Center of mass

Almaty is a relatively small city where virtually all of the social context is built on personal social ties. The degrees of separation here are likely fewer than six and even though crossing the city itself can take substantial time and effort, crossing it socially can be a quick thing... even if you haven't lived here for 16 years.

Although the Kazakh internet is relatively young and still quite slow, KazNet sports several fairly mature electronic resources that have been around for years. Center of Mass, a relatively simple discussion forum, was initially developed more than 7 years ago by local Almaty computer geeks in order to have a space where they could exchange ideas, ask advice and simply hang out. Being the only bulletin board around, however - friends invited other friends who invited their friends and eventually, Center of Mass grew to today's respectible traffic of 350 thousand unique users per day. In a country of barely 16.5 million people this can be seen as quite an achievement.

Center of Mass is a force in Almaty - a resource in daily life, a space to chat and discuss just about anything from children to cars to the more philosophical questions of love and the Internet, a way to meet people. People who spend a lot of time on the forum are called "CTshniki", many sport site logo stickers on their cars and feel they are part of some kind of interesting cabal. As one person explained - if your car breaks down in the middle of the road and you have the sticker on the car, another person from the site (someone you've never seen before) with the same sticker will most likely stop and help without asking too many questions. CTshniki are part lore and part truth around here and the site is well known and popular enough to generate rumors. In many cases people acknowledge the potential of the site - as rumors float of factions on the site intentionally hatching plans to affect real estate prices purely through the Internet.

Given the level of activity on the forum and the complex social structure it has developed over time to manage the volume of traffic and posts, I wondered how it survived the kind of media environment here in Kazakhstan. The country is well known for being sensitive to various flavors of political commentary. Turns out, the site survives because it does not allow ANY politically charged discussion on the site. This is heavily policed and explained in detail in the rules of behavior. It's an interesting choice and one that makes sense if you consider the mindset of the people who run the site - its purpose is exhange of help and practical information, its result is creation of a zillion of communities that regularly meet in-person and throw parties, its means of survivaly is not allow people to talk about things that go beyond help and practicality... why talk about things you can not change?

Soulful contact with a less hectic past for the ultra mobile

My classmate is one of the movers and shakers of the young generation of Kazakhstan. He arrived to meet me, dressed in a suit and permanently attached to a mobile phone and a blackberry - simultaneously talking on one and typing on the other. He is extraordinarily busy and sports the kind of mobile lifestyle that many in the US talk about as maddening (here it's seen as absolutely, incredibly, insane). When asked about friends, he laughs and tells me that he sees his family once or twice a week... friends? non-work-related friends? not very often.

As a typical mobile professional, he talks of the Internet and its capabilities as perfect tools for perfecting his work and for increasing efficiency. He does not need an office - just a phone, a blackberry, his laptop and wifi. The latter can be gained through the phone if necessary. Everything, even here in Kazakhstan can be purchased, oragnized and delivered via the Internet right from his office for a small fee. "Its all about developing further trust in the Internet - as more people trust the internet with their financial information, more services can be created."

He uses FaceBook, but never actually accesses the site. FB is a way to instantly communicate with his overseas colleagues and everything is done via blackberry - it looks exactly like any other IM. He is not interested in accessing the site itself, updating his own status or browsing someone elses', looking up something unrelated to work there. The very reason here to use FB is that there are times when there is no point in calling, you can just send a quick note without going through the motions of cultural pleasantries. Skype is also useful because it's important to see facial expressions when making deals. No matter how I try to turn the conversation toward personal contacts, we come right back to business and efficiency. There is no time for planning or organizing outings - if something happens and he is notified, he will make an effort to join in. Otherwise, it's work and family. Even odnoklassniki, a site for friends, is for him also a site where there is a forum of his family, where they exchange messages on the account of too hectic a life to meet otherwise.

Yet at the end of our conversation, this ultra-mobile professional softens - odnoklassniki.ru is important - it's nice to know people remember you, it's important to find lost contacts ... He gets a sudden forlorn look on his face and then tells me how pleasant it is to check on old flames and contacts from college and high school. To him, there is value that translates to some kind of soul in managing to keep however faint ties with people who aren't part of his hectic, ultra-mobile life.

The Internet and the older generation

Just like Moscow is vastly different from the rest of Russia, Almaty is different from the rest of Kazakhstan. Where it might be playing second fiddle to Astana on the account of not being a capital anylonger, it certainly remains the main center of the country. Just like Astana, Almaty sports advanced communication infrastructure and Internet access is becoming commonplace. So commonplace, that I encounter it in homes and places where I do not expect.

Yesterday I went to visit a friend of my grandmothers'. She insisted we meet at the apartment of her friend since she is getting her kitchen and bathroom redone in her apartment. Fine, I came by and of course, Russian/Kazakh grannies sat me down to a meal. As we chatted over pirogi's, a variety of salads and intermittent pronouncements that I must eat more as I am obviously too thin, the older ladies (both in their early 70s) started talking about the Internet. Both have access at home, use email and wonder in amazement at the offerings of Skype. Certainly they depend on their son in case and daughter in the other, to set things up and to explain their function. Both, however, also know to find information on the Internet and enjoy sending email - cheaper and quicker than mail. Nobody sends regular letters anymore anyway, wouldn't get an answer that way, but with email it works much better.

The opening of the borders - lower restrictions on international travel and money becoming one of the few limiting factors to that kind of travel make such mobility seem possible and even more or less commonplace. People talk of travel to other countries as something they would like to do themselves if they can ever figure out how to afford rather than some wonderous ability of others. There is a firm sense that "we can go anywhere" even in the older generation here, even though most people that I speak with are happy to stay just where they are, here in Almaty.

Age, changes and technology

One of consistent themes in the countries of FSU is that of renewal, rebuilding and restoration. The old little church, that used to be the only functioning Russian Orthodox church in the city when I was a kid, has been restored and looks just about brand new. When other forms of faith had collapsed in the collapse of Soviet Union, many turned to churches for some kind of emotional and moral support. The churches provided (for a fee of course). Near the well kept church and grounds however, what used to be a large bazaar, is now a sorry small collection of stalls huddled against the road. The rest of the space is a lot with broken up asphalt and trash. Along with the renewal efforts, there is an accompanying process of things falling apart.

As I walked along the church grounds, an older woman walked up to me. "Honey, she said, do you happen to have a mobile phone?" "Sure, I said feeling somehow generous, what do ou need it for?" "Oh, could you tell me the time? she asked and then explained, see nobody has watches these days, they all tell time by mobile phones so I learned to ask if they have one first, then they I know they will tell me the time."

I was visiting friends of my grandmother - similar to her in age, living on a meager pension in their 80s. As we sat on the couch and talked, drinking tea and watching the Russian version of court-TV (since TVs are never off around here it seems) she was telling me how they manage on their meager pension and how she desperately wants a mink coat, but that's the same as not eating for six months... Suddenly we were interrupted by a loud sound of a mobile phone ringer - aunt Lida calmly turned and picked up what turned out to be a mobile phone. She had trouble answering it, but eventually figured out how to call back and then spoke with her husband for a few minutes. "We all have these mobiles, she told me, you can't really get along without them! We got our youngest grandson a cheap one first some years ago, now he has a nicer one and we all have one. It's nice to be able to call at any time from anywhere and it's safer." She explained that her husband has a mobile with a camera and other things, but he doesn't really use that and she wouldn't really know how. They don't send those text message things though they've seen them on their grand-son's phone, but calling - that they do all the time. It's cheaper to call, since her husband lives on their dacha, 50 kilometers out of town most of the summer, coming back into town just once a month to collect his pension. Calling on a regular phone - it's a long distance call, but on a mobile it's much cheaper so they call each other all the time - they are old, anything can happen.

It seems the tariff and pricing system here has a fairly substantial effect on mobile phone use. Similar to many developing countries, here landlines are expensive and the need to communicate drives people of all ages to adopt mobile phones, to maintain connections as families and friends move around in search of jobs and better lives. The need drives adoption and use and then we see examples of grandmothers in their 80's texting grandchildren to feel less lonely.

Chance meetings

I was walking to a cafe that offers wifi here in Almaty. I've been spending quite a bit of time here lately, using their wireless and people-watching. This morning there was an interesting group of people here with name-tags. These kinds of things signify purposeful meetings so I walked up and asked what they were doing here. Turned out these were the professionals from Almaty who hang out on a relatively new Russian social network site called professionaly.ru. Today was their first meeting of its kind and the people that I initially met, were friendly and willing to exchange business cards. I am extremely low on business cards now, and I keep thinking of that huge box in my office full of those useless things.

As I explained to the collection of professionals the purpose o my presence in Almaty, one of them suggested that I speak to one of their number who might have more interesting things to say on my topic as she is a psychologist. She was very forthcoming, offering to connect me with professors in the department of psychology at Kaz University here in Almaty whose students have done work on similar themes to mine. She also sketched out a rather interesting theory of how and why people use the Internet to meet others. Some of her ideas were in line with some of hte older ideas put forth by Sherry Turkle and Lee & Spears. Others were somewhat more interesting and she got very excited whe I suggested that her ideas were of interest to me and that if my research leads me more in a psychology direction, maybe we should write something together. It's always kind of neat to meet people who are academically and intellectually curious and so forward with their ideas. In short, she suggested that in seeking out others on the Internet, just like in any other social space, people seek two main things - structure (as she conceptualized formalities of belonging) and warmth (or a kind of emotional feeling of belonging and feeling wanted, needed and valued).

This kind of breakdown of belonging is something I've been thinking about quite a lot and I actually think she is right. She approaches this from a profoundly psychological point of view, but there are also sociological and anthropological ways of thinking about this that eventually result in the same kind of idea - we do seek structure to our lives in the form of social obligations bourn out of belonging to people and groups that place demands on us as a cost of that belonging. We also seek the benefit of that belonging that is the warmth and the emotional security that such belonging provides. The structural aspects of belonging are not entirely a cost in that they are also a form of signalling to others the fact of belonging in our own lives. They are also a form of signifying our social worth to ourselves in the structure of social business of our lives. Arguably, social worth is one of the more important self-markers in the development of self-esteem.

This cafe is interesting as I see a few people come here with laptops and use their wifi, but for the most part, especially during the holidays this weekend, people come here to meet and chat and spend time together. I see maybe one or two laptops, usually being used inside the relatively empty cafe, while the outside portion is packed and I am usually alone here with my foreign-looking mac (most computers here are PCs). Generally everyone has a phone and they are using their mobiles constantly. Also, everyone smokes, which makes the inside of this establishment untenable for me, the softie American.There are very very few people here who are sitting at tables alone. In fact, I am pretty much the only one. Even with laptops many people are here with someone else, showing, discussing.

Almaty is a funny place. It is no longer a captial, so the pace of life here is a bit slower. Yet it is the most populous city with the largest number of insitutions of higher education in the country. It is also the oldest Soviet city here. Thus it is the cultural and business center, where Astana is the government and maybe financial center. There is a qualitative difference between Amaty and Moscow but I can't quite pin it down yet.

Otherness and being

Moscow is surprisingly comfortable. It's like finding an old coat from childhood, putting it on and discovering that it not only still fits, but fits in all those old and very comfortable ways where every wrinkle is familiar. I wonder whether this comfort may impede by ability to see and notice differences from the western cultures that I now represent. It makes me wonder about the anthropological notion of otherness and its perceived necessity. The comfort I think blurs differences, making them too evident and normalized for me to see their presence. On the other hand, that same comfort gains me entry to both people and places, because my own comfort in this environment makes them more comfortable with me. Or am I imagining? The process of this research so far has been about developing both professional contacts and personal relationships with people and in order for this to happen, I had to be open with people about myself and my goals. I have ended up with several potential friendships from a mere seven days in Moscow. Now on to Almaty - where comfort, familiarity and personal closeness are going to make my work, I suspect, even harder.

Moscow size and sociality

Moscow is a very large city, where the population of Moscow proper is nearly as large as all of Kazakhstan. Registered population of Moscow is about 10.5 million people, with estimates of unregistered residents (read illegal immigrants) anywhere between 2 and 4 million people. The total population of Kazakhstan is 16 million people. Moscow is very large. Despite the fact that the majority of the population lives in apartment buildings all around, the diameter of the city is about 40 kilometers. The city has an extensive metro network, a number of trams, buses and mini-buses and it's streets are permanently full of traffic. Because of the size and the problems with traffic, it is essentially impossible to get anywhere in Moscow on time by car. You either get there very early or very late. The more relevant alternative is Metro, which functions just as well as it did during the Soviet times and is relatively cheap (a single costs about a dollar, but can come down to about 50 cents if you buy more than one ride at a time).

Metro in Moscow is nothing short of spectacular - the Soviets were trying to make a statement as they built the Metro as an expression of nationalism and communist might as well as a transport and a bomb-shelter system. The older stations are very grand, with statues and ornate ceilings, mosaics and gorgeous plaster work. The newer stations are a bit more sparse, but still beautiful. Despite the efficiency of this form of transport and its reach, getting from one end of Moscow to another will take about 2 hours. This has a huge effect on how people socialize here. They plan occasional meetings, where everyone heads out to "nature" but generally this is all about calling each other up and seeing whether you are in the same area and have time for a quick coffee. people also develop relationships with others who live nearby and they maintain those relationships until they move. Many of those do not survive moves because the distance precludes in-person interactions and the whole point of those relationships was in fact in-person interaction.

Moscovites are social and the favorite past-time is what they call "to sit" - that is to sit down, share a coffee or an alcoholic beverage and to talk. The length of the encounter and the amount of liquid and food consumed defines how "well" people had managed to "sit". The location of these "sittings" is negotiated, where people compromise on meeting "in the middle" to shorten distances and length of travel - many in my interviews complained that going over to someone's house was harder because of the distances and cafe's were a poor subsitute. As Moscow looses it's parks to land development, fewer public spaces are left for the purpose of "sitting" but those are still there, are amply used.