The first thing that shocks a newcomer to New York is the sheer human density of the city. There are people everywhere. No matter how hard you try, you just can't get away from all the people.
So New Yorkers simply redefine privacy. They shout into their cellphones as if there's no one around them; they talk to themselves while walking down the street. They have loud (and occasionally witty) conversations with their compadres without it even occuring to them that people around them can hear everything they say.
Of course most everybody around them is oblivious too, talking to themselves, or shouting into their own cellphones.
When you're surrounded all the time in a world like this, it can be at times highly amusing. But it can also become surprisingly easy to feel utterly anonymous, even lonely.
This at times makes it quite difficult to live here, especially as a single person. That's why one of New York's nicknames is "the lonely city."
So New Yorkers simply redefine privacy. They shout into their cellphones as if there's no one around them; they talk to themselves while walking down the street. They have loud (and occasionally witty) conversations with their compadres without it even occuring to them that people around them can hear everything they say.
Of course most everybody around them is oblivious too, talking to themselves, or shouting into their own cellphones.
When you're surrounded all the time in a world like this, it can be at times highly amusing. But it can also become surprisingly easy to feel utterly anonymous, even lonely.
This at times makes it quite difficult to live here, especially as a single person. That's why one of New York's nicknames is "the lonely city."
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