How to Understand Solitary Experience

Sociology and anthropology historically have neglected solitary action as a topic of serious intellectual thought. A new book, Solitary Action: Acting on Our Own in Everyday Life, outlines a very useful four-part taxonomy for understanding what people do when they're acting alone. Dmitri N. Shalin provides a review in the American Journal of Sociology. Here's an excerpt summarizing the types of solitary action:

1. Peripatetics encompass freewheeling, often aimless wanderings either in physical or virtual space, such as when we randomly sample new cityscapes, browse the Internet without a particular agenda, or speed down memory lane.
2. Regimens encompass drills, take-home assignments, house-cleaning chores, and other exercises where the agent follows a well-trodden path in furtherance of a set goal.
3. Engrossments involve actions like playing solitaire, solving a crossword puzzle, reading a formulaic novel.
4. Reflexives we embark on while developing an artistic project, solving a scientific problem, or doing craft work.

Peripatetics and regimens are marked by low personal involvement in the performed activity, and that is what differentiates them from high-involvement solitary pursuits. ... In addition to “involvement,” the author distinguishes another vital dimension along which solitary acts range—“structuration.” While engrossments and regimens are associated with considerable structural constraints, reflexives and peripatetics eschew tight control over an exercise, leaving the specific sequence of steps up to the agent.