I'm alone but I ain't lonely

Michelle at Daedalus Notes posted a link to an article entitled The End of Solitude. For centuries the author posits solitude was a social good and something to be sought.

Man may be a social animal, but solitude has traditionally been a societal value. In particular, the act of being alone has been understood as an essential dimension of religious experience, albeit one restricted to a self-selected few. Through the solitude of rare spirits, the collective renews its relationship with divinity. The prophet and the hermit, the sadhu and the yogi, pursue their vision quests, invite their trances, in desert or forest or cave. For the still, small voice speaks only in silence. Social life is a bustle of petty concerns, a jostle of quotidian interests, and religious institutions are no exception. You cannot hear God when people are chattering at you, and the divine word, their pretensions notwithstanding, demurs at descending on the monarch and the priest. Communal experience is the human norm, but the solitary encounter with God is the egregious act that refreshes that norm.

Modern society sees solitude as an anathema to be eradicated rather than a gift in which to revel. Technology such as AIM, Twitter, blogs, Facebook, is aimed at giving us constant connection to others ensuring that we are never alone. The article glosses over the fact that technology can be more isolating than true solitude ever was.

For how often do we check someone's away message instead of actually talking to them? Text them a few lines instead of having a conversation? Follow someone's blog and twitter and feel as though that counts as actually knowing them? (And yes I am very guilty of this as I stalk Neil Gaiman sedulously and feel as though we are friends.) These brief technological brushes are hardly substitutes for time spent with someone, for dreams and fears and laughter and life spent together, as the basis of friendship.

The point of solitude, of meditation and introspection is to gain a deeper knowledge of ourselves and the world which we can then share with others. Modern technology places us in a type of limbo; we are never alone so have no true solitude nor do we actually connect with others but rather approach through the interface of technology which allows us to hold people at arms length and saves us from allowing people in. We are not alone, yet neither are we replacing solitude with a web of meaningful human connections.