Examples Of Solitude

Improved Essays
Solitude and the thought of being alone are starting to become obsolete in our world. The increasing use of technology has made people so reliant on their phones that they cannot imagine a life without them. Technology is taking away our privacy by keeping us constantly connected to one another, this constant connectivity has created a fear inside of us. The fear of being isolated from the outside and being alone. During the romantic era, people practiced solitude by following Trilling’s belief “that the self is validated by a congruity of public appearance and private essence” (Deresiewicz 3). The soul needs friends so it can express its feelings but the soul also needs to be alone. People need to have a balance of socialization and solitude. Socializing helps the soul to share its thoughts and feelings with other people. If the soul keeps depressing emotions or thoughts bottled up inside it will eventually explode causing destruction to itself and others around them. Solitude helps the soul discover who its true self is by being alone with its thoughts, going to the dark places of the mind. Romantics used literacy to find oneself, they were also literal with themselves and the people around them. During the 20th century modernism used the ideas of romanticism with the developments of cities. People living in the cities have this feeling that the city is inescapable. Modernist believe that solitude is a journey through one’s thoughts to find its self discovery. The biggest fear of a modernist is submersion by the mass but now people are living in an Urbanized society that people have a fear of isolation from the herd. Urbanization occurred during the same century and is a type of society were people are afraid to be in front of large crowds, afraid to stand out, but at the same time terrified to be isolated from people. …show more content…
During the 1970’s and 1980’s you could send children out to play in their neighborhoods and not have to worry but now it is unthinkable for a child to go outside and run around their neighborhood or go to the park by themselves without a cell phone. We are being isolated by the fear of not being in contact with someone or not being able to get in contact with someone. Mostly everyone today owns a cellphone and can be in contact with another person in minutes, children even have cellphones. This fear has created a society of not being able to be alone and to also have a fear of loneliness. This type of society gave way to suburbanization which is what we are living in today. Suburbanization is “eliminating the stimulation as well as the sociability of urban or traditional village life, exacerbated the tendency to both” (Deresiewicz 5). Many people do not know who their neighbors are because they have plenty of other people to contact if there is an emergency. Friendship is slipping away from us, we do not understand the difference between having five hundred friends on Facebook and having a few close friends that we trust. The web has created the emotion of loneliness because even though someone may have hundreds of followers or Facebook friends, does not mean that they have many friends in the real world. People get caught up in creating the glamorous world they want to live in online that they do not spend

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    According to a study in 2010, a survey found that there was an increase by 10% of the adults, above the age of 45, who were chronically lonely in just one decade. This shows the reader that this problem is continuously increasing overtime. In the article he shows the increase in issues pertaining to things that might be the reason people are lonely, such as marriage, belief in God, or even drug usage. This is because due to social media, we tend to go out less which in turn causes us to meet less people. Social media is often only used to keep up and reconnect with old friends and family, but it doesn’t give us the opportunity to make new friend.…

    • 1127 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Rhetorical Analysis On How Not To Be Alone The essay “How Not to be Alone” by Jonathan Safran Foer backs up the idea that sometimes technology brings people closer by being able to communicate with someone across the globe with a touch of a button but at the same time technology separates people because in some cases we now prefer to text someone instead of actually meeting them in real life. Foer develops his claim by referring to experiences in his past, making comparisons to the present and to the past, also by stating the positive and negative impact that technology has had on people. The use of emotional strategies is effective because Foer is able to make a connection with the reader who has gone through the same situations that Foer is explaining .…

    • 580 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When individuals experience something they do not like, they tend to run away from their problems because they do not have anyone by their side, no matter how hard they try it is hard to face situations alone as one person. Loneliness plays a big role in life, it can greatly affect how an individual…

    • 924 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Losing your face The article “Stop Googling. Let’s Talk” by Sherry Turkle explains to concerned educators and adults how technology and multitasking is splitting our attention, hindering our ability to properly communicate, and express empathy for one another. Using logos and ethos, Turkle promptly displays a concerning amount of evidence of the degradation of our face to face communication skills; however, by immediately countering any arguments for cell phone usage Turkle leaves the pathos of the article mainly one sided. Turkle does this by posing four viewpoints.…

    • 1244 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “I never found a companion that was quite as companionable as solitude.” Henry David Thoreau, a popular transcendentalistic author and writer of Walden, is a huge advocate of loneliness, in the way that means separation from society. However, Edgar Allen Poe, a well known dark romantic author, believes that we all have a severe appetite for being a part of society. In literature, we can see how the relationship between the individual and society tie together and differ between each individual, but can be somewhat generalized between groups of people. And with that, literature has a huge impact on social norms and establishes the way society should act.…

    • 433 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    By looking towards the body’s definition of love, people would be able to see that there are many ways to eliminate the sense of loneliness like using Oxytocin. “And under the influence of oxytocin, you grow calmer, more attuned to others, friendlier, and more open” (120). By understanding the right definition of love people could easily have happiness in their life and have no insecurities. The wrong definition of love only causes people to have a sense of insecurities that changes their sense of self in a negative…

    • 1475 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Individuals who are put in isolation are proven to be mentally unhealthy and unstable. Isolation is the state of being in a place or situation that is separate from others, intentional or not. There are harmful consequences of being in complete solitude for a long period of time. It can affect a person's mental state of mind, physical health, and an individual's social aspects. Donald Hebb, a psychologist at McGill University conducted an experiment to prove the side effects of isolation.…

    • 304 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Decent Essays

    W 8 Assignment 1 Discussion Solitude When one thinks of solitude, they think of quietness, stillness, and a serene place. Some think about the card game solitary. However, in a biblical sense, solitude means sitting quietly in a room or outdoors in a garden area without distractions to hear the voice of God for guidance, instructions and listening for an answer to a prayer. Another may think of a monk in a monastery. However, they all sum up to mean quiet.…

    • 262 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Isolation is a very destructive thing, it can leave people depressed and with poor social skills. Many authors express isolation in their stories to show a certain point. Authors like Edora Welty, Emily Dickinson, and Edith Wharton are well known authors and very talented in the way they write. They show isolation in some of their stories. A Worn Path, The Soul selects her own Society, and Ethan Frome are just some of the writing they wrote expressing the struggle of isolation.…

    • 554 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    We have built robots and other machines that have made life easier and more enjoyable. However children now can use cellphones and IPads at the young age of four. And because of such technological advances I think that it can leave us isolated and longing for personal social…

    • 954 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Has technology taken over our world? Technology has come a long way, like the first tools made from stone, wood, antlers, and bones, 10 million years ago. Technology's been around us forever, it just took some time to spot it. We have made it so far that now we have digital or voice activated tech that distract us from our priorities. Yes, I agree with Bradbury.…

    • 580 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Theme Of Loneliness

    • 1158 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Loneliness is when you are sad because you have no company or friends. Being lonely is not healthy for people. If you are isolated long enough it can lead to situations where you could cause harm to yourself. Depression and thoughts of suicide are only some of the hardships that may occur from being lonely for too long. In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, the characters are located on a ranch to work in a town called Soledad.…

    • 1158 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Modern social construct: Fear of isolation Solitude is the fact of being alone; Modernism has alienated how our relationships with each other and with social institutions such as the place of worship, Educational Institute, place of work, and family unit have alienated some individual from our society or community, while many factors influence isolation weather they were forced out or their own personal ’choice. Both written literature, On My Own: The Art of Being a Woman Alone and The Yellow Wallpaper introduces provisions the level of stigma and negative attitudes towards fear being alone and the sense of dependency culturally conditioned by our modern society. In this era, women did not have a voice at all and men were socially dominant. Both stories connect the two women depicted of social isolation alienation in modern society and the role of females in society.…

    • 1298 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Bennett, Shea. (2014). Social Media Addiction: Statistics & Trends [INFOGRAPHIC]. Retrieved November 5, 2016 from http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/social-media-addiction-stats/504131 There are several research example and statstics to support the teeenager are more attidted to the social media, they spend a lots of time on all kid of apps.…

    • 950 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    a.) Solitude is a desirable condition. This statement is false. On page 38 of the novel, Lenina and Fanny have a conversation in which Fanny mentions that she will not be going out with anyone that evening. As a result, “Lenina raised her eyebrows in astonishment.”…

    • 1002 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays