idle gaze 045: enjoy the silence.

But today, because material goods have become a noisier signal of one’s social position and economic resources, the affluent have decoupled social status from goods, and re-attached it to beliefs.

Today, this culture is at its fever pitch. But there’s also been a backlash: There’s been innumerable talk about the millennial burnout, the dangers of hustle porn, the warnings about our ever-shortening attention spans, and about the benefits of unplugging. We are all embracing the quiet time.

We ravage every quiet moment with noise—podcasts, social media, the nonstop churn of news—anything to avoid stillness. Silence has become our nemesis, so we desecrate it with a constant stream of distraction. We scroll and consume until our minds are overloaded and our spirit feels mutilated, hollowed out by the very content meant to keep us entert... See more