” tall rectangle permanently stuck in your hand or the iPad that cannot leave your sight.  It doesn’t matter if you are shopping in Paris, riding the subways in New York City or skating on ice ponds in Iceland, your home is with you and for the most part inescapable.

There I was, roaming the streets of Paris one summer, the city I had been dreaming of since I was 5 years old. I could hear all the beautiful accents that I could only sadly try to imitate; I could smell the fresh baked bread and the espresso that is to die for. Who would think that in the famed city of lights that I would be on my iPhone looking at ways to redecorate my bedroom on Pinterest? Certainly I never did! Unfortunately, it was like this with most everyone else around me and it is like this everywhere you go in the world (that has technology etc).

It did not matter that I was thousands of miles away from my home, I was still connected to it in some way from the moment I left it; that being a text from a friend, a Facebook message or wall post, loading and reloading Twitter, or checking Pinterest to see how I could update my home once I got back to it. I never truly got to experience Paris. I was physically present, but my mind was back at “home.” A quote that came from “Always On” by Sherry Turkle helps to reinforce my point.

“Leaving home has always been a way to see one’s culture anew. But what if, tethered, we bring our homes with us?”

What do you think? What would you call a place that you are physically in but your mind is lost in technology elsewhere?

What is culture, you ask?

Take a look around you. Your room, your house, your neighborhood, your school, your city... that, to me, is culture in a nutshell. Culture is different people fitting together in their own unique ways based on experiences, lifestyle choices, and how one views life. To be “cultured” is to live in a specific bubble and to do the things that make you fit into that specific bubble; it is what makes you "fit in" so to speak in that particular setting.

When I first asked myself “what is culture?” I envisioned in my head many different things. The way different tribes dress in Africa, the spicy Thai food in Thailand, the way business’ in New Zealand close at 5 p.m. and how in Jamaica “there are no problems mon.” All of these places are different. In my opinion what differs one place from another is their culture; the way that they do things, experiences gained over time, knowledge passed on from one generation to the next and how they live their day to day lives. Naturally, the excerpt that I agreed with most was “Culture is Ordinary” by Raymond Williams.

“The making of a society is the finding of common meanings and directions, and its growth is an active debate and amendment under the pressures of experiences, contact, and discovery, writing themselves into the land.”

Someone who lives in fast-paced New York City taking cabs and subways to their skyscraper office building would feel slightly out of context if they moved to College Station and a cowboy hat was placed on their head.

From my perspective, we become “cultured” in where we live and spend our time. College Station is a very country city; to “fit in” to College Station’s society you need a pair of cowboy boots and a love for country music, excluding Taylor Swift. I grew up  in a city where the style was converse and skinny jeans and I have noticed since I moved here four years ago, I have molded to College Station’s way of dressing. I find myself tolerating the idea that a banjo is considered an instrument. I have become “cultured” to College Station’s lifestyle.

Do you agree with my definition of culture or do you think culture has a more narrow meaning? Does it have a more broad meaning? Do you think it is just one specific idea?