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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]"What are your thoughts?"

My thoughts are that it's not exclusive to religious participation. Americans are leading increasingly lonely and isolated lives. They're not just not attending church, they're pulling back from Ruritans, ladies clubs, book groups, bowling leagues, golf leagues, yacht clubs, country clubs, DAR, union halls, VFW clubs and events, hunting clubs...

There is basically one exception. Those of us who have minor children and sufficient financial means spend a lot of our time driving and watching our kids play soccer or practice dance routines.

Pretty much anything that was once a staple of American working and middle class community life is struggling for membership or dying. Never before in the history of humankind have so many people been living alone. It's an enormous mental health problem that's rapidly worsening. So we spend a lot of time online in silo'd groups getting fed algorithms that are scientifically designed to make us angrier about whatever we're inclined to be angry about.

DCUM will love to snicker at the idea of churches declining. For our family, ours is a major source of community, friendship, service work, youth activities and friends, and so on. [/quote]

Can you expand upon the idea that not attending church and pulling back from other organizations means that people are lonely and isolated?[/quote]

Which part is unclear to you? Do you want a series of links to articles citing research about the rapidly increasing rates of depression, loneliness, and isolation? Do you want demographic links demonstrating the increasing percentages of single-person households? Do you want links about the decline of club and organization and institutional membership?

Do you really need me to Google these things for you?

Or are you skeptical of the idea that all of these trends are related, and that the prevalence of one is a contributing cause of another? [/quote]

No -I was interested in your perception. e.g.,   Is it from internet links? Are you experiencing it yourself?[/quote]

I've definitely read about it. It's been covered extensively for at least a decade in media ranging from NYT, certainly, to The Atlantic. That Bowling Alone guy -- what's his name, he's a long time Harvard person -- has written about it.

In my own life? Definitely, compared to the lives my parents and their friends led at this age, our cohorts are much less involved in community organizations and clubs, and it's all Travel Soccer and Dance Rehearsal seven days a week, in some form or another. [/quote]

Thanks, sounds like you're saying it's more specifically kid-centered now than more broadly community-centered, as it was when you were growing up.[/quote]

What I'm seeing is kid-centered mainly because I have three kids living at home. And what I witness personally, as it relates to this discussion, is going to be a far better picture of American life than what most are experiencing. I'm married and affluent with a thriving household and involved extended family. So if you want my personal experience, my biggest complaint is going to be limited to the fact that we're overly focused on kids' activities.

What's much sadder, in my opinion, is the devastating loneliness that is becoming so prevalent in our country and is under the radar of many of us. I'm sure it's offensive to point this out, but declining marriage rates do not promote well-being and happiness. There are fewer children, families are more dispersed, older couples, and older singles are far more likely to live alone and have very limited human contact. Religious participation is just one of many things that can alleviate this, and has been a major factor in doing so in past generations. But, as I've said, along with so many other things declining, it's just getting worse.

I think it's so narrow minded and short-sighted for people to look at this and get a little giddy about sticking it to those Fundies. [/quote]

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