How People Identify Themselves Belonging To A 'Flat Culture'

The culture of high-rises has made people caged, self centred, and more individualistic..

Flat or Apartment oriented living systems are not so old. It's hardly 30 years since Flats and Apartments have been growing in a log pattern and now in the last 8-10 years, it has grown exponentially.

Recent surveys say that in India, 60% or more urban citizens are living in apartments. In the capital cities, it is more than 80%.

The main structural difference of apartment or flat with houses is about its multi storeyed and very-separated accommodation.

History of the term 'Flat Culture'

This structural difference is not just a difference of visual aspect. But, it leads to a huge cultural difference with house based societal culture.

During the very beginning, the difference was not so prominent, but later it went so far and now one can easily observe the cultural and behavioural conflict.

The term 'Flat Culture' is actually an Indie term, as the culture is so different from the common Indie culture, which can be found still in the rural and suburban areas to some extent, people identified it and termed it differently.

How the term got famous

As the culture expanded, and the difference became more prominent day by day, the term also got more famous. Now we should look at the differences and reasons behind it.

The era of 'Flat Culture'

On average, the last 20 years can be remarked as the era of Flat culture. A lot of irrigation, lots of land acquisition, and a huge corporate investment in the real estate sector took place to create the exponential growth of Apartments or flats. Lots of advertisements to create the craze of Flats, lots of cultural influence to concretize the idea of nuclear family and convince people about the lavish lifestyle they can get in flat culture. All these efforts resulted in this 'Flat culture'.

A socio-economic view on 'Flat Culture'

It is obvious that poor people can't buy a Flat or any part of an apartment. During the beginning, the poor could also dream to live in a space like that, but nowadays these are so costly that even middle class people can't afford it so easily.

Usually, people living in apartments, especially in the big cities, are upper middle class or rich. But there is a huge participation from the middle class also, but along with loans.

Psychological view on 'Flat Culture'

This system has some obnoxious effects on the people. People become caged, self centred, more individualistic, less interactive while living in a flat culture. And it is so obvious. Living in a cage-like multi storeyed structure with lots of debts on head and no open space for obvious common interaction with other people leads to this self centred lifestyle which is completely opposite to the natural Indie lifestyle.