Bowling Alone

In the year 2000 Robert Putnam released his much cited book Bowling Alone which described the erosion over the previous thirty years of what Putnam called "social capital" or what we might call "community."

The book documented, among other things, an epidemic of loneliness in our society. Brett Reeder quotes from and summarizes Bowling Alone:

"For the first two-thirds of the twentieth century a powerful tide bore Americans into ever deeper engagement in the life of their communities, but a few decades ago--silently, without warning--that tide reversed and we were overtaken by a treacherous rip current."

Thus, social capital increased in the US until the 1970s and then suddenly decreased right up to the present.

This theme is consistent across seven separate measures of social capital, including: political participation, civic participation, religious participation, workplace networks, informal networks, mutual trust, and altruism.

Neuroscientist Dean Burnett at Science Focus writes:

Our social interactions are a huge factor in how we think, act, and see ourselves, because much of our brains is dedicated to social cognition. Completely depriving someone of any human contact is a recognised form of torture.

Basically, human well-being depends on interpersonal interactions and relationships.

It’s no wonder that prolonged loneliness is associated with many serious health consequences such as an increased risk of depression, anxiety, dementia, stroke and heart disease, so an epidemic of it should be taken very seriously.

Prior to the 1960s people often spent their whole lives in or near the neighborhood in which they were born, but Burnett points out that that's no longer the case:

The fact is, spending your whole life in the same community and region is not the default now. Many of us go off to university, or relocate across the country, even across continents, chasing the available jobs and opportunities (just ask any academic).

[This] means we often lack the ability, or opportunity, to ‘put down roots’, and thus build up a network of friends and relations that could be relied upon to counteract eventual loneliness.

He also notes that, perhaps surprisingly, loneliness does not solely afflict the elderly:

The traditional image tied to the loneliness epidemic is that of an older person, past retirement age, living alone, because the modern world and the march of time has deprived them of the ability to interact with close friends and family. And while there are undoubtedly many examples of such people out there, recent evidence suggests that the actual picture is more complex.

For instance a 2018 survey of 20,000 Americans found fewer elderly people experienced loneliness than younger generations, even though the older generations were less likely to be able to do anything about their loneliness.

Especially, according to a recent study at Harvard, older teens and young adults, who seem to be hit hardest by it overall, particularly during the pandemic.

It's ironic that the heaviest consumers of social media are often among the loneliest people on the planet.

Reeder lists seven suggestions Putnam urges society to implement to alleviate the tragic consequences of a society that no longer places the same value on community and interpersonal relationships as it once did:

1. First, he suggests educational reforms be undertaken, including improved civics education, well designed service learning programs, extra curricular activities and smaller schools.
2. He argues for a more family-oriented workplace which allows for the formation of social capital on the job.
3. He encourages further efforts at new urbanism.
4. He would like to see religion become both more influential and at the same time more tolerant.
5. The technologies that reinforce, rather than replace, face-to-face interaction should be encouraged.
6. Art and culture should become more interactive.
7. Finally, politics requires campaign reforms and a decentralization of power.

Given the baleful effects that loneliness has on people you'd think that there'd be an enormous push to implement these measures, and although there's been some progress in several of them, we apparently still have a long way to go.