Remote

Remoteness is either something we yearn for, or something we fear; a form of loneliness. It is associated with its opposite; 'contact', which at its extreme means physical closeness or more generally relates to links through communication. We are no longer distance ourselves from contact with others by the physical inaccessibility of our location. Closeness was once defined by distance, but is now more about accessibility through communication technologies. Below is some discussion of the nature of remoteness;

Inaccessiblity: Physical remoteness no longer creates visual remoteness. Being in an extremely inaccessible part of the world does not guarantee that your presence cannot be traced. For example; Indian army camps in remote desert areas have been exposed by Google Earth. Satellites create a new coverage of view from different perspective.
read more here

Control: also concept of remote as control at distance ; the remote control, enables us to be in contact through wireless technologies. Somewhere the concept of control is inextricably linked with that of remoteness.

Escape: On one side people desire to be in touch, but also a distance; an escape. For example in the German language there is a word 'fernweh' , which translates as the longing to be somewhere distant or the desire to be far away, to be remote.

Stranger: The condition of social remoteness, where one is a 'stranger' or 'unreachable' used to be be defined by physical separation. Now, switching off the mobile (e.g. Aram Bartholl silvercell), the television or the computer are some of the conscious practices required in order to dislocate oneself from technologies of communication. Internet creates a site of meeting for people with no physical proximity or previous social links

Separation: Researchers have found that there is six degrees of separation between any person in the world. This was investigated by asking people to send parcels to completely unknown individuals, and following the trail of the package. A similar project at Notre Dame University, Indiana found 6-10 degrees of separation between email addresses, so actually the links between strangers in email may be greater.
(Albert, R., Jeong, H. and Barabasi, A-L. 1999. "Diameter of the World Wide Web," Nature, Vol. 401, 130-131.)

so what is remoteness in a connected society?
In some ways it is a personal choice, a conscious decision to switch off, or on a larger scale involves literally hiding below the visual surface of the earth (from satellite imagery)