on feeling alone together

psychotherapy:

In Constant Digital Contact, We Feel ‘Alone Together’ (NPR Fresh Air)

“It’s a way of life to be always texting and when you looks at these texts it really is thoughts in formation. I do studies where I just sit for hours and hours at red lights watching people unable to tolerate being alone. Its as though being along has become a problem that needs to be solved and then technology presents itself as a solution to this problem…Being alone is not a problem that needs to be solved. The capacity for solitude is a very important human skill.”

- Sherry Turkle, on texting and the inability to be alone

someone once accused me of not being able to be alone and i was like “well, actually, why do you have such a hard time acclimating to other people?” the idea that too much texting, or gchatting, or tumblring, is of major social concern is one of my top three unnecessary digital panics. the idea of texts as “thoughts in formation” is so lovely, it sounds like the point of conversation, what’s the problem. i like to be alone, i am almost always alone, but the idea that “the capacity for solitude is a very important human skill” just sounds like reification of the self-contained liberal subject ie. total bullshit.