Post by shelbysinkhorn on Aug 9, 2011 9:14:12 GMT -5
Solitude has been connected and attached to loneliness in today’s society. History tells us, “the act of being alone has been understood as an essential dimension of religious experience.” So could the lack of solitude potentially blame how, as time goes on, society slacks more and more on their faith/religious beliefs? That, centuries ago the acceptable thing to do was for people to attend the church and live by the words; spend time meditating and taking time away from your average day. Today however, the idea of being highly religious is looked more down upon, especially in teens and young adults, subconsciously forcing people to hide or move farther away from their previous beliefs. In this we lose things such as the meditations, reading time, and the time we spent on ourselves trying to be faithful.
If the fading of religious experiences are not causing the end of solitude, then what is? But of course, “we are doing this to ourselves.’ And we are; always moving forward, expanding our knowledge, changing our lifestyles, adapting to what surrounds us. Our urbanization created this “inescapable… labyrinth,” causing fear of submersion. But as time went on the fear changed to isolation. Technology being a major change for many years now, I agree, could be one to blame. Technology allowed this fear of isolation or loneliness to falsely be filled. It has become a substitute in many people’s lives as their solitude time because you can be alone, on the computer, or texting, when you really are not. In the modern day in age, like the article states, a need of being know and heard is really important to us. This self-want can be fulfilled by what technology allows us to do, but it also makes us never alone, always visible to others. Every day technology improves and new ideas are put to work, but like the article says, maybe it’s too much of a good thing? We take it for granted, use it every day, and the more items and ways of using it that are creating, the less man to man communication we experience; the less skills we develop. Being surrounded by technology also therefore, canceling out so much in person communication, makes us have a lot of time alone physically, but practically never alone without some sort of technology in our hands.
Our society tries so hard to stay away from solitude and everyone seems to substitute it with technology. I would have to agree that our society needs to slow it down, take it back, and not be so scared of the idea of not knowing what everyone around us is doing, but save time for only ourselves now and again. Without solitude and the use of so much technology, we are losing critical skills as in; patience, sustained reading, making our own decision without influence of society, and our tolerance. We need “alone time,” solitude, because it does, “enable us to secure the integrity of the self as well as explore it.”
If the fading of religious experiences are not causing the end of solitude, then what is? But of course, “we are doing this to ourselves.’ And we are; always moving forward, expanding our knowledge, changing our lifestyles, adapting to what surrounds us. Our urbanization created this “inescapable… labyrinth,” causing fear of submersion. But as time went on the fear changed to isolation. Technology being a major change for many years now, I agree, could be one to blame. Technology allowed this fear of isolation or loneliness to falsely be filled. It has become a substitute in many people’s lives as their solitude time because you can be alone, on the computer, or texting, when you really are not. In the modern day in age, like the article states, a need of being know and heard is really important to us. This self-want can be fulfilled by what technology allows us to do, but it also makes us never alone, always visible to others. Every day technology improves and new ideas are put to work, but like the article says, maybe it’s too much of a good thing? We take it for granted, use it every day, and the more items and ways of using it that are creating, the less man to man communication we experience; the less skills we develop. Being surrounded by technology also therefore, canceling out so much in person communication, makes us have a lot of time alone physically, but practically never alone without some sort of technology in our hands.
Our society tries so hard to stay away from solitude and everyone seems to substitute it with technology. I would have to agree that our society needs to slow it down, take it back, and not be so scared of the idea of not knowing what everyone around us is doing, but save time for only ourselves now and again. Without solitude and the use of so much technology, we are losing critical skills as in; patience, sustained reading, making our own decision without influence of society, and our tolerance. We need “alone time,” solitude, because it does, “enable us to secure the integrity of the self as well as explore it.”