5 ms·

> I'm not so sure why many are so eager to lament a shrinking rural population. I'm not from the States, but I guess this is fairly universal: Country-side li

by ahje 8y ago

> I'm not so sure why many are so eager to lament a shrinking rural population. I'm not from the States, but I guess this is fairly universal: Country-side living has it's benefits: The pace is usually lower, there's less pollution and things are delightfully silent. Personally I have no intention of ever moving into a densely populated area again. Apart from that, there's a lot of local culture and customs that is slowly being lost as young people move away from rural areas and into population centres dominated by international pop-culture. There's also the problem with people in urban areas losing their touch with the outside world, living in a small bubble with no idea about how things work outside. This will, in the long run, result in a lot of knowledge being lost.

freddie_mercury 8y ago
I'm not sure it is universal, though it is certainly widespread in the US and Europe. I was at dinner the other day with a friend who was born & raised in Asia and she argued that the romanticized view of village life is far less prevalent in Asia, where it is less a sign of morals and family values and more a sign of abject poverty and lack of education. I'm not sure I buy her argument but I thought it was interesting that her reaction to having lived in America for a year and seeing these issues up close was, "We're used to it in Asia but they're not used to it in America so they get very upset that that's how the world works now."
JansjoFromIkea 8y ago
one person's "delightfully silent" is another's "uncomfortably silent". As someone who grew up in a rural area (Irish rural, so nowhere near the kind of rural you can get in other countries), there seemed to be a shared feeling amongst just about everyone that everyone else knew far too much about their affairs. And if you're considered an outsider in the community it can be close to impossible for you or your family to ever break in. It's easy to romanticise a rural area too and mourn knowledge being lost, but that simultaneously involves condemning kids to continue the same cycles as their parents maintaining traditions and practices with little motive behind it beyond it being the thing that was always done. The small bubbles of rural areas are often far smaller and far more ignorant than densely populated areas too. I had no source of knowledge whatsoever as to how the rest of the world functioned until I moved away. There was basically no chance in hell I was going to be able to know what I might like to do with my life at 18. One thing I never got with families who moved out of a city to live in a (much much bigger) house in the country was why they didn't factor the sheer amount of extra work that will be involved in expanding their child's worldview when out of school activities become slim-to-nonexistent.
- CalRobert 8y ago
  I'd be curious where you were, if you don't mind. I'm moving near Tullamore soon because I was sick of paying to be in Dublin when there was little real benefit as a remote worker with a kid (not like I get out much) If nothing else, I heard several different languages at Lidl and there seemed to have people from many different places. But Tullamore is still commutable to Dublin (if only just) and probably not as rural as you'r thinking.
  - JansjoFromIkea 8y ago
    I'd be a bit further than Athlone, very much the hard ending of the commuter belt. The actual area I'm from is at the very edge of Tullamore Hospital's general area of coverage, so most my experience of Tullamore is having to go there in tragic circumstances, not super positive! If the tradeoff includes no change in income and not having to deal with the daily commute, I think the amount of additional time and money to spend with kids would be a huge positive. Most of the ones I know are doing a daily ~80 minute train journey (complete with panicked rush to get to the station for their particular train each morning)... I dunno how anyone can justify erasing that much time from every day of their lives, or how they can have the time to do anything with/for their kids.
    - CalRobert 8y ago
      Yeah, remote work is a huge part of it. To be honest it comes down to a big mortgage in Dublin or using my deposit to buy a house in cash in Offaly. I suspect we're due for a crash, too, making said mortgage even less enticing. But if I find myself cramming in to the Luas from Heuston to the Docklands in a few years, well, it'll be my comeuppance for wanting to own a home outright.
- renholder 8y ago
  >...if you're considered an outsider in the community it can be close to impossible for you or your family to ever break in. To be fair, having experienced the Irish culture for a larger part of three years, this sentiment doesn't seem - implicitly - limited to the rural areas. A cursory search on <insert your chosen search engine here> for things like "making friends in Ireland" will demonstrate this. This isn't to discredit your entire premise about rural life in Ireland, as I've definitely noticed the trends you're speaking of but this particular facet isn't inherenly a symptom of rural life in Ireland but, rather, seems to be a symptom of the overall culture. (Note: I'm not trying to speak ill of Ireland, whatsoever, just noting my own anecdotal observations compared to what you suggest.)

by ahje 8y ago

freddie_mercury 8y ago

I'm not sure it is universal, though it is certainly widespread in the US and Europe. I was at dinner the other day with a friend who was born & raised in Asia and she argued that the romanticized view of village life is far less prevalent in Asia, where it is less a sign of morals and family values and more a sign of abject poverty and lack of education. I'm not sure I buy her argument but I thought it was interesting that her reaction to having lived in America for a year and seeing these issues up close was, "We're used to it in Asia but they're not used to it in America so they get very upset that that's how the world works now."

JansjoFromIkea 8y ago

one person's "delightfully silent" is another's "uncomfortably silent". As someone who grew up in a rural area (Irish rural, so nowhere near the kind of rural you can get in other countries), there seemed to be a shared feeling amongst just about everyone that everyone else knew far too much about their affairs. And if you're considered an outsider in the community it can be close to impossible for you or your family to ever break in. It's easy to romanticise a rural area too and mourn knowledge being lost, but that simultaneously involves condemning kids to continue the same cycles as their parents maintaining traditions and practices with little motive behind it beyond it being the thing that was always done. The small bubbles of rural areas are often far smaller and far more ignorant than densely populated areas too. I had no source of knowledge whatsoever as to how the rest of the world functioned until I moved away. There was basically no chance in hell I was going to be able to know what I might like to do with my life at 18. One thing I never got with families who moved out of a city to live in a (much much bigger) house in the country was why they didn't factor the sheer amount of extra work that will be involved in expanding their child's worldview when out of school activities become slim-to-nonexistent.

CalRobert 8y ago
I'd be curious where you were, if you don't mind. I'm moving near Tullamore soon because I was sick of paying to be in Dublin when there was little real benefit as a remote worker with a kid (not like I get out much) If nothing else, I heard several different languages at Lidl and there seemed to have people from many different places. But Tullamore is still commutable to Dublin (if only just) and probably not as rural as you'r thinking.
- JansjoFromIkea 8y ago
  I'd be a bit further than Athlone, very much the hard ending of the commuter belt. The actual area I'm from is at the very edge of Tullamore Hospital's general area of coverage, so most my experience of Tullamore is having to go there in tragic circumstances, not super positive! If the tradeoff includes no change in income and not having to deal with the daily commute, I think the amount of additional time and money to spend with kids would be a huge positive. Most of the ones I know are doing a daily ~80 minute train journey (complete with panicked rush to get to the station for their particular train each morning)... I dunno how anyone can justify erasing that much time from every day of their lives, or how they can have the time to do anything with/for their kids.
  - CalRobert 8y ago
    Yeah, remote work is a huge part of it. To be honest it comes down to a big mortgage in Dublin or using my deposit to buy a house in cash in Offaly. I suspect we're due for a crash, too, making said mortgage even less enticing. But if I find myself cramming in to the Luas from Heuston to the Docklands in a few years, well, it'll be my comeuppance for wanting to own a home outright.
renholder 8y ago
>...if you're considered an outsider in the community it can be close to impossible for you or your family to ever break in. To be fair, having experienced the Irish culture for a larger part of three years, this sentiment doesn't seem - implicitly - limited to the rural areas. A cursory search on <insert your chosen search engine here> for things like "making friends in Ireland" will demonstrate this. This isn't to discredit your entire premise about rural life in Ireland, as I've definitely noticed the trends you're speaking of but this particular facet isn't inherenly a symptom of rural life in Ireland but, rather, seems to be a symptom of the overall culture. (Note: I'm not trying to speak ill of Ireland, whatsoever, just noting my own anecdotal observations compared to what you suggest.)