Governor General's Award-winner Michael Harris explores the profound emotional and intellectual benefits of solitude, and how we may achieve it in our fast-paced world. The capacity to be alone--properly alone--is one of life's subtlest skills. Real solitude is a contented and productive state that garners tangible rewards: it allows us to reflect and recharge, improving our relationships with ourselves and, paradoxically, with others. Today, the zeitgeist embraces sharing like never before. Fueled by our dependence on online and social media, we have created an ecosystem of obsessive distraction that dangerously undervalues solitude. Many of us now lead lives of strangely crowded loneliness--we are ever-connected, but only shallowly so. Award-winning author Michael Harris examines why our experience of solitude has become so impoverished, and how we may grow to love it again in the frenzy of our digital landscape. Solitude is an optimistic and encouraging story about discovering true quiet inside the city, inside the crowd, inside our busy and urbane lives. Harris guides readers away from a life of ceaseless pings toward a state of measured connectivity, one that balances solitude and companionship. Rich with true stories about the life-changing power of solitude, and interwoven with reporting from the world's foremost brain researchers, psychologists and tech entrepreneurs, Solitude is a beautiful and prescriptive statement on the benefits of being alone.
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This reads more like the sequel to [b:The End of Absence: Reclaiming What We've Lost in a World of Constant Connection 20821373 The End of Absence Reclaiming What We've Lost in a World of Constant Connection Michael Harris https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1398033271s/20821373.jpg 40167211] - how we are hooked on our devices and their pings - than a book on solitude. It's a solitude for the modern age full of people who can't remember if they ever spent 24 hours without meeting/talking/texting/emailing/reblogging someone. For a truer read on solitude (the one that existed before this digital age of constant connectivity) I suggest Storr's [b:Solitude: A Return to the Self 120586 Solitude A Return to the Self Anthony Storr https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1441429959s/120586.jpg 440448].
