In "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For," Thoreau argues that "we are enabled to apprehend at all what is sublime and noble only by the perpetual instilling and drenching of the reality that surrounds us" In observing this reality, "we perceive that only great and worthy things have any permanent and absolute existence, that petty fears and petty pleasures are but the shadow of the reality." In a culture dominated by social networking and high technology, to what extent is it possible to live life focused on the sublime without being distracted by "petty fears and petty pleasure"?