End Of Solitude

The End of Solitude

Rhetorical Precis

William Deresiewicz, informational, The End of Solitude (January 30, 2009) suggests that people’s increased dependence on technology is making us rely more on a constant electric social interaction thus leading a fear of solidarity. Through comparing history to present day, Deresiewicz is able to show his audience his perspective. Deresiewicz desires for his audience to become enlightened on the fact that it is okay to not always be connected and alone in moderation. Speaking to anyone that has a fear or discomfort from being alone, Deresiewicz hopes that his audience understands his perspective of how technology has completely altered our lifestyles.

Academic Summary

1. Descriptive Outline

2. Deresiewicz’s introduction to his discussion begins with the main aspects of technology and how it controls us. The two parts that lead to the power of technology is celebrity and connectivity. People have desired and even become addicted to accomplishing this ability to connect to people 24/7 and also the feeling of popularity that technology makes us feel. The dependence that we have evolved to have from a notification has altered how we live our lives.

3. We no longer live for own self-satisfaction but rather the satisfactions of others. Not only do we rely on this constant immediate connection but it is also affecting our ability to concentrate and our “ability to be alone.” Deresiewicz wants to make sure that his audience is well aware that this dilemma is self-inflicted. It is people’s decisions to be this connected to the virtual world.

4. Incorporating a story of a girl who is uncomfortable to sit alone and do work, strengthens the relationship of the audience with Deresiewicz. This relatable story brings validation to his presentation. Personally, I strongly related to this girl’s emotions to writing alone. When I am studying I would exponentially rather be with friends than by myself even if we do not talk.

5. Deresiewicz begins to gradually make his audience question when and why did we evolve away from solitude. Immediately after he begins to incorporate a religious perspective of the roots of solitude and its past importance to our societies. Solitude use to be a “self- correcting social mechanism” and now it is basically extinct.

6. Digging into the Romantic Era, when the practice of solitude was extremely important in society, Deresiewicz emphasized the importance of people alone. He continues to explain that during the Romantic exercise of solitude it was essential that people had this time of separation from the world. He wants us to realize that we have lost this balance between social and alone.

7. Continuing with his history lesson, there was a drastic change if the Modernism Era. This era disassembled the dependence on solitude and evolve to an era of interactions. Personally, this paragraph required the most background knowledge to understand properly which made it harder to grasp.

8. One of the biggest inventions that pushed this desire for solitude was the development of modern cities. With people surrounded and crammed with people all the time it led to an increase desire of solitude. This new living situation only encourage even more the essential relationship oneself.

9. Deresiewicz continued to talk about this evolving history of solitude and the effect of technology. Once people moved to the suburbs and migrated out of the cities is when the change began. We were once fearing of overwhelming amounts of submersion of people but we than became scared of being alone for too long.

10. His last paragraph dealing with the history of people concluded with the Internet. For the first in his presentation, Deresiewic explicitly incorporated some positives to technology. He expressed how it was an “incalculable blessing.” This shows his audience that he is not against technology overall, but in moderation. He continues to explain that we sacrificed solitude for a constant stream of connection through technology.

11. Next, he begins to incorporate rhetorical question to help his audience have a deeper understanding of his text. He shows how our “friends” on social media cannot be really considered friends and that our relationships through technology are very superficial. People are assuming that they have many friends because of their amounts of “likes” but they really are not genuine relationships.

1. Deresiewic seems to tune into younger audience and evaluate how they perceive the importance of their phones. He seems highly concerned on young adults’ severe fear of being alone. Not only that but he has noticed that the younger generations have no desire to even be alone as past generation have craved. The less alone time people have the less comfortable they are with alone time which leads to the fear.

2. Incorporating a new perspective, allowed Deresiewic to bring a broader perspective to his audience with incorporating boredom. Being alone and being bored could relate to one another and Deresiewic talked about this connection. One reason that people so dependent on technology is because we also do not want to be bored which lingers with loneliness. We forget that is okay to not have anything to do and we fear being bored.

3. Next, Deresiewic tells his audience a personally story about his experience with technology. Then he brings in scientific studies that have evaluated that the consumer society and companies want us to feel bored. When we feel bored we want to entertain ourselves with technology. This is a huge point that he communicates with his audience.

4. Personally, this paragraph was the important or climatic part of the essay, and it brings the most power to the essay. He is summarizing all of his evidence and saying that lonliness and solitude are not the same but when we fear the solitude is when we are lonely and possibly bored. This fear of boredom that leads to a fear of solitude is the reason people are so dependent on their phones to keep them entertained.

5. To go off what Deresiewic spoke about in his previous paragraph, he went into a deeper discussion about our attention spans. One of the reasons we are so addicted to our mini computers in our pocket is because of boredom, but why do we get bored so quickly? This problem is a circle because we get bored from technology which just leads to us consuming more. Technology has made us receive massive amounts of knowledge in seconds and because of that our attention span has drastically decreased.

6. Another reason we are hooked to our phones is because we feel that we constant approval from the world. Deresiewic says that, “we no longer believe in the solitary mind.” People are constantly asking people for opinions and advice and we forget that we can make decisions without the assistance of anyone.

7. Deresiewic hits his audience with more reasons why we are addicted, and in this paragraph he talks about the celebrity aspect of technology. Technology is not only helpful but also glamorous. Social media is creating this peer pressure in the minds of the younger generations that people must know your life. This desire to constantly inform people of your life is making us loose the deeper levels to ourselves.

8. Bouncing off of that idea, Deresiewic brought another perspective up to show his audience. Social media is slow dissolving our individuality and molding us to be alike. It is essential to ourselves and to the future that we do not forget we do not have to mold into the expectations of others.

9. Deresiewic supported his thesis with even more information and perspectives while also connecting it to previous topics. To continue his discussion on making independent decisions, Deresiewic included passages from Emerson that sometimes the most creative times for individuals in when they are in solitude.

10. Peer pressure and taking the path less followed, is not easy to do and Deresiewic pulls his audience with that feeling. Not being connected constantly can make feel kids or adults feel not wanted and Deresiewic understands that. He reassures his audience that disconnecting is a decision that we can make and with our own balance.

11. To conclude his essay, Deresiewic reminds his audience that it our choice to be connected, but it could also be our choice to be disconnected. We also must realize that having solitude does not make un-friendly. An essential balance of social and solitude is how one can be successful.