The upside of being alone: Boston Globe article

[Dr. Richard Grossman]

Hi everybody,

I thought people might be interested in this article by Leon Neyfakh in today's (3/6/11) Boston Globe:

"The power of lonely:  What we do better without other people around"

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2011/03/06/the_power_of_lonely/

Richard

[Twoapenny]

I don't think being alone isn't the same as being lonely.  Choosing to spend some time alone - to think, to concentrate, to relax etc is very different to spending all day, every day by yourself, having no close or intimate relationships, no physical contact, no-one to call when something good (or bad) happens.  I enjoy time alone.  I love watching movies on my own in the afternoon.  I like going to museums and art galleries by myself.  I'd be more than happy to go on a city break on my own, so that I could focus on doing and seeing what I wanted to without worrying about anyone else.  But I'd love to come home to someone after that, to have family that drop by and that I can drop in on, to do Sunday lunches and Christmas with a big group of lovely people and really enjoy their company.  That's what I really crave.

[Guest]

This caught my attention:

people form more lasting and accurate memories if they believe they’re experiencing something alone.

Is that perhaps because we concentrate more on what's happening? Is it a sort of lack of bystander effect - that if there's noone else to witness it, we try harder? And therefore....maybe...do introverts make more reliable witnesses to events?

It's probably more about the ability and opportunity to concentrate, without having other people there to distract you. And the lack of any group pressure too.

[teartracks]

I like the article.  I especially like this idea.  The project’s funding came from, of all places, the US Forest Service, an agency with a deep interest in figuring out once and for all what is meant by “solitude” and how the concept could be used to promote America’s wilderness preserves.  Maybe because when I needed and chose (not necessarily wanted) to be alone the most, I did it in a small woods (my readily available small wilderness) in back of the house and then when I needed complete isolation, it was in a national forest mountain lodge where I could choose not to be with others in any fashion for as long as seemed right to get me healthier emotionally.

I'm a 'loner' by nature and probably by choice.  It's not burdensome.  It is for some people though, and I think serious study of the subject could be beneficial to us all.  

Good article!  Thanks for posting about it Dr. G.

tt