Add This

Friday, February 22, 2008

"Alonetime is fuel for life"

"We live in a society that worships independence yet deeply fears alienation: our era is sped-up and overconnected. The earth's population has doubled since the 1950s, and in cities across the world, urban crowding and the new global economy have revolutionized social relationships. Cellular phones now extend the domain of the workplace into every part of our lives; religion no longer provides a place for quiet retreat but instead offers "megachurches" of social and secular amusement; and climbers on the top of Mt. McKinley whip out hand-held radios to call home. We are heading toward a time when, according to the New York Times, "portable phones, pagers, and data transmission devices of every sort will keep us terminally in touch." Yet in another, more profound way, we are terminally out of touch. The need for genuine and constructive aloneness has gotten utterly lost, and, in the process, so have we."
— Ester Buchholz writing in Psychology Today. The article was originally published 10 years ago, but was reviewed for the February issue.

5 comments:

Cynthia said...

Wendy, I came across your blog a couple months ago from a Google Alert on something.

I've been reading ever since.

Thanks for having a web presence!

Wendy A. Hoke said...

Cynthia,
Thank you so much for reading. I'm happy to have discovered your Web site, too.

Wendy

Michelle O'Neil said...

Alone time is so very important.

I guard mine carefully.

Of course I love people too.

It's a delicate balance.

Wendy A. Hoke said...

It is a delicate balance. Getting those I care about to understand the need for alone time is one of my greatest challenges.

virtuallori said...

So true. It is so important to be able to unplug, quiet down, and just BE.