The Anti-Social Century

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

The anti-social century is the result of one such cascade, of chosen solitude, accelerated by digital-world progress and physical-world regress. But if one cascade brought us into an anti-social century, another can bring about a social century. New norms are possible; they’re being created all the time. Independent bookstores are booming—the Ameri... See more

The absence of these insistent signals seemed to suggest an absence of meaning. I would start conversations with people—on the beach, in bookstores, in cafés—and they were often friendly, but the conversations seemed to have a low social temperature compared to the web-based ones I had lost. No stranger is going to flood you with hearts and tell yo

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The Belonging Barometer survey by the American Immigration Council also found that 74 percent of Americans don’t feel connected to their local community.

That sentiment correlates with changed behaviors: today, people spend an average of 24 more hours alone and 20 fewer hours with friends each month compared to two decades ago; involvement in commun... See more