I don't think much of cities, they were and still are a place to get people together so they are easier to control. Until very recently cities were the only way to get enough people together to divide up the labor so you could do something big. Like build millions of cars or manage billions of dollars. When our cities were build the only only way to talk to someone was to walk or hop on a horse and ride to meet them in person or send a letter that took the same methods.
How many different ways can we get in contact with someone now?
It is interesting to see how important diversions are in this conversation. That is a question up there with "What about their socialization?" it misses the point. Look at NetFlix or iTunes they don't care where you live, all you need is mail or broadband. How many of those users are in cities already not taking advantage of those oh, so important amenities they claim are so important because they aren't in the rural.
Going out to the movies is a lot of fun, but in a rural town it is hard to do if the only theater is playing the same movie for weeks. Okay, so this is an issue that Hollywood has to get over itself to solve, but a small rural theater wouldn't be bad at all if there was a way to dial up the movie you want instead of waiting until the reels you have have "paid" for themselves. The technology is out there but it is stuck in oldthink.
Admittedly, sometimes you want to actually be with other people of similar interests. How many forms of MeetUp.com do you need? Just one for the town, really. Then you just have to be open and honest enough about yourself to post what you really want to do, rather then what you want them to expect you to want to do.
Rural towns need to reinvent themselves, because it isn't about the land, and cities are constantly reinventing themselves, they have lots of money sloshing around, rural towns don't but they can have things money can't buy.
