Community: Have we lost it? Should we care?

In Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville, a visitor from France, wrote that Americans were good at coming together whether for political or social reasons and that this was our strength.

"Civic engagement" wrote De Tocqueville in 1835, was key to our success as a democracy.

Bowling Alone, written 160 years later by sociologist Robert D. Putnam, warned that the community praised by de Tocqueville was breaking down.

Putnam blamed television, two-career families and suburban sprawl. Only a few decades before, he explained, thousands of Americans were bowling league members, but by 1996 people were more likely to bowl alone. He concluded this was leading to disturbing trends, from a lack of good manners to an increase in violence.

Is the web to blame?
Web surfing, video gaming and our busy lives are now taking the blame for a growing lack of community in our culture. People argue that too much time online means much less time for human interaction.

American families spend an average of 3.6 hours a day online according to a report on ZDNet, and that report is three years old! If you subtract school, work, transportation and sleep time, that doesn't leave much for family together time.

Disturbing trend? Perhaps. I believe strongly that human beings need community to thrive. But another thing about humans, we usually find a way to get what we need.

Is hope on the horizon?
I've noticed two trends that seem to contradict the idea that community is dead or dying today.

• Knit 'n' bitch groups, reading groups, play groups have all gathered speed in the early 21st century. I think this is an effort to reach out to others and form new communities. We may not be home to borrow sugar any more but we are reaching out.
  
  
• Volunteerism among young people is on the rise. The President made service to others a key point in his inaugural address, and it appears a lot of people are taking him seriousy. According to a recent report on volunteerism on Minnesota Public Radio the upside (if there is one) of the down economy is that people are giving of themselves because they can't afford monetary donations.
  
  
• Voluntary communities, created by Internet access and facilitated by social networking sites such as Facebook and My Space do help keep people in touch. I've heard so many stories about people reconnecting after years through these sites. That can't be all bad.
  

Hope springs eternal as they say and even Putnam, who seemed pretty doom and gloom in his 1996 book, has co-written another book, Better Together, and is trying to start a movement to encourage re-engagement. The Better Together website lists "150 Ways to Build Social Capital," a great resource for community building.

What do you think?
More questions come up whenever I talk to people about this topic. For example:

• While shared interests are bringing people together from all over the world over the Internet, if we only associate with like-minded folks are we missing opportunities to expand our horizons?
  
  
• Texting, email, instant messaging, cell phones, tweeting—in some ways we're more in touch than ever before on an individual basis. In fact, many would argue we're too in touch. But, do we interact in a meaningful way with others?
  
  
• Have we lost community or have we just replaced one type of community with another?

Illustration by Donna Collingwood.