One’s A Crowd (Opinion from the NY Times)
-snip-
The mere thought of living alone once sparked anxiety, dread and visions of loneliness. But those images are dated. Now the most privileged people on earth use their resources to separate from one another, to buy privacy and personal space.
Living alone comports with modern values. It promotes freedom, personal control and self-realization — all prized aspects of contemporary life.
It is less feared, too, for the crucial reason that living alone no longer suggests an isolated or less-social life. After interviewing more than 300 singletons (my term for people who live alone) during nearly a decade of research, I’ve concluded that living alone seems to encourage more, not less, social interaction.
Paradoxically, our species, so long defined by groups and by the nuclear family, has been able to embark on this experiment in solo living because global societies have become so interdependent. Dynamic markets, flourishing cities and open communications systems make modern autonomy more appealing; they give us the capacity to live alone but to engage with others when and how we want to and on our own terms.
-more-
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/05/opinion/sunday/living-alone-means-being-social.html?_r=1&ref=global-home
= new reply since forum marked as read
And I love that, but when I'm not at work I really don't like company, ever, even my girlfriend for longer than 24 hours.
And I don't care for visiting others, though short vacations are OK, but not to visit anyone.
Maybe solo living is an appropriate species reaction to our current conditions.
To fit in, we MUST shop shop shop and party party party.
And it seems, increasingly, that holidays never end.
It takes a bit of a constant effort to avoid what we don't care to do, and we seem to be expected to justify or explain our resistance.
Leave me alone!
