I never understood homesickness as a kid or young adult because I loved traveling to my grandparents’, to friends’ houses and with my father on various trips to the country. I did not mind being away from home, perhaps because I moved from one geographic place to another frequently throughout my childhood. So home was never one location for me and thus the concept of missing one particular place, foreign.

When focusing on hyperlocal content, the relevance of the information becomes paramount in order to avoid what Steven Johnson calls the “pothole paradox.” The idea is that the pothole in front of your home or apartment is a big deal to you, but your friends a few blocks over couldn’t care less.