BOWLING ALONE
Page 55
53
Generational succession explains the demise of newspapers
General Social Survey archive, 1972–98.
54
Newshounds are a vanishing breed
DDB Needham Life Style survey archive, 1986–99.
55
A half century’s growth in television watching, 1950–1998
Nielsen Report on Television 1998 (New York: Nielsen, 1998); Communications Industry Report, 1997 (New York: Veronis, Suhler & Associates, 1998); Cobbett S. Steinberg, TV Facts (New York: Facts on File, 1980). Data restricted to households with TV.
56
Screens proliferate in American homes
Data on VCRs and TV sets: Statistical Abstract of the United States (various years); computer and Internet usage, DDB Needham Life Style survey archive, 1988–99.
57
TV becomes an American habit, as selective viewing declines
Roper Social and Political Trends survey archive, 1975, 1979, 1985, and 1989.
58
Channel surfing is more common among younger generations
J. Walker Smith and Ann Clurman, Rocking the Ages: The Yankelovich Report on Generational Marketing (New York: Harper Business, 1997), 181, citing 1996 Yankelovich Monitor.
59
America watches TV all day every day
DDB Needham Life Style survey archive, 1993–98.
60
In the evening Americans, above all, watch TV
Roper Social and Political Trends survey archive, 1985 and 1989.
61
More TV means less civic engagement (among college-educated, working-age adults)
Roper Social and Political Trends survey archive, 1973, 1974, 1977, 1983, 1988, 1991, and 1993; analysis limited to respondents aged thirty to fifty-nine with at least some college education (N = 13149).
62
TV watching and volunteering don’t go together
DDB Needham Life Style survey archive, 1975–98.
63
TV watchers don’t keep in touch
DDB Needham Life Style survey archive, 1975–78.
64
TV watching and club meetings don’t go together
DDB Needham Life Style survey archive, 1975–98.
65
TV watching and churchgoing don’t go together
DDB Needham Life Style survey archive, 1975–98.
66
TV watching and comity don’t go together
DDB Needham Life Style survey archive, 1975–98 (1997–98 for “give finger to another driver”).
67
Americans began cocooning in the 1970s
Roper Social and Political Trends survey archive, 1974–75, 1977, 1979.
68
TV watchers don’t feel so great
DDB Needham Life Style survey archive, 1975–98.
69
Types of television programs and civic engagement, controlling for time spent watching TV
Roper Social and Political Trends survey archive, 1994, N = 1,482. Results based on probabilities calculated from logistic regression, generated using Monte Carlo simulation. Controls include education, household income, sex, age, race, marital status, employment status, size of community, year of study, watching prime-time TV, watching sports programs, and total time spent watching TV.
70
Membership in associations rises and falls with age
General Social Survey archive, 1972–94.
71a, 71b
Generational trends in civic engagement
Vote: National Election Study, 1952–96; newspaper readership: General Social Survey, 1972–98; social trust: General Social Survey, 1972–98; community project: DDB Needham Life Style, 1975–98; group membership: General Social Survey, 1974–94; interest in politics: DDB Needham Life Style, 1975–98; church attendance: General Social Survey, 1972–98; club attendance: DDB Needham Life Style, 1975–98.
72
Greed trumps community among college freshmen, 1966–1998
UCLA College Freshmen Survey Archive, 1966–98, as reported in Linda J. Sax et al., The American Freshman (Los Angeles: UCLA Higher Education Research Institute, 1998) and earlier volumes in this series.
73
Age-related differences in suicide rates, 1950–1995
Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics—1995, Kathleen Maguire and Ann L. Pastore, eds. (Albany, N.Y.: Hindelang Criminal Justice Research Center, 1996), 365.
74
Growing generation gap in malaise
DDB Needham Life Style survey archive, 1975–99.
75
From generation to generation, patriotism wanes, materialism waxes
Wall Street Journal/NBC News Poll (July 1998).
76
Materialism grows in the final decades of the twentieth century
Roper Social and Political Trends archive, 1976, 1979, 1982, 1985, 1989, 1992, augmented for 1995 and 1997 from the relevant Roper Reports (New York: Roper Starch Worldwide, various years).
77
The meaning of community for successive generations
Yankelovich Partners, Inc. surveys, 1997–99.
78
Government spending, 1947–1998
Bureau of Economic Analysis, National Income Accounts (U.S. Department of Commerce, Washington, D.C., 1999).
79
Guesstimated explanation for civic disengagement, 1965–2000
Author’s estimates from multiple analyses reported in section III.
80
Social capital in the American states
See sources for table 4 below.
81
Kids are better off in high-social-capital states
See sources for tables 4 and 5 below. Data on both variables available for 48 states.
82
Schools work better in high-social-capital states
See sources for table 4 below. Our index of educational performance is based on the following: (1) State-level data from seven nationwide National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests drawn from Digest of Education Statistics: 1992, Digest of Education Statistics: 1995, NAEP 1996 Science Report Card for the Nation and the States, and NAEP 1996 Mathematics Report Card for the Nation and the States, all published by the National Center for Education Statistics (Washington, D.C.: Department of Education, various years): reading proficiency for fourth-graders in 1994; science proficiency for eighth-graders in 1996; math proficiency for fourth-graders in 1992 and 1996; and math proficiency for eighth-graders in 1990, 1992, and 1996. (2) Participation-adjusted Scholastic Achievement Test (SAT) scores from Brian Powell and Lala Carr Steelman, “Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildering: The Use and Misuse of State SAT and ACT Scores,” Harvard Educational Review 66 (1996) 38. (3) Six convergent (though not identical) measures of high school dropout rates: the percentage of “status dropouts,” ages sixteen to nineteen for 1990, as reported in Digest of Education Statistics: 1992, 13; the percentage of those aged sixteen to nineteen in the 1990 census who were not in regular school and had not completed twelfth grade or a GED, as reported in the Statistical Abstract of the U.S., 1995: 159; the percentage of those aged sixteen to nineteen in 1993–95 who were not enrolled in school and had not completed high school or a GED, as reported in Kids Count 1997; the “public high school graduation rate, 1989–1990,” as reported in Victoria Van Son, CQ’s State Fact Finder (Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly, 1993), 106; and the high school completion rates for 1990–92 and for 1993–95 (Digest of Education Statistics: 1997). Data on both variables available for 48 states.
83
Kids watch less TV in high-social-capital states
See sources for table 4 below; NAEP measures of daily television watching by eighth-graders in 1990 and 1992 and fourth-graders in 1992, as reported in Digest of Education Statistics: 1992 and Digest of Education Statistics: 1995. Data on both variables available for 44 states.
84
Violent crime is rarer in high-social-capital states
See sources for table 4 below; Crime in the United States, 1997 (Washington, D.C.: Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1998). Data on both variables available for 48 states.
85
States high in social capital are less pugnacious
See sources for table 4 below; DDB Needham Life Style survey archive, 1976–98. Data on both variables available for 48 states.
86
Health is better in high-social-capital states
See sources for tables 4 and 6 below; Ichiro Kawachi, Bruce P. Kennedy, Kimberly Lochner, and Deborah Prothrow-Stith, “Social Capital, Income Inequality, and Mortality,” American Journal of Public Health 87 (1997): 1491–1498. Data on both variables available for 48 states.
87
Americans don’t feel as healthy as we used to
DDB Needham Life Style survey archive, 1975–99.
88
Social connectedness (at least in moderation) fosters happiness
DDB Needham Life Style survey archive, 1975–98.
89
Tax evasion is low where social capital is high
See sources for table 4 below; Internal Revenue Service criminal referrals and convictions per 100,000 population (1992–97) factor score, drawn from Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, Syracuse University. Data on both variables available for 48 states.
90
Tolerance grows for racial integration, civil liberties, and gender equality
General Social Survey archive, 1974–96.
91
Social capital and tolerance go together
See sources for table 4 below; General Social Survey archive, 1974–96. Data on both variables available for 43 states.
92
Social capital and economic equality go together
See sources for table 4 below; Kawachi, Kennedy, Lochner, and Prothrow-Stith, “Social Capital, Income Inequality, and Mortality.” Data on both variables available for 48 states.
93
Social capital and civic equality go together
See sources for table 4 below; Roper Social and Political Trends survey archive, 1974–94. Data on both variables available for 42 states.
94
Associational density in 26 American communities, 1840–1940
Gerald Gamm and Robert D. Putnam, “The Growth of Voluntary Associations in America, 1840–1940,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 29 (1999): 511-557.
95
Founding and cumulative incidence of large membership associations
Theda Skocpol, “How Americans Became Civic,” in Civic Engagement in American Democracy, Theda Skocpol and Morris P. Fiorina, eds. (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 1999): 54, figure 2–3.
96
Founding dates of contemporary U.S. associations
Encarta 2000 New World Almanac (Oxford: Helicon Publishing Ltd., 1998).
TABLE NUMBER
TITLE
SOURCE OF DATA
1
Trends in political and community participation
Roper Social and Political Trends archive, 1974–94.
2
Pace of introduction of selected consumer goods
Sue Bowden and Avner Offer, “Household Appliances and the Use of Time: The United States and Britain Since the 1920s,” Economic History Review 47 (November 1994): 729, supplemented by data from the Statistical Abstract of the United States (various years)
3
All forms of civic disengagement are concentrated in younger cohorts
Newspaper readership: General Social Survey, 1972–98; all other forms of participation: Roper Social and Political Trends archive, 1974–94, supplemented by data on church attendance from Roper Reports (New York: Roper-Starch Worldwide, 1996–98).
4
Measuring social capital in the American states:Components of Social Capital Index Served on committee for local organization last year “Most people can be trusted” vs. “Can’t be too careful” Agree “Most people are honest.” Voting turnout in presidential elections Served as officer of local organization last year 501(c)(3) charitable organizations per 1,000 pop. Attended club meetings: frequency last year Civic and social organizations per 100,000 pop. Attended public meeting on town or school affairs Organizational memberships per capita “I spend a lot of time visiting friends.” Entertained at home: frequency last year Did volunteer work: frequency last year Worked on community project: frequency last year
Roper Social and Political Trends archive, 1974–94. General Social Survey, 1974–96. DDB Needham Life Style archive, 1975–98.U.S. Census Bureau, 1988 and 1992. Roper Social and Political Trends archive, 1974–94. Non-profit Almanac, 1989 (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1989). DDB Needham Life Style archive, 1975–98. County Business Patterns, Dept. of Commerce, 1977–92. Roper Social and Political Trends archive, 1974–94. General Social Survey, 1974–96. DDB Needham Life Style archive, 1975–98. DDB Needham Life Style archive, 1975–98. DDB Needham Life Style archive, 1975–98. DDB Needham Life Style archive, 1975–98.
5
Kids Count index of child welfare
Annie E. Casey Foundation (Baltimore, Md., 1999), Web site www.aecf.org/kidscount/index.htm.
6
Which state has the best health and health care
Morgan-Quitno Health Care State Rankings (1993–98), compiled by Morgan-Quitno Press (Lawrence, Kans.) and downloaded from www.morganquitno.com.
7
Indexes of tolerance for racial integration, gender equality, and civil liberties
General Social Survey, 1974–98.
8
Social capital and tolerance: Four types of society
Author’s analysis.
9
Social capital innovations, 1870–1920
Founding dates from national headquarters of various associations, supplemented and confirmed by data from World Almanac (New York: Press Pub. Co. [New York World], various years), Encyclopedia of Associations (Detroit, Mich.: Gale Research, various years), and histories of particular organizations.
APPENDIX III
The Rise and Fall of Civic and Professional Associations
Notes:
(1) In all cases where significant, non-U.S. members excluded from membership numbers
(2) Female members excluded from traditionally male fraternal organization membership numbers (although women Moose members bro ken out separately)
(3) World War II spike in Red Cross volunteers has been excluded from calculations about peak and rate of decline.
Notes
CHAPTER 1: THINKING ABOUT SOCIAL CHANGE IN AMERICA
1. David Scott and Geoffrey Godbey, “Recreation Specialization in the Social World of Contract Bridge,” Journal of Leisure Research 26 (1994): 275–295; Suzi Parker, “Elks, Lions May Go Way of the Dodo,” Christian Science Monitor, August 24, 1998; John D. Cramer, “Relevance of Local NAACP Is Up for Debate,” Roanoke Times, January 24, 1999; Dirk Johnson, “As Old Soldiers Die, V.F.W. Halls Fade Away,” New York Times, September 6, 1999. I am grateful to Professor David Scott for information about the Glenn Valley Bridge Club; “Glenn Valley” is a pseudonym for a college town in central Pennsylvania.
2. Christine Wicker, “A Common Thread of Decency,” Dallas Morning News, May 1, 1999; David Streitfeld, “The Last Chapter: After 50 Years, Vassar Ends Its Famed Book Sale,” Washington Post, April 28, 1999, C1; Caroline Louise Cole, “So Many New Uniforms, but So Few Musicians,” Boston Sunday Globe Northwest Weekly, September 5, 1999, 1.
3. Jeffrey A. Charles, Service Clubs in American Society: Rotary, Kiwanis, and Lions (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993), 157.
4. Eric Larrabee and Rolf Meyersohn,Mass Leisure (Glencoe, Ill.: Free Press, 1958), 359, as quoted in Foster Rhea Dulles,A History of Recreation: America Learns to Play, 2nd ed. (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1965), 390.
5. Life, February 21, 1964, 91, 93. I am g
rateful to Rob Paarlberg for spotting this remarkable issue in a Maine flea market.
6. Robert E. Lane, Political Life: Why People Get Involved in Politics (Glencoe, Ill.: Free Press, 1959), 94; Daniel Bell and Virginia Held, “The Community Revolution,” The Public Interest, 16 (1969): 142.
7. In fact, turnout in 1976 was 53 percent and falling. See Richard A. Brody, “The Puzzle of Political Participation in America,” in The New American Political System, ed. Anthony King (Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1978).
8. George H. Gallup, The Gallup Poll: Public Opinion 1935–1971 (New York: Random House, 1972); Karlyn Bowman, “Do You Want to Be President?,” Public Perspective 8 (February/March 1997): 40; Robert E. Lane, “The Politics of Consensus in an Age of Affluence,” American Political Science Review 59 (December 1965): 879; and Richard G. Niemi, John Mueller, and Tom W. Smith, Trends in Public Opinion (New York: Greenwood Press, 1989), 303. The version of the “trust” question used in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s is not directly comparable to the one that has become standard in most recent years.
9. See Thomas R. Rochon, Culture Moves: Ideas, Activism, and Changing Values (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1998), xiii–xiv.
10. Doug McAdam, Freedom Summer (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 14–15.
11. James Q. Wilson, “Why Are We Having a Wave of Violence?”The New York Times Magazine, May 19, 1968, 120.
12. Lyda Judson Hanifan, “The Rural School Community Center,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 67 (1916): 130–138, quotation at 130. Ever the practical reformer, Hanifan was self-conscious about using the term capital to encourage hard-nosed businessmen and economists to recognize the productive importance of social assets. Having introduced the idea of social capital, he observes, “That there is a great lack of such social capital in some rural districts need not be retold in this chapter. The important question at this time is: How can these conditions be improved? The story which follows is an account of the way a West Virginia rural community in a single year actually developed social capital and then used this capital in the improvement of its recreational, intellectual, moral, and economic conditions.” His essay, which included a list of practical exercises for community-based activists, was originally prepared in 1913 for West Virginia schoolteachers as “a handbook for community meetings at rural schoolhouses,” and it was subsequently incorporated in L. J. Hanifan, The Community Center (Boston: Silver, Burdett, 1920). I am grateful to Brad Clarke for first spotting this usage of the term social capital.