Monthly Archives: October 2009
“The Lonely American”
I’m looking forward to a new book by two long-time Harvard professors… The Lonely American: Drifting Apart in the 21st Century…
In today’s world, it is more acceptable to be depressed than to be lonely-yet loneliness appears to be
the inevitable byproduct of our frenetic contemporary lifestyle. According to the 2004 General Social Survey, one out of four Americans talked to no one about something of importance to them during the last six months. Another remarkable fact emerged from the 2000 U.S. Census: more people are living alone today than at any point in the country’s history-fully 25 percent of households consist of one person only. In this crucial look at one of America’s few remaining taboo subjects-loneliness-Drs. Jacqueline Olds and Richard S. Schwartz set out to understand the cultural imperatives, psychological dynamics, and physical mechanisms underlying social isolation.
In The Lonely American, cutting-edge research on the physiological and cognitive effects of social exclusion and emerging work in the neurobiology of attachment uncover startling, sobering ripple effects of loneliness in areas as varied as physical health, children’s emotional problems, substance abuse, and even global warming. Surprising new studies tell a grim truth about social isolation: being disconnected diminishes happiness, health, and longevity; increases aggression; and correlates with increasing rates of violent crime. Loneliness doesn’t apply simply to single people, either-today’s busy parents “cocoon” themselves by devoting most of their non-work hours to children, leaving little time for friends, and other forms of social contact, and unhealthily relying on the marriage to fulfill all social needs.
As a core population of socially isolated individuals and families continues to balloon in size, it is more important than ever to understand the effects of a culture that idealizes busyness and self-reliance. It’s time to bring loneliness-a very real and little-discussed social epidemic with frightening consequences-out into the open, and find a way to navigate the tension between freedom and connection in our lives.
This is one of the central problems that Front Porch Forum addresses… and why we get such strong and emotional responses from folks. Many people simply yearn to connect with their neighbors, and in this day and age that’s not easy to do. Enter FPF.
Where is Front Porch Forum available?
Front Porch Forum is available to anyone who lives in one of these Vermont towns [list UPDATED 02/23/2011]…
- Alburgh
- Arlington
- Averill
- Avery’s Gore
- Bloomfield
- Bolton
- Bridgewater
- Brighton/Village of Island Pond
- Bristol
- Brunswick
- Buells Gore
- Burlington
- Calais
- Cambridge
- Canaan/Village of Beecher Falls
- Castleton
- Charlotte
- Colchester
- Dover
- Duxbury
- Essex Junction Village
- Essex Town
- Fairfield
- Ferdinand
- Grand Isle
- Hardwick
- Hinesburg
- Hubbardton
- Huntington
- Isle La Motte
- Jay
- Jericho
- Johnson
- Lemington
- Lewis
- Ludlow
- Middlesex
- Middletown Springs
- Milton
- Moretown
- Morristown
- Newport City
- North Hero
- Norton
- Poultney
- Pownal
- Richford
- Richmond
- Sandgate
- Shelburne
- South Burlington
- South Hero
- St. George
- Starksboro
- Stewartstown, NH
- Stowe
- Sunderland
- Underhill
- Vergennes
- Walden
- Warner’s Grant
- Warren Gore
- Waterbury
- West Rutland
- Westfield
- Westford
- Williston
- Winooski
- Worcester
And we’re expanding to other areas in the coming months. Sign up or join our waitlist. FPF is free to local residents.
Contact us if you want to sponsor FPF’s launch in your town. Join our growing list of launch sponsors: Grand Isle County sponsors, Orton Family Foundation, e-Vermont, Town of Johnson, Johnson State College, Comcast, Lake Champlain Islands Chamber, Franklin County Caring Communities, Franklin Central Supervisory Union, City of St. Albans, Ben & Jerry’s Foundation, Revitalizing Waterbury, Town of Duxbury, Ben & Jerry’s Homemade, and others
Email ain’t dead (WSJ, you lunkhead)
Andy Schroepfer at Rackspace wrote recently about the future of email vs. social media, texting, etc. Some, like today’s nutty Wall Street Journal article, declare the demise and coming death of email. Oh, puh-lease. And we all have paper-less offices, and radio disappeared the day after TV arrived, and the U.S. Postal Service is closing up shop tomorrow. We definitely have a rapidly evolving communication and media landscape, but seldom do the stalwarts just disappear.
In fact, email dominates the field over the likes of Twitter, FaceBook, texting, RSS, etc. Email is the default. That’s why Front Porch Forum uses it as a primary distribution path… we’re trying to reach EVERYONE in a local community, not just one clique or another. Anyway… here’s an interesting bit of data from Forrester Research…
About Blog
Ghost of Midnight is an online journal about fostering community within neighborhoods, with a special focus on Front Porch Forum (FPF). My wife, Valerie, and I founded FPF in 2006... read more
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