Putnam believed that the single biggest risk factor was the growing amount of time people spent alone.
Even back when he wrote Bowling Alone —before smartphones and apps—teens were solitary for three-and-a-half hours per day. Adolescents spent more time alone than with their family.
For the first time in history, people were growing up... See more
“The fact is, most of the freedom I had before kids, I never used. I paid for it in loneliness, but I never used it.I had plenty of happy times before I had kids. But if I count up happy moments, not just potential happiness but actual happy moments, there are more after kids than before. Now I practically have it on tap, almost any bedtime.”