Demographic shifts predicted rising sociability, so other forces depress it

Evidence

We noted earlier the paradox that the strongest predictor of formal community involvement—education—had expanded sharply over the last twenty years and that nevertheless formal community involvement is down sharply. One implication is that without the boost provided by higher educational levels, formal involvement might have declined even more rapidly. We see a similar paradox in the case of informal social involvement: schmoozing is higher among single and childless people, and the number of single and childless people has risen significantly over the last two decades. Other things being equal, these trends should have led to increased informal social interaction, exactly the opposite of what we have found. As conventional family life has become rarer, we might have expected the real-life equivalent of Cheers and Friends to take the place of civic organizations and dinner parties, but in fact we have witnessed the decline of the latter without a compensating increase in the former. The implication: Something else must be even more powerfully depressing the rate of schmoozing in contemporary America. — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 356

Categorization

• QUESTION: What is that ‘something else’ Putnam eventually identifies — this sets up his central research question.
• SEED: The ‘paradox’ framing is a strong rhetorical move: whenever a headline variable moved the wrong direction against your trend, that is evidence of an even bigger hidden cause.
• XREF: connects to: Neighborly sociability has measurably declined while non-neighbor friendships rose — Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone: America’s Declining…, 53