Sunday, February 22, 2009

Midterm - Social Interactions

To what does Putnam attribute the change in the social interactions of groups since the mid-20th century to now?  Provide a few examples, both before and after.

According to Putnam, Americans are becoming less concerned with community wellbeing as we were in the past, due to our increasingly individualistic society.  Putnam writes: “In several surveys in 1999 two-thirds of American said that America’s civic life had weakened in recent years, that social and moral values were higher when they were growing up, and that our society was focused more on the individual than the community.”  Social gatherings such as bowling leagues, poker games, and group barbecues seem to be disappearing and factors like the Internet and social movements may play a role in this.  

1 comment:

  1. Hey, I think you asked me about the fishing poles? (If not, uh, well, this is awkward. I'm bad with names.) But one of the libraries that was located near a lake (I forget which one) checked out fishing poles to patrons.

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