4.6/5 stars for Old City Park | Issue #2
Placefulness, n. the practice of expanding one’s understanding of and relationship to the built, historic, natural, and cultural environment of a place.
Hopefully we were all energized by Issue #1 of Placeful and looking to get out in our communities and learn more about them! But, where to start? Try a new take-out restaurant? Pick up a native plant guide? Bike over to a new playground in town?
There’s one ubiquitous corner of the internet (or perhaps, less a corner and more an entire warehouse) that we head to, almost subconsciously at this point, for this type of information: Google.
Community-centric outdoor spaces have been on my mind, so I typed “old city park moab” into my search bar. I had been thinking of planning a little picnic there. A listing appeared on the right hand side of my screen with all of the directory information we have come to expect from Google: name, address, hours, the option to get directions, etc.
Also present at the top was, all things considered, a pretty decent rating of 4.6 out of 5 stars. Clicking this gave me the option to scroll through reviewer-submitted pictures as well as written reviews listing the park’s various amenities, such as nice shady areas and the presence of overfed ducks.
All in all, this rating and reviewing system seems rather innocuous ... but is it?
How is tech affecting our sense of place?
It’s a big question and there are many ways to explore it, but for now I want to focus on online ratings and reviews. Looking up places before we go to them is commonplace these days, but I am curious about the effect it has on our decisions. If we are striving for placefulness, I believe it is important to reflect on the ways Google ratings, Yelp reviews, or even just the presence (or lack thereof) of a place in an online database, can ultimately influence our sense of place.
Full disclosure: I was not able to track down a ton of research in this area, so much of my writing is speculative. If you have a lead, I’d be happy to follow up in a subsequent issue!
Rather than forming our own opinions about a place based on personal experience, “consumer-generated content” in the form of ratings streamline our decision-making by handing us an averaged numeric value. These scores are based on the opinions of other individuals with their own unique set of motivations, values, and experiences, which may be very different from our own. With these valuations and random bits of knowledge, ratings and reviews create the opportunity for us to make assumptions about which places are worthy of our time and attention and which ones are not -- without any individually-acquired knowledge of them.
Further yet, our tendency to look to others for acceptance may be leading us to value something a certain way simply because other people (de)value it, especially if our experience with a place is limited. For example, it is easy to internalize negative ideas about the midwest when others refer to it as “flyover country.” Regardless of whether or not we ourselves believe that descriptor, it still has the potential to affect our sense of place, positively or negatively.
When negative perceptions of place lead to inequity
In some cases, these valuative systems can actually contribute to inequity. Beyond the claims of extortion by Yelp from business owners, there is another reason to side-eye the system of rating and reviewing that is affecting the places in our communities.
In a report from the Brookings Institution from February, the authors found that businesses in majority-Black neighborhoods were given Yelp reviews with lower ratings and fewer reviews overall than comparable businesses in predominantly white neighborhoods.
Compounded with the financial realities of acquiring start-up capital, this disparity in online reviewing behaviors puts Black-owned businesses in majority Black neighborhoods at a huge disadvantage. The report states, “highly-rated businesses in majority-Black neighborhoods experience annual losses in business revenue as high as $3.9 billion.”
Being a highly rated business on Yelp typically comes with advantages, but that advantage is practically zeroed out for businesses located in majority-Black neighborhoods. The authors continue,
“In this report, we found evidence that racial discrimination distorts local customer-facing firms in ways that harm business owners and the Black-majority neighborhoods in which they sit. Our finding that even high-performing businesses receive less attention from Yelp reviewers and experience slower revenue growth means that the potential for wealth creation through entrepreneurship is hampered by a dim view of Black neighborhoods.”
On Yelp, racism is creating a system that simultaneously records and perpetuates the devaluation of businesses in Black neighborhoods. Rating systems not only have the potential to preemptively affect our valuation of a place, but they may also carry with them the weight of prejudice.
Nurturing our own sense of place
I love the desert because I enjoy dry heat and red rocks, the sun is almost always shining, and I don’t have to deal with mosquitos (usually). Other folks definitely do not like it here, and that’s okay, too. But while I would give the desert 5 stars, and someone else would give it 1, an average score of 3 means nothing to someone who has no experiences of their own here to color their understanding of desert life. But it could persuade someone away from trying it.
I believe the human tendency is to want to share our experiences with others, which is why participation in these quantitative rating systems is pretty robust. My suggestion, however, is that we shift our collective focus away from how much we like or dislike an experience, an object, or a place, and look to more qualitative measures of value. Reflecting on our personal experiences with a place gives us insight into our own motivations about where we spend our time, energy, and resources, ultimately giving us more meaningful insight into our personal relationships to a place.
Howard Frumkin, in a paper from almost 20 years ago, wrote,
“The features of a place affect us in many ways. We gain spatial orientation—our sense of where we are and how to get where we are going—from place cues. Places can evoke memories, arouse emotions, and excite passions. Some places have spiritual resonance; every religion has sacred places, some natural such as the Himalayas for Buddhists and Hindus and some built such as the great Catholic cathedrals. Legends are grounded in places. Places affect our performance as we work and study. Some places—the social gathering spots that sociologist Ray Oldenburg has called “great good places”—help us connect with other people. Some places, as every vacationer knows, seem to enhance well-being. Some places may even promote good health.”
Google maps and other online directories are a great starting point for exploring our communities and finding new ways to experience the affects of place that Frumkin describes. We should not assume that this way of finding and navigating to places is always bad, or even bad the majority of the time. However, I do believe it is important for us all to understand that our relationship to the places around us are just that — our relationships. We could all arrive at the same place at the same time and be affected in entirely different ways, and that’s a good thing. Let’s not let an algorithm or one person’s singular bad experience affect our perception of a place’s value to ourselves, to our communities, and to the world.
Practicing placefulness
Next time we want to go out to eat, visit a park, plan a long weekend out of town, or whatever activity is taking us to a new (or familiar) place, remember to practice placefulness. Let’s form our own opinions about a place before we let the opinions of others, guided by separate motivations and values, crowd our judgment. And when we are seeking more information about a place, take it as an opportunity to connect, person-to-person.
Writing Prompt: Think about a favorite place near to where you live, for example a local business, a school building, or a bench in your favorite park. Why does this place have meaning to you? Be as specific as possible in both defining the place and defining its value to you.
Listening/reading/watching/noticing this week…
Ed Yong’s powerful piece in the Atlantic, wherein he breaks down the conceptual errors Americans have made throughout the pandemic
A throwback from 2017, Oobah Butler’s wild ride to the top spot on the TripAdvisor London restaurant guide; I read parts of it out loud to my partner that had us both in awe
Sad (but not entirely unsurprising) news on the state of plastic recycling and big oil’s decades long deception
Even though I am obviously questioning of the rating and reviewing of wild spaces, I can’t help but enjoy these illustrations highlighting 1-star reviews of national parks
I have had many a conversation recently about the unfortunate circumstance of having to buy pants in the midst of quarantine. If anyone knows the secret to shopping for jeans online, please let my coworkers and me in on it :/
*Book I’m currently reading: Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
*Any books I ever mention in my newsletters end up on my online Bookshop shelf. I may earn a commission from any books purchased through these links, at no additional cost to you.
Placeful is still in its infancy; if you know someone who you think would appreciate it, please pass it along and help it grow! You can find an online version of this newsletter here.
So much gratitude to everyone who reached out after last week’s issue. You all really came through with the feedback, resources, and kind words. Please continue to reach out to me with anything - articles, resources, pointers, constructive criticism, etc. My inbox is always open for your e-correspondence at placeful.emily@gmail.com.