The Value of Silence

Link Year Week 7:

Americans are notorious for being loud and busy people. When you think about the life that the average American leads its not hard to see that we have alarmingly little time alone and even the small portion of time alone is rationed out between social media, Netflix and television. Humans are generally social creatures but it is all too necessary for us to get some respite from the frenzy of a metropolitan lifestyle.

The soul desires solitude and you will find that silence is often the best music. I love to think back on times when I was out camping in the middle of nowhere, no distractions, no social media updates, no texts, no music; only the soundtrack of nature.

We are supposed to take time to decompress and synthesize our lives and this can only be effectively accomplished if you take time to find solace in silence. Silence allows us to take a step back and really examine ourselves and the world that surrounds us. Without the additional stimuli of traffic, phone notifications and people around your ability to focus on thought and also relax is uncanny. If theres one thing that I feel is underrated it would be getting out of society and spending a day or a weekend to decompress.

As Americans we are almost scared to be alone and without the ability to respond to friends at an instant. We feel the need to be quantified and qualified by others and because of that many people, more specifically teens find it nearly impossible to put down their phones. It is because of this obsession that getting out into silence is so key.