Scoreboard Urbanism: Theorizing Mental Life in the Digitally Mediated Metropolis

Georg Simmel famously argued that the sensory onslaught of urban environment forces people to reduce world calculable quantities over colorful qualities and adopt a blasé attitude muted emotions. Today’s digitally mediated city involves levels quantification could have scarcely imagined. However, rather than exacerbating attitude, this paper makes case digital technologies potentially increase our emotional moral attachments environment—a phenomenon can be called “scoreboard urbanism.” From Yelp ratings Fitbit step scores, relationship is increasingly by quantitative metrics. The purpose outline basic characteristics scoreboard urbanism as distinct mode life entails new ways perceiving interacting with public realm. In doing so, argues has transformed into “gamespace” characterized competitive exhilarating drive score points.