A lesson in critical thinking

First of all, I would like to thank everyone who has taken time to comment on my post.  I have been quite bitter and for lack of a better word, "annoyed" with this book from the very beginning.  Reading everyone's posts has helped me finally see the bigger picture and the lessons I have learned thus far from reading the book.

I have been so caught up with trying to prove the author wrong since I began reading this book, that I am afraid that I may have lost sight of what the big picture is.  Yes, society has changed - we are not like our grandparents, but is that such a bad thing?  The author drills into us that we as a society are less likely to participate in organized community activities, which in turn lowers our social capital.  I find it interesting that the author does not think that parents volunteering in kids organized activities constitutes as a legitimate way of building social capital.  I wonder if he ever had a son in Little League. 

By many measures, my grandparent's generation was truly great.  But to compare subsequent generations to that is not fair.  Technology and world events are always evolving and changing, forcing us to adapt.  I find it silly how the author tries to find the root cause of this change.  It is a sum of many factors that are so inter-woven.

Skepticism and Statistics

I am probably about half way done this book right now, and I must say that it is feeling like Groundhog Day.  Every chapter seems to focus on how every measure he can find indicates that we as a community are less involved, and our "social capital" has decreased.  He spends so much time telling us what we no longer do (volunteering, social functions, etc),  and I keep asking myself, "What the heck are we doing instead?"  The author did mention that part of the answer may be attributed to increased television viewing, but I have the believe there is more to this. 

This book is riddled with statistics, and this is a cause of great concern to me.  I am always cautious of statistics, because they can often be skewed in may ways.  For example, one of the charts that caught my eye was Figure 35.  This chart shows trends in volunteering from 1975-1998 based upon different age groups.  Over this time, every age group showed an increase in volunteering except for the people who were in their 30's.  No real answer or plausible excuse was given for this statistic which I see as a fault on the author's part.  From my point of view, this chart makes sense and does not necessarily need to be a cause of alarm.  In the mid-1970's, married couples were having children at younger ages when compared to the mid-1990's.  Previously, the book mentioned that when people have children, their likelihood of volunteering and participating in social settings decreases.  It would therefore make sense that as the average age of parenthood shifted, the 20-something age group would experience a increasing trend in volunteerism, and the 30-something age group would experience a negative trend. 

Yet another instance of gross mis-use of statistics was the author's use of a statistic showing driving habits.  He uses an obscure statistic of an intersection in New York where 90% of the people failed to stop at the stop sign.  Little information was given about the circumstances of this intersection.  Was it in a busy part of town or rural community?   I highly doubt that 90% of all Americans are consistently running stop signs.  I do not agree with how this author is using extreme outlying statistics and passes them off as the norm. 

From the beginning, I have always felt like this book was not doing a fair job of depicting the average American society.  When I compared my own personal experiences to the statistics in this book, I was always coming out as an exception to the rule.  As I continue to scrutinize the statistics, I can see why.

What a difference a decade makes

I am currently mid-way through Chapter 4 right now, and quite frankly I am not impressed with with this book.  I am desperately hoping that this book presents something profound or captivating, because right now I am falling asleep every time I open the book. 

As I read this book, I do get the feeling that this book is already outdated even though it was published 10 years ago.  I was struck by the claim that voting rates were continuously falling, so I went to the U.S. Census bureau to see what the voting rates were within the past decade.  In 2000, 54.75 of American's turned out to vote for the presidential election, in 2004, 58.3% voted, and in 2008 58.2% voted.  These numbers rival the voting turnout of the early 1980's.  (http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/socdemo/voting/publications/historical/index.html)

Recent political movements such as the Tea Party have also mobilized many American's to participate in political discourse.  I see so many organizations and social groups around me I have a hard time believing that my perspective of American culture is so unique that it is an exception to the rule - as this book is clearly trying to tell me. 

Let's hope this gets better....

Initial Thoughts - Chapter 1

Last night I began reading Bowling Alone, by Robert D. Putnam.  As I began reading the book, it rekindled thoughts I had when I read The Greatest Generation, by Tom Brokaw.  While reading that book, I admired the accomplishments my grandparent's generation achieved, but I couldn't help but feel like they were being put on a pedestal, while subsequent generations have been compared to an impossible golden standard.  

Having only read the first chapter of Putnam's book, he introduces the concept of social capital, and how it is integral to not only individual success, but the success of the community at large.  Immediately, he begins making comparisons between generations and discusses how community involvement in America has been on the decline.  The reasons for this are numerous, so I am interested to see how he will connect everything.  

I do not think it is fair to say that the lack of community involvement from my generation (Generation X) is due to selfishness and a sense of entitlement.  Each generation is a product of previous generations and world events of their time.  In order for Putnam to make a clear argument, I would expect him to address this, along with the tremendous impact technology has.