Comments on: Thoughts And Writings At Year’s End https://barelyablog.com/thoughts-and-writings-at-years-end/ by ilana mercer Wed, 02 Apr 2025 19:29:09 +0000 hourly 1 By: Ilana Mercer https://barelyablog.com/thoughts-and-writings-at-years-end/comment-page-1/#comment-29352 Sat, 01 Jan 2022 16:57:11 +0000 https://barelyablog.com/?p=156796#comment-29352 Beautifully and profoundly put. Thank you.

]]> By: Nicholas https://barelyablog.com/thoughts-and-writings-at-years-end/comment-page-1/#comment-29351 Sat, 01 Jan 2022 16:49:11 +0000 https://barelyablog.com/?p=156796#comment-29351 It is worth reflecting further on the agonizing death of epistolary friendships. I despair of the millennials, and even more deeply of the so-called ‘Zoomers,’ many of whom may have never so much as picked up a pencil in their lives. Reared on the unrelieved pace of electronic communications and surrounded by ubiquitous screens, it should be no surprise that young are conditioned to treat relationships as just another ‘cool’ perk of digital media—disposable in like measure as they are easy to accumulate in the first place. They’re a feature of the algorithm; indeed, it may be better to say that humans themselves assume algorithmic status. It’s why, after being talked into it twice, I abandoned Facebook in disgust both times, now never to look back.

Anyway, those true friendships, in the full Aristotelean definition, are borne out not only by time, but by the care and discrimination required in their maintenance. Such are just several of the habits unknown to the youngest generation, never having enjoyed the mature fruits of any labor.

Let us hope the Fates are at least milder in this coming year. I look ever forward to your fresh insights.

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