Matter

Jean Twenge argues that technological change is the largest single driver of generational differences, in her book, Generations: The Real Differences Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silents―and What They Mean for America's Future. Putnam and Twenge both point to the “individualizing” or “atomizing” effect of new technologies of conv... See more

In 1995, Alan Ehrenhalt wrote a book on three Chicago neighborhoods called The Lost City , observing:

In the 1950s they [residents] considered the streets to be their home, an extension of their property, whereas today [1995] the streets are, for many people, an alien place. A block is not really a community in this neighborhood anymore. Only a hou

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thing we do most, which is shop and browse. These privatized solutions fit into that consumptive way of being more than what we don't practice — going to a new place, creating our own mechanisms for connection, encountering a lot of unknowns, and having to talk to people we don't already know. Those are not practices that we’re literally spending h... See more

These statistics are troubling, but they’re not exactly surprising, especially if you take stock of the slow, methodical whittling down of community in 21st-century America. How have your daily interactions changed since 10 or 20 years ago? Maybe your local coffee shop was replaced by a Starbucks, where they incentivize people to order on their pho... See more

We have been falling down the hole of isolation for decades. In order to protect ourselves from potential pain, or damage, or just complication, the walls of social isolation have gotten thicker and taller. Sometimes these walls are actually visible, the AirPods in the grocery store, but usually they’re below our notice. The closing churches, the e

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