Ghost of Midnight

AMERICANS are still famously neighbourly (especially compared to Europeans) but they’re getting less so.  A new book released last week, “Social Trends in American Life”, sees a group of prominent American social scientists presenting and explaining the results of the General Social Survey an ongoing study that has regularly recorded and tracked changes in social attitudes and make-up since the early 1970s…

For the most part, the results are unsurprising… But one trend in the pattern of American social life is curious: Americans have never been less likely to be friends with their neighbours than before. In 1974, 44% of respondents said that they had spent a social evening with neighbours more than once a month. By 2008, that number had dropped to a tick over 30%. Over the course of the study’s existence, the number has been dropping consistently.

The effect is not quite uniform. The likelihood of socialising with neighbours more than once a month declines with age but levels off among the middle-aged before a brief fillip among the elderly. By way of contrast, there have been steady increases in the number of people who socialise with friends (43%) or relatives (60%) more than once a month. Moreover, it is highly dependent on location. People in rural areas are much more likely to spend time with their neighbours than those in urban areas. Residents of suburbs exhibit the lowest level of neighbourliness…

How social interaction conditions political outcomes is not always clear. In 2000, Robert Putnam, a Harvard sociologist, made waves with his book, “Bowling Alone”. His concern was that civic life in America was fast disappearing and that this would have dire political consequences. Fewer people were members of community or social associations, a trend made most visible by the prevalence of people bowling alone rather than in teams or leagues. Countries that lack a dense network of civic life are often undemocratic or poorly governed as citizens have less regard for each other.

The primary culprit here is suburbanisation. Suburban life for most Americans is far from the bed-hopping intrigues depicted in “Desperate Housewives”. Instead, big houses, wide streets and lengthy commutes reduce the chance of running into neighbours, let alone becoming friends. Technology too has made staying in contact with friends and relatives easier than in the past, decreasing the need or time available to meet those over the fence. Just as voters can tailor their media diet to avoid unwanted opinions they can now calibrate their friendships to avoid those with the wrong opinions.

This jibes with our experience hosting Front Porch Forum across Vermont.