Post by oliviamoler on Aug 9, 2011 22:02:56 GMT -5
In the article, “The End of Solitude” by William Deresiewicz, he clearly makes the point that we as Americans are slowly falling into the trap of never wanting to be alone. While people of all ages struggle with this need to be noticed, as well as accepted by their peers, it is exemplified the best among my peers. Teenagers today have grown up in the technology era and have always known that getting in contact with anybody at anytime is simply a click or button-push away.
While inventions such as the Internet have been a wonderful tool in how we live our everyday lives, the article states that while “the Internet's dimensionality has grown, it has quickly become too much of a good thing.” While I am a huge user of the Internet and an owner of an iPhone, I definitely agree with that quote. Today phones are equipped with the latest Internet apps, more and more restaurants and businesses are becoming “Wi-Fi friendly” and thanks to social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, we can all know that “Cindy is at the Fayette Mall buying a fun dress for tonight’s party.” I am guilty of having a Facebook and definitely like using it as a tool, but I can also say that I am not one of the millions of “Facebook obsessed” people that have it as their homepage, constantly checking it on my phone, and making hundreds of status updates. I like to hang out with my friends in person, and not behind a computer screen-imagine that!
I was shocked reading about the girl that sent 3,000 text messages a month! After going through the math, the article calculated that she sent at least one text every ten minutes. That is incredible! At least she is taking advantage of the unlimited messaging she is hopefully receiving! All joking aside, this is certainly a perfect example of people going off the deep end when it comes to abusing electronic communication. As humans we all have that need to be noticed and like the article says, “the goal now, it seems, is simply to become known, to turn oneself into a sort of miniature celebrity.” That is the fuel for the girl that sent 3,000 text messages a month, and the reason that “Cindy” wants everyone to know that she is getting a dress for the “party of the century”.
The world that we live in is a very hectic one and after a while we forget how caught up we can get in all of it. While having communication with others in the world is vital and healthy, we need to remember that spending time in solitude listening to music, reading a book, or just taking a long drive is also needed to cleanse our soul as well as our minds! As a Christian, the Bible tells me that spending time alone is an opportunity for my soul to renew and to listen to the voice of God as He guides me in my life! In my opinion, that’s the best instant message a person can get!
While inventions such as the Internet have been a wonderful tool in how we live our everyday lives, the article states that while “the Internet's dimensionality has grown, it has quickly become too much of a good thing.” While I am a huge user of the Internet and an owner of an iPhone, I definitely agree with that quote. Today phones are equipped with the latest Internet apps, more and more restaurants and businesses are becoming “Wi-Fi friendly” and thanks to social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, we can all know that “Cindy is at the Fayette Mall buying a fun dress for tonight’s party.” I am guilty of having a Facebook and definitely like using it as a tool, but I can also say that I am not one of the millions of “Facebook obsessed” people that have it as their homepage, constantly checking it on my phone, and making hundreds of status updates. I like to hang out with my friends in person, and not behind a computer screen-imagine that!
I was shocked reading about the girl that sent 3,000 text messages a month! After going through the math, the article calculated that she sent at least one text every ten minutes. That is incredible! At least she is taking advantage of the unlimited messaging she is hopefully receiving! All joking aside, this is certainly a perfect example of people going off the deep end when it comes to abusing electronic communication. As humans we all have that need to be noticed and like the article says, “the goal now, it seems, is simply to become known, to turn oneself into a sort of miniature celebrity.” That is the fuel for the girl that sent 3,000 text messages a month, and the reason that “Cindy” wants everyone to know that she is getting a dress for the “party of the century”.
The world that we live in is a very hectic one and after a while we forget how caught up we can get in all of it. While having communication with others in the world is vital and healthy, we need to remember that spending time in solitude listening to music, reading a book, or just taking a long drive is also needed to cleanse our soul as well as our minds! As a Christian, the Bible tells me that spending time alone is an opportunity for my soul to renew and to listen to the voice of God as He guides me in my life! In my opinion, that’s the best instant message a person can get!