I'm sorry, but anybody who has 60,000 posts on a message board is not a "loner," they are just choosing virtual contact over real life contact.
I enjoy solitary activities, like reading or walking in nature, but I enjoy being with people too, online and in real life.
I do not know, after 2 decades of mind melting sound of machines and having to yell to be heard twice, my home with the birds singing and the quiet except for the occasional yelping of the dogs and the soothing of the cats purring is a blessing.
Quiet and solitude are two different things, I am never alone, have family I talk to on the phone, the hum of my electrical appliances, the voice of Hubby, this is not solitude, this is the way life should be.
It is no wonder that we get our minds jangled with constent noise, the brain shifting at all times to recognise the sounds of everyday life, sudden unexpected noises, or the constant noise of very loud machinery that sends vibrations through the body.
Solitude is the absence of every thing but self, reason why prisoners dread being placed in a cell with no human contact and nothing to stimulate them, no books, not even a bug to watch. Solicitude drives people mad, it is unnatural.
Some Russian I read about was placed into solitary confinement for 5 years or so, he had a blanket that was of a check a Bord pattern. some how he stole or found just one book on how to play chess. He made the board pieces out of bread and practiced and played on his blanket for the 5 years and when realeased went on to become a world class chess master.
Quiet is relative, solitude is to be made nonhuman, other the being buried alive I cannot think of a worse fate.
