New York's Fading Allure

Fran Lebowitz in conversation with The Awl. She was asked, "If you were a teenage kid right now looking for some place to move, do you think it would still be New York City?" Her response:

I don't know. People are not so isolated anymore. Because of the Internet and because of the popular culture in general, where people actually are is certainly a lot less important than it used to be. There's no question that geography is fast disappearing in a certain way. The New York that I came to doesn't exist anymore. The little town I left is still there, but it's as changed as New York is. So, it's really impossible for me to imagine. There’s not the same need to go to cities as there used to be for some people, depending upon whether or not you like to live in cities, which I do. People don't have to escape so much anymore. It's not as restrictive to live outside of the big city now. There's not the same kind of convention anywhere. It's not that there are no conventions, but they've changed. It used to be that small towns were suffocating because everyone knew you and everyone was watching you, but that really doesn't exist anymore, even in small towns. People don't even know who lives next door to them. I hated being watched all the time as a kid. I really couldn't stand it. But people aren't watched like that anymore. No one cares.

Speaking of Fran Lebowitz.