Writing yesterday in the New York Times, Henry Fountain discussed the new ‘lonelier’ American – it’s not just the family which is breaking down in the US, modern life has also taken its toll on friendship. Fountain is referring to the recent sociological study from the universities of Duke and Arizona which found that Americans’ close friendship circles had seriously diminished over the last 20 years. Mirroring a survey carried out in 1985, the study found that Americans, on average, have only two close friends – and that roughly a quarter have no close friends that they can talk to. The average number of people Americans felt they could confide in has dropped from 2.94, the figure in 1985, to 2.08 (the figure in 2004).
While perhaps this all sounds rather ‘pop psychology’ the results of the study, published in the American Sociological Review, actually convey a very serious indictment on modern social organisation and the way in which social networks have declined over recent decades. A modern social organisation which is most likely replicated here in the UK.
It really matters that our stateside counterparts, and perhaps we British, have fewer confidantes. And not simply because fewer opportunities to confide means fewer opportunities for unburdening worries. One of the study’s authors, Lynn Smith-Lovin, sees the shrinking of friendship circles as highly concerning. Smith-Lovin connects the decline in friends to a decline in the social ties which ‘…lead to civic engagement and local political action.’ And this is where the serious issues come in - the one less friend Americans now have means much more than having one less person to invite to dinner parties. The authors of the study refer to the ‘increased social isolation’ which they equate with this decline in friends, a trend which unquestionably correlates with increased social fragmentation. We have fewer friends because we have less time and because our lives are more transitory: we move our households and workplaces around more. We are also much less involved in community activity: partly as a result of the above and partly because of a decline in cohesive forces such as religion. On a societal level, the effects of this increased social fragmentation inevitably mean more anti-social behaviour. When you don’t know your neighbours, not only are you less likely to defend their property, you’re more likely to harm it yourself.
That we so enjoy reality TV in the 21st century is no coincidence: increasingly unable to create our own communities, we are latching onto cyber ones.
Comments (2)
Another, more plausible, explanation lies in the sheer mobility of American society. America's population is not aging particularly fast - between now and 2030, the median age in America will rise by just three years. However, in 2005, around 40 million Americans - 1 in 7 of the population - moved house, far more so than in any European country. During the 1990s, 73 million Americans moved to a different state. It is not too hard to imagine the impact that this can have on friendships, which will inevitably be more transient as individuals have less time to get to know the people around them.
There is an interesting corollary to this phenomenon, however. While individuals now boast fewer 'close' friends than before, the number of casual friends or acquaintances has actually increased. The American psychologist Stanley Milgram famously concluded in 1967 that the chain of acquaintances between any two Americans never had more than 6 links (giving rise to the phrase "six degrees of separation"). A recent survey found that in 2005, this number had fallen to 4.6, despite the growth in America's population since 1967. While the intimacy between Americans has lessened, being able to keep in touch with a much wider range of people through technologies such as e-mail has brought everyone closer.
Posted by Gregory L | July 13, 2006 11:07 AM
Posted on July 13, 2006 11:07
A plausable explanation for this may simply be the aging of the American population. Once past the easy familiarity of youth and school, it becomes harder to acquire new friends. On the other hand, the longer an existing friendship goes on, the greater the chance for it to be disrupted. The result is a curve that peaks in one's mid-twenties, with a long, gradual decline thereafter.
Posted by John West | July 4, 2006 4:07 PM
Posted on July 4, 2006 16:07