In Robert Putnam’s piece, Bowling Alone, he describes how the trends of the last few decades have affected the steady decrease of civic engagement and the destruction of the social capital. These trends are also unhealthy for a democratic society like America and pose and serious problem such as people distrusting the government because of scandals during the 60s that lead to less voter turn out over the years. The argument Robert Putnam is trying to make in Bowling Alone is that the American people becoming less involved in within their communities, (Putnam, 16), “Somehow in the last several decades of the twentieth century all these community groups and tens of thousands like them across America began to fade”. That these values of being
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Putnam also names these reasons why there was a decline in civic engagement such as time and money, suburbanization, electronic entertainment, and generational change. People being less involved in the voting process, clubs, church organizations, public meetings, women’s rights, fraternities, and other civic organizations which is being more of a trend over the last few decades, (Putnam, Chapter 10), ”During the first two thirds of the century Americans took a more and more active role in the social and political life of their communities—in churches and union halls, in bowling alleys and clubrooms, and around committee tables and card tables and dinner tables… then mysteriously and more or less simultaneously, we began to do all those things less often”. The use of technology and introduction of social networks could also be the reason why community engagement has gone down, instead of people going out to participate and being active members of clubs, organizations, clubs, and others they can get that same connection and feeling over these networks. Nowadays, people can support women’s rights over the time social networks or phone, donate money over phone, or hold public meetings through a live feed without a person having to meet
Putnam also names these reasons why there was a decline in civic engagement such as time and money, suburbanization, electronic entertainment, and generational change. People being less involved in the voting process, clubs, church organizations, public meetings, women’s rights, fraternities, and other civic organizations which is being more of a trend over the last few decades, (Putnam, Chapter 10), ”During the first two thirds of the century Americans took a more and more active role in the social and political life of their communities—in churches and union halls, in bowling alleys and clubrooms, and around committee tables and card tables and dinner tables… then mysteriously and more or less simultaneously, we began to do all those things less often”. The use of technology and introduction of social networks could also be the reason why community engagement has gone down, instead of people going out to participate and being active members of clubs, organizations, clubs, and others they can get that same connection and feeling over these networks. Nowadays, people can support women’s rights over the time social networks or phone, donate money over phone, or hold public meetings through a live feed without a person having to meet