American friendship has measurably collapsed since the early 1990s
Evidence
In 2021, the Survey Center on American Life published a study of friendship patterns in the United States. Packed into ten detailed pages, the report made for disheartening reading. Identifying what they called a “friendship recession,” researchers noted that Americans are increasingly lonely and isolated: 12 percent said that they did not have close friendships, compared to 3 percent in 1990, while nearly half claimed to have lost contact with friends during the COVID pandemic. The psychosomatic fallout was dire: heart disease, sleep disruptions, increased risk of Alzheimer’s. Together with falling marriage rates and rising virginity among American males, the friendship recession harbored potentially lethal effects; “given these extraordinary costs,” the US surgeon general warned in 2023, “rebuilding social connection must be a top public health priority for our nation.” — Anton Jäger, Hyperpolitics, 88
Categorization
- XREF: The ‘friendship recession’ data (12% no close friends vs 3% in 1990) is the empirical warrant Jäger uses to set up his Putnam-from-the-Left argument about hollowed-out associational life feeding hyperpolitics. — connects to: Americans widely perceived community bonds weakening by the 1990s. — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 59; By the late 1990s US participation and associational life had collapsed while parties converged — Anton Jäger, Hyperpolitics: Extreme Politicization…, 10; American social isolation worsened sharply between 1990 and 2021 — Anton Jäger, Hyperpolitics: Extreme Politicization…, 88 (+5 more)
- yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Americans widely perceived community bonds weakening by the 1990s. — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 59; By the late 1990s US participation and associational life had collapsed while parties converged — Anton Jäger, Hyperpolitics: Extreme Politicization…, 10; American social isolation worsened sharply between 1990 and 2021 — Anton Jäger, Hyperpolitics: Extreme Politicization…, 88 (+5 more)
Broader Connections
- American social isolation worsened sharply between 1990 and 2021
#corroborates(0.93) — Anton Jäger, Hyperpolitics, 88