Post by jacobwinkler on Aug 7, 2011 12:20:25 GMT -5
William Deresiewicz's "The End of Solitude" relentlessly attacks the lack of solitude in modern society, and not surprisingly, places the blame upon technology. I cannot argue that technology has most certainly played a role in eliminating solitude from ones life. However, being a martyr of technology, I cannot sit dormant and simply nod my head in agreement with every point made by Deresiewicz.
By generalizing and focusing on purely negative points, the author effectively generates the illusion that a serious problem even exists. Moreover, the only cases presented are typically very extreme. For instance, William Deresiewicz states, "...a teenager I know had sent 3,000 text messages one recent month." The author then goes on to discuss how the alleged texter is never alone for more than 10 minutes at a time while awake for that month. As someone who typically sends less than one hundred texts in a month, I find this point ridiculous. However, it goes both ways. There are plenty of people out there who have very small amounts of social interaction within their lives. People who don't ever text, and only communicate with others while in the work area. There are extreme cases for both sides here, and the point is, they represent such a small portion of society that using them in an argument provides little to no support what so ever.
The article also consistently brings up the state of solitude in society back in the Romantic period. Comparing modern society to Romantic society is very much like apples and oranges. Modern society is leaps and bounds ahead of what the Romantic society had in terms of technologically, and naturally the way denizens of Earth interact with one another today is going to be significantly different than in the past.
Deresiewicz also fails to look at anything other than the negative points of our societies lack of solitude. Our ability to quickly communicate with another whenever needed is something which is completely taken for granted. In terms of technological benefits and health benefits, our ability to immediately contact a coworker or emergency official is invaluable to our ability to survive and our ability to continually develop new technology which will make our survival even easier and/or more pleasant.
"The End of Solitude" brings up some interesting points when it comes to the importance of solitude. The author states, "Social life is a bustle of petty concerns, a jostle of quotidian interests" and I can somewhat agree with this statement, because I see it every day. However, the statement is a general one, and it puts everything about social lives into a negative light where it can easily be criticized. The value of having a healthy social life is completely undermined. Unfortunately, the article is consistent with this point of view throughout it's entirety. And not unlike other criticizers of anything in modern society, the blame is set upon technology because it's easy to point fingers at without it fighting back. The truth is, no one can ever be truly alone in today's world, and it's not a bad thing. I feel very good knowing that if anything ever happens to me, I won't have to go through it alone.
By generalizing and focusing on purely negative points, the author effectively generates the illusion that a serious problem even exists. Moreover, the only cases presented are typically very extreme. For instance, William Deresiewicz states, "...a teenager I know had sent 3,000 text messages one recent month." The author then goes on to discuss how the alleged texter is never alone for more than 10 minutes at a time while awake for that month. As someone who typically sends less than one hundred texts in a month, I find this point ridiculous. However, it goes both ways. There are plenty of people out there who have very small amounts of social interaction within their lives. People who don't ever text, and only communicate with others while in the work area. There are extreme cases for both sides here, and the point is, they represent such a small portion of society that using them in an argument provides little to no support what so ever.
The article also consistently brings up the state of solitude in society back in the Romantic period. Comparing modern society to Romantic society is very much like apples and oranges. Modern society is leaps and bounds ahead of what the Romantic society had in terms of technologically, and naturally the way denizens of Earth interact with one another today is going to be significantly different than in the past.
Deresiewicz also fails to look at anything other than the negative points of our societies lack of solitude. Our ability to quickly communicate with another whenever needed is something which is completely taken for granted. In terms of technological benefits and health benefits, our ability to immediately contact a coworker or emergency official is invaluable to our ability to survive and our ability to continually develop new technology which will make our survival even easier and/or more pleasant.
"The End of Solitude" brings up some interesting points when it comes to the importance of solitude. The author states, "Social life is a bustle of petty concerns, a jostle of quotidian interests" and I can somewhat agree with this statement, because I see it every day. However, the statement is a general one, and it puts everything about social lives into a negative light where it can easily be criticized. The value of having a healthy social life is completely undermined. Unfortunately, the article is consistent with this point of view throughout it's entirety. And not unlike other criticizers of anything in modern society, the blame is set upon technology because it's easy to point fingers at without it fighting back. The truth is, no one can ever be truly alone in today's world, and it's not a bad thing. I feel very good knowing that if anything ever happens to me, I won't have to go through it alone.