Separation anxiety is assuaged by constant connection. Young people announce every detail of their lives on services like Twitter not to show off, but to avoid the closed door at bedtime, the empty room, the screaming vacuum of an isolated mind.
Interpretation
Separation anxiety can be reduced through consistent communication and connection, especially among young people who often share their lives online.
This quote by Jaron Lanier highlights the modern phenomenon of young people maintaining a constant online presence as a means to cope with feelings of loneliness and separation. Instead of merely seeking attention, their sharing on social media platforms is a defensive reaction to the isolation they may feel, particularly at vulnerable times like bedtime. The 'empty room' and 'isolated mind' illustrate the profound emotional challenges they face when disconnected from others.
In practice
In a speech about mental health, one might say, 'As Jaron Lanier noted, separation anxiety is assuaged by constant connection, reminding us to stay engaged with our loved ones.'
Pop culture has entered into a nostalgic malaise. Online culture is dominated by trivial mashups of the culture that existed before the onset of mashups, and by fandom responding to the dwindling outposts of centralized mass media. It is a culture of reaction without action.
We're losing track of the vastness of the potential for computer science. We really have to revive the beautiful intellectual joy of it, as opposed to the business potential.
Web 2.0 ideas have a chirpy, cheerful rhetoric to them, but I think they consistently express a profound pessimism about humans, human nature and the human future.
Facebook says, 'Privacy is theft,' because they're selling your lack of privacy to the advertisers who might show up one day.
I mean, you can't have advertising be the only official business of the information economy if the information economy is going to take over.
When you have a global mush, people lose their identity, they become pseudonyms, they have no investment and no consequence in what they do.
It slaps your dignity just right. I loved the idea of these proud, dignified black men, and I saw the older ones wounded, and it wounded me ten times as much because I couldn't stand seeing them hurt like this.
We all agree that marriage is a fundamental right. And in our country, and in our society, there are no second-class citizens.
Unless people feel that they are accepted and that they have a right to express their feelings without fear of embarrassment or ridicule, all they will do is react and rebel and struggle for their identity.
There is no cruelty greater than a woman's to a man who loves her and whom she does not love; she has no kindness then, no tolerance even, she has only an insane irritation.
I thought I would try to be gay for a while, but I'm just more sexually attracted to women. But I'm really glad that I found a few gay friends, because it totally saved me from becoming a monk or something.
It is wonderful how attractive a gentle, pleasant manner is, and how much it wins hearts.
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