If you’re from New Jersey, you know what pride comes with identifying the region of the state you you’re from—Central, Southern, Shore, or Northern. No one really knows why, and me being from South Jersey (born and raised!) I was especially puzzled. Having driven up and down the parkway thousands of times, and traveled all across the state, I could make no sense of what was so important about the region of New Jersey I was from, and why I would always be required to take a bullet for its good name. That was, of course!, until I learned about Edward Hall’s theory of context culture.
If you look at the populations density’s of all of New Jersey congressional district, South Jersey—the 2nd-- has the smallest. We are the largest congressional district, and most of our contribution to the state GDP comes by the way of farming and agriculture. Most other district ally themselves with either the Philadelphia area (central,) New York area (northern,) or the weekenders from both (shore.) However, we South Jerseyans tend to be autonomous, with very few of us commuting into the metropolis for work. Instead we own businesses, man our small towns, and live like Joe-six packs. (Well, since Jersey is a blue state, let’s just say John or Jane box-of-wines)
I realize we are stereotyped because we have little involvement with ultra-low context city cultures. This is not to say that we South Jerseyans are like an Inuit fishing community, but we are unified by an ignorance of fast-paced city lives. We know about trees, nature, and what a real beach is (Ocean City, whaddup!)Northern or Central Jerseyans might laugh us off for not knowing how to ride metros or take buses at five, or not going to the theater in the city every weekend, but we love where we are from, and consider ourselves to have the best of both worlds. Going to the city is drivable, but we might still have to ask a few extra questions once were there.
No comments:
Post a Comment