Social life in the large city as compared to the towns shows a great preponderance of occasions to see rather than hear people. Before the appearance of omnibuses, railroads, and street cars in the nineteenth century, men were not in a situation where for periods of minutes or hours they could or must look at each other without talking to one another. Modern social life increases in ever growing degree the role of mere visual impression which always characterizes the preponderant part of all sense relationships between man and man and must place social attitudes and feelings upon an entirely changed basis.

XREF: Connects to contemporary studies of urban anonymity, surveillance, and eye contact in public transit. Resonates with Goffman's work on civil inattention and modern discussions of strangers sharing subway cars.

XREF: Connects to Simmel's broader analysis of metropolitan life and the blasé attitude, and to contemporary debates about how smartphones and public transit shape face-to-face social dynamics.

Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order a…, loc. 1083