I think it’s something like “for a lot of activities people do, they don’t actually care about the activity per se, or the ostensive goal of the activity, but they do it because it’s the done thing, or because that’s what everyone else is doing, so it’s important for socially connecting.”
eg.
People want to talk about something with their coworkers around the water cooler, or with their buddies in the pub after work. They don’t actually care what they’re talking about very much, but they don’t like being out of the loop, especially if there’s a set of things that “respectable” people are supposed to know. When communities are small and communication technologies weak, the only things that there are to talk about are local events. Over time, other topics became possible as the topic of conversation, and they were more scintillating, so focus shifted from local news to national news.
refinement: people have always moved, but they used to reorient towards a local social circle. Now they can stay in contact with their old friends forever but they’re never going to discuss local politics with them, only national.
I think it’s something like “for a lot of activities people do, they don’t actually care about the activity per se, or the ostensive goal of the activity, but they do it because it’s the done thing, or because that’s what everyone else is doing, so it’s important for socially connecting.”
eg.
People want to talk about something with their coworkers around the water cooler, or with their buddies in the pub after work. They don’t actually care what they’re talking about very much, but they don’t like being out of the loop, especially if there’s a set of things that “respectable” people are supposed to know. When communities are small and communication technologies weak, the only things that there are to talk about are local events. Over time, other topics became possible as the topic of conversation, and they were more scintillating, so focus shifted from local news to national news.
(Which is an example of your #2, I think.)
refinement: people have always moved, but they used to reorient towards a local social circle. Now they can stay in contact with their old friends forever but they’re never going to discuss local politics with them, only national.