Alone

This article stopped me in my tracks this morning to ruminate over solitude.
Every woman should travel alone  from Salon.com

I have said many times "I have more conversations in my head than I do with other humans". As an only child there is little choice. You become your own sounding board. I am most comfortable alone. When I am around people for too long I get anxious and cranky. It wears me out as if I were on stage performing for hours. It's exhausting. That doesn't mean I don't like to be social, I just need to balance it with solitude.  At this point my husband understands alone time is a need for me and not something to be concerned about.  Today my alone time is usually spent with my i-Phone in hand peering to the lives of friends and strangers through social media.

There is a time in all of our lives when we must be comfortable in our own head. It's hard to do that when you are young because there are a million reasons to do it the way everyone else is doing it. Eventually you reach a point where the media doesn't dictate everything you are. Well, at least that's how it used to be. Maybe this generation will always hold hands with media. If they do, what will happen to that little voice in their head that should be saying "You can do that, alone" ? What will they miss by sharing everything with everyone and being part of so many peoples everything?
I have traveled coast to coast alone and the freedom I had to do that made me stronger. It also made me aware of the dangers I never would have seen in my middle American town. Seeing the ocean alone was dangerous. I wanted to leave and see every beach on every coast on every continent, I wanted sink into the sand and never leave. In that moment I could have given up everything to never lose sight of the ocean. Without the tether of family and "home" would I have given in to the desire? If I could have shared my thoughts and sights from where I stood would I have even contemplated staying or would I have given in to the desire because I could have travelled and been in constant contact and never felt the guilt of worrying anyone.

Has social media changed the landscape of solitude?