This document discusses three key thinkers - Georg Simmel, Sigfried Kracauer, and Walter Benjamin - and their analyses of modernity and urban life in the early 20th century. Simmel examined how life in cities led to a more calculative and blasé mentality. Kracauer viewed the city as a place of distractions and analyzed fragments like amusement parks and movies. Benjamin looked at how modern experiences like shock were inherent to crowded cities with their overwhelming external stimulation.