Friday, June 23, 2006; Posted: 8:50 p.m. EDT (00:50 GMT)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Americans are more socially isolated than they were 20 years ago, separated by work, commuting and the single life, researchers reported on Friday.
Nearly a quarter of people surveyed said they had "zero" close friends with whom to discuss personal matters. More than 50 percent named two or fewer confidants, most often immediate family members, the researchers said.
"This is a big social change, and it indicates something that's not good for our society," said Duke University Professor Lynn Smith-Lovin, lead author on the study to be published in the American Sociological Review.
Smith-Lovin's group used data from a national survey of 1,500 American adults that has been ongoing since 1972.
She said it indicated people had a surprising drop in the number of close friends since 1985. At that time, Americans most commonly said they had three close friends whom they had known for a long time, saw often, and with whom they shared a number of interests.
***
more:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/06/23/friends.health.reut/index.htmlNow, what could have brought about this change? Could it be that Americans are forced to move, over and over, simply to find jobs? Could this mean that close relationships do not form during childhood years if parents are forced to move the whole family every time there'a a new "downsizing" due to outsourcing? Could it be that Americans are so concerned about not being well-educated enough to get a decent salary that they are increasingly willing to travel farther and farther to go to a "competitive" college -- only to move after graduation to whatever location (not their original home, certainly!) a job is offered? Could it be that Americans no longer bother to get to know their neighbors because they know they won't likely be neighbors for long? Could it be that Americans hardly meet anyone outside of their place of employment? Could it be that Americans don't make close friends even at work because of high turnover and unpleasant working environments -- like call centers and other mass production work, where they may never have a moment to speak to their coworkers about anything other than work? Could it be that surrendering to bottom-line, multinational corporations on every important aspect about how the country is run has led to a degradation in our personal lives, even our friendships? I'd say it has.
My grandparents lived in the same houses my parents were born in until the day they died -- in one case, the house they moved into when they married. That's over 60 years in one case, 40 in the other (IIRC). My parents have had to move several times, mostly as my dad's employer closed offices, merged with another company, etc. Still, I was lucky in that we only moved twice while I was growing up (not counting moves I was too young to remember, or one after I'd gone off to college). I've gone to school at three different universities in three different states (four, if you call a postdoc "school") and moved six times (plus two Summer positions out-of-state!) since I got my doctorate. I'm about to move again -- to another one-year position. Fortunately, I don't have any kids to traumatize with all that moving around. But how much nicer it would be if --
people could live decent lives on average wages;
people could count on finding an acceptable job not too far from home;
people could count on holding a job for more than a year or two;
people could plan on being where they are long enough to get to know their neighbors, get to know their town, get to know their kids' school, their kids' friends, their coworkers.
Cutthroat competition may be what bottom-line corporatists claim they want (though not for themsevles, of course), but a culture (sic) built around that mentality is a culture of unhappines or even misery, isolation, and friendlessness.
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
