#MeOnlyForMyself
Akin, Zanan
#MeOnlyForMyself - 2022.
73
This paper takes as its starting point a paradoxical phenomenon that has recently been observed on social media: sharing snapshot pictures of solitary activities and expressing the deep joy that is found in solitude. A paradox, as the publicity of joy in solitude annihilates the very possibility of solitude. We analyze this phenomenon using Arendt’s distinction between solitude and loneliness, linking it to Kierkegaard’s notion of despair. We suggest that the joy of solitude asserted in public is in fact an expression of the despair of loneliness, and that it reflects a tacit aspiration for togetherness. Insofar that for Hannah Arendt the prerequisite of an action is an in-between that unites and separates people at the same time, this despair can ultimately be described as a symptom of the absence of an in-between in the twenty-first century. The goal is then to satisfy the aspiration for a new mode of in-between that is emerging in the desolate world of “self-enjoyment.”
#MeOnlyForMyself - 2022.
73
This paper takes as its starting point a paradoxical phenomenon that has recently been observed on social media: sharing snapshot pictures of solitary activities and expressing the deep joy that is found in solitude. A paradox, as the publicity of joy in solitude annihilates the very possibility of solitude. We analyze this phenomenon using Arendt’s distinction between solitude and loneliness, linking it to Kierkegaard’s notion of despair. We suggest that the joy of solitude asserted in public is in fact an expression of the despair of loneliness, and that it reflects a tacit aspiration for togetherness. Insofar that for Hannah Arendt the prerequisite of an action is an in-between that unites and separates people at the same time, this despair can ultimately be described as a symptom of the absence of an in-between in the twenty-first century. The goal is then to satisfy the aspiration for a new mode of in-between that is emerging in the desolate world of “self-enjoyment.”
Réseaux sociaux