In 1945, C.S. Lewis wrote “We live… in a world starved for solitude, silence, and private: and therefore starved for meditation and true friendship.” He goes on to describe how times of reading and reflecting are increasingly replaced by busyness and constant noise. In the same vein, he talks about the increasingly common ownership of home radios, which intrudes on silence. People simply have less quiet time, and with it, less time to reflect and think. There’s always some sort of noise or distraction. If this was true in the 40s, it is certainly even more the case today, when schedules are more jam-packed, life moves faster, and there is always a tv, radio, or cell phone making noise in the background. There is just less quiet time in our lives. Along with the increasing scarcity of quiet, pressure-free time, Lewis also decries a decrease in intimate connection to others. He describes how times of close conversation, one-on-one with dear friends has become rare; replaced increasingly by crowds of people conversing more impersonally and with less depth. Between the lack of time for reflection and the increasing rarity of intimate conversation, Lewis argues that people have begun to feel more and more alone and empty. A recent Yale study substantiated these projections, finding that young people interact with family and friends far more frequently as their social media/digital communications increase, but that their interactions tend to be more surface and lacking in depth. Further, the study found that with increased use of Facebook and cell phones for communicating comes a decrease in young people’s ability to handle emotional experiences or express feelings effectively. Couple this with the fact that most Americans spend more time on Facebook every day than they do on household chores and personal hygiene combined and the net result is folks feeling more alone and hopeless despite being connected to the world around them like no generation has ever been before. This phenomena is easy to spot in the world around us. Watch folks in public places and you will quickly notice a large number of them spend more time staring at their phones or tablets than they do talking. It’s increasingly common for people to sit and stare at a screen, whether it’s a tv, computer, or phone, instead of talking. I write this as a guy who is quite guilty of this behavior. The problem is that it’s a tough habit to break. I am discovering in my own life that I have to be intentional about taking time away from the noise of TV, schedule pressures, and social media. For me, this takes place early in the morning, and then only if I make it happen. Further, I have to be intentional about leaving my phone or the TV off during times with my family, or the distractions creep in. In addition to intentionally making time away from distractions to reflect or spend with family, I have to plan for these times. If I don’t plan my reading or prayer ahead of time, I will simply default to mindlessly surfing the web. If I don’t plan to play a game with the kids or have a conversation, time together can quickly devolve into distracted time in the same room. In my own life, I didn’t notice how much space was taken up by noise until I started looking for it. Further, I didn’t realize how rewarding it was to enjoy silence and time without distractions, until I made it a point to do so.
