Television privaatizes leisure even in group settings meant for sociability

Evidence

Even on a full night of league play team members are no longer in lively conversation with one another about the day’s events, public and private. Instead each stares silently at the screen while awaiting his or her turn. Even while bowling together, they are watching alone. — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 849

Categorization

• CANDY: The image of silent bowlers staring at a screen above each lane — the book’s title scenario turned dystopian — is a memorable anecdote worth retelling.
• XREF: connects to: Television privatizes leisure and thereby erodes community social capital — Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone: America’s Declining…, 67; Television creates a false intimacy that substitutes for real community engagement — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 837; The networked audience differs from broadcast audiences in enabling active participation — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 593 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Television adoption reduced community participation across age groups #exemplifies (0.75)
• TV talk shows deliberately engineer an illusion of intimacy with audiences #expands (0.75) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 774
• Rising TV viewing correlates with a large decline in civic participation #corroborates (0.75) — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels, 448
• The networked audience differs from broadcast audiences in enabling active participation #qualifies (0.72) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 593
• Mass television delivered shared experience without the collective exaltation of a rally #expands (0.72) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 456
• Television diffusion intensified social comparison and increased life dissatisfaction. #corroborates (0.70) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1471