Alone, but Not Lonely
At the Chronicle of Higher Ed, William Deresiewicz’s “The End of Solitude” details how the internet, Facebook et al. eat away at privacy:
So we live exclusively in relation to others, and what disappears from our lives is solitude. Technology is taking away our privacy and our concentration, but it is also taking away our ability to be alone. Though I shouldn’t say taking away. We are doing this to ourselves; we are discarding these riches as fast as we can.
This is a more subtle, but no less concerning aspect of tech-induced privacy loss than that discussed in a recent Wired article, which I linked to in this entry.
I never knew how much I needed quiet and solitude until I had two children. So when I do have it, as I did this afternoon, I seize it gratefully, and don’t for one minute feel lonely.