It’s not just the elderly whose experiences living alone can be tinged with loneliness. The disadvantaged men Klinenberg interviewed were faced with “not only domestic autonomy but also reclusiveness, hoarding and other antisocial behaviors that turn one’s safe house into a tomb” (111). When discussing the prevalence of men living in SROs, Klinenberg writes that, “Self imposed social isolation removes impoverished singles from job networks and potential sources of support, increases stress, and compromises health, placing them at risk for even greater detachment and suffering” (118). It’s important to remember that the ability to live alone is a product of class and socioeconomic status, things that are often tied to race and ability and gender, …show more content…
But there is some reason to be wary of living alone. It’s not because women’s liberation is a threat to life as we know it, despite what some conservatives would have us think, but because it’s incredibly easy to turn living alone into a reclusive experience. Helping to promote that toxicity is the pervasive way being single and living alone is looked down upon by society. “Discrimination- from employers, real estate agents, and housing associations” are all inherent in living alone (Klinenberg, 73). The glamour associated with living alone doesn’t take these things into consideration, meaning people are unaware that to successfully live alone you have to actively work to connect with people and to not fall into toxic way of living. Going solo doesn’t necessarily have to have negative repercussions as many believe it does, but it can. Living alone is as valid as any other way of living, meaning that “eliminating the pain related to living alone is no more possible than eliminating the pain related to living” (Klinenberg, …show more content…
I poured over listings in cities I have no desire to live in, meticulously saving all my favorite houses in a Word document on my computer. Looking at houses was, for me, a way to imagine me being successful enough to invest in myself and in my happiness. In a recent interview, the woman who runs the popular Tumblr “House Hunting” admitted that for her, the act of looking at houses is a way for her to fantasize about her future where she has one of these houses to herself as well as quell her anxiety (Cills, 1). For me and countless other women my age, the concept of living alone is an aspiration we are finally allowed to have, one that women of previous generations weren’t necessarily allowed to have. Needless to say, I had an extremely favorable opinion about living alone and was convinced there were few negative repercussions resulting in the rise of people going solo, but Klinenberg’s book illustrated that, like all things, there are positive and negative aspects to
I love and am extremely defensive of my own picked snippets of isolation, however I additionally realize that drawn out stretches of time alone can send me into a depressive state, or make me feel like I 'm going insane. All the more particularly, a sort of frenzy sets in when I understand only i 'm with my considerations with nobody to attest or prevent the legitimacy from claiming what I 'm considering. When I 'm without anyone else 's input for a really long time, I begin to notice my own sense of reality of who I truly am and what the world is truly like. I needed to be with other people in light of the fact that they are such a critical piece of how I learn and make the most of my life and my explanation behind living. All individuals appear to rely on upon differing sums and emotion of socialgatehrings to keep
I-Chieh Chen (2015) in The study The Scale for the Loneliness of College Students in Taiwan (http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jedp/article/download/46795/25238) stated that Loneliness was initially studied by Sullivan (1953) (A Peplau, D Perlman, LA Peplau… - Loneliness: A …, 1982 - peplaulab.ucla.edu) who proposed that loneliness was an unpleasant and intense experience related to unsatisfied requirements for intimacy (http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jedp/article/download/46795/25238). Sullivan’s research was all but neglected in his time. This neglect lasted until 1973, when Weiss, an American scholar who was an adherent of Bowlby’s attachment theory, published an article entitled “Loneliness: the experience of emotional and social isolation” (RS Weiss - 1973 - psycnet.apa.org).
What do people think of when they hear the word solitude? For many, it evokes a negative connotation, but in reality, those same people carry false associations with the word. Solitude is the state of being alone. It is not the same as being lonely, which is the dread of being alone. Despite these erroneous myths of solitude perpetuating many minds, the truth is that everyone can benefit from solitude. Humankind’s greatest inventions were conceived and developed in isolation, and even with this fact, many individuals do not realize what is lost without solitude. William Deresiewicz, author of “The End of Solitude”, reflects on how society no longer appreciates solitude and how technology is responsible for it. Additionally, Susan Cain, author
The Cult of Domesticity is an offensive gesture; however in the 1950s’ there was validity this gesture. The rise of feminism has created a society in which there are more single mothers than ever before, long side more children born out of wedlock. The United States Census Bureau states, “During the 1960-2016 period, the percentage of children living with only their mother nearly tripled from 8 to 23 percent and the percentage of children…” (1). The article the Cult of Domesticity indeed points out the valid flaws of Ideal duties/expectations of domesticity in the 1950s’; however, I would like to state that anything man-made idea or material mechanism is not without faults. The agreeable points of the list were that there should be a genuine respect and act of service shown to our husbands each day. However, the list made a hard-left turn in suggesting that women are not to question the motives of their husband, and/or the location of their husbands if they chose to be late after work. Lastly, if husbands choose to
If someone told you that social isolation kills more people than obesity does, would you believe it (Olien)? Social isolation can go beyond the idea of someone locking themselves in their room and not interacting with anyone (physical isolation). It can also be when someone is not feeling connected to society or a certain person (emotional isolation). In fact, in the short story “To Room Nineteen” by Doris Lessing, the protagonist of the story, Susan, found herself needing frequent absences from her family which eventually drove her to commit suicide. People isolate themselves for many different reasons and this feeling of isolation can very much lead to death. Social isolation is a serious medical condition and there are many effects on the mind that can come along which can eventually lead to voluntary and/or involuntary death.
In society, is has become a priority to be so engaged in the social circle. It gets exhausting trying to be at all the gatherings, getting involved in activities, and partaking in social media. Even though as a society we tire of the constant movement in our communities, we often do not withdraw ourselves from the suffocating social routine. I have often found myself thinking that I should take a trip or go stay at another city to be alone and relax from all the annoyance of society. What holds me back? Being alone is a scary thought. But what joy I experience when the wind blows over the water that your feet are in when sitting on pier. Or the joy of being in a lake fishing, with your thoughts. I find it that the stuff that worries me the most, does not seem as catastrophic when immersed in the greenery of the woods. If only one had the courage to live alone, I’m sure life would seem much
The risk factors of isolation include health and disabilities, gender, loss of a spouse, living alone, reduced social networks, transportation issues, place of residence, and aging. Among these factors, aging has higher correlation with other factors. Given that some studies (Hall, Havens, 1999) show that the risk factors are in fact additive, meaning that the presence of more than one risk factor compounds the risk of loneliness and social isolation, the importance of emerging population aging in Canada becomes more significant.
Independence is a socially constructed concept within a capitalistic patriarchal society that serves to marginalize and oppress the elderly members of the society. Why do many women of the elderly population within the United States live alone? What is it about our society that has encouraged the elderly population to live alone and without the vital familial support that is so often necessary for people who are reaching their golden years? Elderly people in the United States are one of the most vulnerable groups of people who have traditionally been marginalized. They are viewed as weak individuals because they are no longer able to physically work for pay. Many of them choose to live alone yet suffer in isolation because of the lie they have been sold. According to the symbolic interactionist theory, if independence is the ultimate reward for a lifetime of achievement, surely remaining independent and alone is preferable to living with loved ones. The elderly person does not want his or her social networks to believe the elderly person is weak. Isolation is preferable to dependency and being a burden upon another individual or family.
A house is not a home if no one lives there. During the nineteenth century, the same could be said about a woman concerning her role within both society and marriage. The ideology of the Cult of Domesticity, especially prevalent during the late 1800’s, emphasized the notion that a woman’s role falls within the domestic sphere and that females must act in submission to males. One of the expected jobs of a woman included bearing children, despite the fact that new mothers frequently experienced post-partum depression. If a woman were sterile, her purposefulness diminished. While the Cult of Domesticity intended to create obliging and competent wives, women frequently reported feeling trapped or imprisoned within the home and within societal expectations put forward by husbands, fathers, and brothers.
Rebecca Traister’s All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation provides insight on what it is like being a single woman living in America in current and past times. Traister interviewed more than 100 single women to give their personal stories, which makes the readers think about themselves and how they can relate to them. All the Single Ladies is an investigation into the sexual, economic, and emotional lives of women in America. Traister argues that there are unknown unset society rules for women that women are expected to fulfill like marriage and children and those cliché stereotypes must be broken. Some women desire to be married and other women are concentrated on finding themselves which Traister argues
The 60’s was certainly a time of women’s curiosity and venture outside of the norm “homemaker” role. Women not only found pleasure in the world, but in themselves as a whole and as a woman. Sex and the Single Girl by Helen Gurley Brown played an important role here as her intent was to guide women - or more specifically the single woman - in her pursuit of independence and pleasure. Sex and the Single Girl most definitely lead the readers on to believe that it was to empower women; even to break away from the norm and advocate the unattached female. My response will focus on the contradictory nature the guidebook, and other literature like Cosmopolitan, create when advising a woman to do and be something on the one hand while having an underlying message on the other.
Throughout history, the roles of men and women in the home suggested that the husband would provide for his family, usually in a professional field, and be the head of his household, while the submissive wife remained at home. This wife’s only jobs included childcare, housekeeping, and placing dinner on the table in front of her family. The roles women and men played in earlier generations exemplify the way society limited men and women by placing them into gender specific molds; biology has never claimed that men were the sole survivors of American families, and that women were the only ones capable of making a pot roast. This depiction of the typical family has evolved. For example, in her observation of American families, author Judy Root Aulette noted that more families practice Egalitarian ideologies and are in favor of gender equality. “Women are more likely to participate in the workforce, while men are more likely to share in housework and childcare (apa…).” Today’s American families have broken the Ward and June Cleaver mold, and continue to become stronger and more sufficient. Single parent families currently become increasingly popular in America, with single men and women taking on the roles of both mother and father. This bend in the gender rules would have, previously, been unheard of, but in the evolution of gender in the family, it’s now socially acceptable, and very common.
The increasing trend of people living alone is addressed in Eric Klinenberg’s book “Going Solo”, which offers a good explanation of the different social forces behind this trend, and investigating the psychology of the lone dweller. He starts the book off with an introduction quoting the Bible and Aristotle, laying down the difference between being alone and living alone, and introduces the context of the American individualism, and how living alone made its way into the cities. In parts of the book, he accredited this to the emancipation of women that led to increased job prospects, the flourishing property market that attracted young people to cities, and kept them there with the continual gentrification and cultural and social activities.
Living alone, however, yields much more room for fun. You can dine on pizza and beer every night if you wish and your friends can visit any time. The furniture will be of your choosing, like the smelly ceramic vase in the corner with the strange mouthpiece. And you can clean the house under your own standards of cleanliness, not your mom’s.
Such a simple definition for something people consider so bad and complex. A poet known as Halmos in 1952 said once, “ I have discovered that all the unhappiness of man arises from one single fact, that they are incapable of staying quietly in their own chamber”. Alone time has always been important for our everyday lives but some choose to believe it is toxic. However alone time is extremely good for your health and beneficial to your life. Spending time alone has numerous benefits and today I’m gonna mention just a few. According to a 2015 study from the the Mercola health organization, “spending time alone helps your mind and body process information and stress from your