Designing for solitude, not isolation

As of this week it’s just us, a pile of toilet paper and pasta, and our thoughts our wifi, more social media accounts than we can be bothered checking, and enough notifications to give you an anxiety attack.

In the internet age, our human desire to be known has collided with our increased connectivity. Ideally, the source of our validation would be the small, still voice inside each of us. In practice, we know ourselves through others, and in particular their likes and comments.

We are about to have less human contact than we ever have and probably ever will have. Will we fill the void with Instagram and Zoom, or will we allow ourselves to experience… ourselves?

In this beautifully written article by Maria Popova, read about Agnes Martin’s assertion that “the best things in life happen to you when you’re alone” and psychoanalyst Adam Phillips’ “fertile solitude”. And ask yourself, as we enter into this strange period: how would you like to design your solitude?