Why More Americans Are Living Alone

[zboy1]

More and more Americans are living alone, according to sociologist Eric Klinenberg's new book "Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Going Alone." Ray Suarez and Klinenberg discuss the emerging demographic of so-called "singletons" and what he calls the "biggest unnamed social change of the last 50 years."

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RacNp9gc ... AAAAPAATAA[/youtube]


Is this a good or bad trend? Does this trend support my opinion that Americans are becoming more and more lonely and disconnected? The professor in the video disagrees with me and thinks everything is great. I think he's full of shit myself.


One person that would disagree with Eric Klineburg is professor Robert Putnam, author of the book "Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community." It's a book that highly recommend to readers and you can find it on Amazon.com. Here is a summary of the book:

In a groundbreaking book based on vast data, Putnam shows how we have become increasingly disconnected from family, friends, neighbors, and our democratic structures– and how we may reconnect.

Putnam warns that our stock of social capital – the very fabric of our connections with each other, has plummeted, impoverishing our lives and communities.

Putnam draws on evidence including nearly 500,000 interviews over the last quarter century to show that we sign fewer petitions, belong to fewer organizations that meet, know our neighbors less, meet with friends less frequently, and even socialize with our families less often. We’re even bowling alone. More Americans are bowling than ever before, but they are not bowling in leagues. Putnam shows how changes in work, family structure, age, suburban life, television, computers, women’s roles and other factors have contributed to this decline.

[eurobrat]

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[Banano]

I live alone:)

I used to live with gf before for couple of months but this is much much betta, cant make them happy, thier expectations always go up for some fkn reason while my expectations are always the same and modest in comparison.

[Banano]

Bad trend for sure, makes people more isolated, selfish, dicksconnected , antisocial

[DarkMinxMish]

I think it's a trend that soon will become the norm in a few more decades.

It's just the simple breakdown in communication and disassociation. People are becoming more isolated and an island unto themselves.
Like Boston for instance you have all these people on the T and on the bus they rarely talk unless it's older people or they know one another.
I sometimes can find people to chat with like this girl around my age and we talked about her problems, but when I was nicely blunt it got awkward.
People pass by one another and it feels strange to make eye contact or just to say a simple good morning to people.
Some are like this, but not everybody. I remember a man who seemed to be a foreigner in a supermarket come to me saying something really kind and I was stupefied for a moment. I didn't expect it or how he smiled at me when he thanked me for being cautious of kids. It was true gratitude and that warmed me into smiling bashfully and it just felt good... you know. I heard this couple from a country in Africa at Ashmont remark on the coldness of Americans and how chatting and smiling just seemed to garner them negative reactions. They said it wasn't natural.
Living alone shows that people are increasingly selfish, insecure, and can't cope in groups that they don't any connection to.
Our culture is making it difficult with the new high tech for of communication like Facebook, Twitter (I hate!), Myspace, and texting.
Less face to face and so less people skills, less intimate conversations.

On the flip side possibly living alone is just a habit or rule for loners and people who don't mind so much.
I'm a loner who enjoys her privacy, but I also know I like people and company even if I'm shy.
I like the vibe people bring. One day I want my own place to call home, but I also know I want someone to share it with.
A friend, sibling, or whatever lol I don't like being by myself it scares me to know I'm the only person there.

[Someone]

I think we have to distinguish between living alone vs. diversity/multiculturalism.

The poster above me (DarkMinxMish) described an isolated mistrustful environment which is the norm in the US but that's largely due to diversity and multiculturalism. If there are a lot of people around you who look nothing like you and aren't related to you ethnically, then of course you're going to be on your guard and somewhat wary of strangers.

Studies show that monoethnic nations where there is little diversity actually enjoy greater degrees of trust. Wikipedia also has an article on multiculturalism that mentions the same thing.

[zboy1]

I think we have to distinguish between living alone vs. diversity/multiculturalism.

The poster above me (DarkMinxMish) described an isolated mistrustful environment which is the norm in the US but that's largely due to diversity and multiculturalism. If there are a lot of people around you who look nothing like you and aren't related to you ethnically, then of course you're going to be on your guard and somewhat wary of strangers.

Studies show that monoethnic nations where there is little diversity actually enjoy greater degrees of trust. Wikipedia also has an article on multiculturalism that mentions the same thing.

That's what the book Bowling Alone concludes: that the more diverse a community is, the greater the distrust and divisions that exist among the people living in the neighborhood.



The downside of diversity:
http://www.boston.com/news/education/hi ... ?page=full

But a massive new study, based on detailed interviews of nearly 30,000 people across America, has concluded just the opposite. Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam -- famous for "Bowling Alone," his 2000 book on declining civic engagement -- has found that the greater the diversity in a community, the fewer people vote and the less they volunteer, the less they give to charity and work on community projects. In the most diverse communities, neighbors trust one another about half as much as they do in the most homogenous settings. The study, the largest ever on civic engagement in America, found that virtually all measures of civic health are lower in more diverse settings.

"The extent of the effect is shocking," says Scott Page, a University of Michigan political scientist.

[E_Irizarry]

Well wait. I feel that in Chicago and NYC, Latino-Americans actually DON'T LIVE ALONE.

I know because everytime I try to f**k a Latina @ her crib in Chi-town or NYC, they always have somebody there cockblocking by their presence alone. LOL!!
...& it's usually the kids that she had at a premature age. LOL! You know how Latinas and Latina Americans in general love to reproduce early in life!!!

Which yields me to the following: Why do some many AW take pictures fully-clothed at hotel rooms and post them on dating sites??? We have the answers, but I want the diverse smorger's board of answers though.

[S_Parc]

I think it's a trend that soon will become the norm in a few more decades.

It's just the simple breakdown in communication and disassociation. People are becoming more isolated and an island unto themselves.
Like Boston for instance you have all these people on the T and on the bus they rarely talk unless it's older people or they know one another.
I sometimes can find people to chat with like this girl around my age and we talked about her problems, but when I was nicely blunt it got awkward.
People pass by one another and it feels strange to make eye contact or just to say a simple good morning to people.
Some are like this, but not everybody. I remember a man who seemed to be a foreigner in a supermarket come to me saying something really kind and I was stupefied for a moment. I didn't expect it or how he smiled at me when he thanked me for being cautious of kids. It was true gratitude and that warmed me into smiling bashfully and it just felt good... you know. I heard this couple from a country in Africa at Ashmont remark on the coldness of Americans and how chatting and smiling just seemed to garner them negative reactions.

Here's the thing, I talk to strangers rather often & I also grew up in the Boston area. What I've noticed is that conversations outside of earlier formed acquaintances need to be short and be infused with a type of humor. Thus, the rule is 5-8 mins of talk, with an exit strategy in place. In general, if you don't have something in common with a new stranger, like a career/former job-company/school/sports team, etc, obey the exit rule. If not, the person becomes uncomfortable rather quickly. Once I applied this sort of spot conversations, I've found that strangers tended to want to speak with me because I suspect that they know that if they simply 'walk', they may not have another friendly conversation till the following day at work.

[adria2789]

Well wait. I feel that in Chicago and NYC, Latino-Americans actually DON'T LIVE ALONE.

I know because everytime I try to f**k a Latina @ her crib in Chi-town or NYC, they always have somebody there cockblocking by their presence alone. LOL!!
...& it's usually the kids that she had at a premature age. LOL! You know how Latinas and Latina Americans in general love to reproduce early in life!!!

So true SMH and LOL!

It's fairly common for Latinos to live with extended family members and/or in multi generational households. Growing up, I knew some families rent their spare room(s) to other familes to get by with rent. Like my mom said "No me gustaria vivir con todo esa chusma".

Another group of people who rarely live alone are college students. Almost every college student/graduate I know lives with housemates/roommates/family with myself included. I live with 2 other housemates plus my housemates mother and brother from Uzbekistan. I have my own 10 x 10 room, which I'm grateful for. Among college students/graduates, those who do live alone are envied. It usually means they can afford to live alone.

I'd also like to add homegenuity doesn't guarantee trust among your neighbors. I grew up in an almost exclusively Latino neighborhood and I didn't really trust most of my neighbors. My parents didn't either. We had to watch what I said, how I said it and who I said it to or else. Words would get twisted and someone will get on our case about it. I grew up seeing people gossip about their neighbors and sometimes peeking through their windos to see what others are up to. My mom was a first class chismosa who knew what was up in the neighborhood. She also had her "connections" as well. People will gossip and talk regardless but especially in small towns and villages. These environments also provide tight knit communities where trust and community can grow. If you can handle people knowing your business, these environments can be great.

As for the subject at hand, hmmm..in one hand it means more Americans can afford to live alone..which can indicate a good thing economically but on the other hand.. these "singletons" can become disconnected from others and society. I'm not sure if this trend is good or bad.

[FreeYourMind]

Leave it to a Jewish sociologist (Klinenberg) to put a positive spin on what is in reality more strong evidence of the failure of U.S. society and the horrible state of relations between men and women.

[odbo]

Leave it to a Jewish sociologist (Klinenberg) to put a positive spin on what is in reality more strong evidence of the failure of U.S. society and the horrible state of relations between men and women.

I was about to say the same thing. Book publishing, like the rest of the media is controlled by Jews. Lenin (also a Jew) said "The best way to control the opposition is to lead it ourselves." So the very ethnic group which has caused all (or 95-99%) of America's problems is conveniently summarizing these problems and even giving us "solutions" to them while charging us for the privilege. Isn't it amazing how millions of these types of books have been sold and yet people's understanding of the problems facing their daily lives never improves? These sell-out authors are intellectually dishonest and their kosher-approved solutions are as effective as using gasoline to stop a fire. That's when the Jews bother to offer a solution at all, usually they just summarize the crimes they have committed in a good light.

It's been known for over 1000 years that Jews live off the toil of others. Their parasitism through the generations, which is encouraged in the Talmud, has even caused health problems stemming from sedentary lifestyles. They don't like to work, but there are over 5 million kikes in the USA and not every one of them can be a banker, a diamond broker, or a producer, which involves sitting on one's ass all day raking in the big bucks. And most aren't content being a Hasidic/orthodox Jew living off welfare payments, Holocaust reparations and other gifts from the tax payer, there just isn't enough money involved. So many prostitute themselves out as writers or journalists, and when they're not writing about things that never happened in the Holocaust, they "expose" injustice and corruption in our daily lives, obviously never mentioning the real root of these problems. Although they are less talented than Winston, by virtue of being part of the clan these writers and propagandists appear on tv or in the newspapers to pimp their subversive and largely plagarized books, becoming best-selling authors.

The prevalence of Jewish names on Amazon.com, in book-stores, and on articles online, helps further propagate the myth that Jews are intellectually superior to whites and other gentiles and we would be lost without them. Nothing could be further from the truth, but very few can see things as they are and if this was reversed mankind would not be in the dire situation it is in. The delusion begins with the Jews themselves, who love to see themselves as pied pipers and moral guardians. And the never-ending stream of shit books and documentaries, besides being a well financed agenda to control real dissent by spreading disinformation among the public, is a practical way for these thousands of Jewish writers/film makers to satisfy their superiority complex and delusions of grandeur. I've noted something interesting that pertains to this topic and might hold true for others as well. Rarely have I have read anything published by a Jew in the 1990s or later, that I didn't find was said better 50 or 100 or more years ago by a gentile. But when you really examine what the wealthiest Jews are doing to earn their money (and what they have done for centuries) that really shouldn't surprise you.

Take a look at the intro credits of "Indoctrinate U"

Go to 13:30 for the kind of Jewish intellectualism we hopeless gentiles would be lost without. I wonder why the film makers didn't mention where Noel Ignatiev's loyalties lie...

[lavezzi]

What is with the ridiculous JDL presence online that show up absolutely everywhere to post positive propaganda about the Jews? Do you think they're innocent or are they actually working with a NWO agenda? Here's some quotes of their tripe I read recently on a forum:

"I expect Jewish people in Ireland will do what they seem to do in every country which is work hard, become valuable members of society and contribute disproportionately to their numbers."

"Historically, they have been slaughtered in England and around the world by the English army. Yet it seems some groups can progress to the future much better than others."

[Jester]

when they're not writing about things that never happened in the Holocaust

So true. Lots of races and cultures lie easily, but the Jew seems uncannily able to couple bald-faced lies with moral superiority, outrage and self-pity, simultaneously, without rehearsal.

[Jester]

That's what the book Bowling Alone concludes: that the more diverse a community is, the greater the distrust and divisions that exist among the people living in the neighborhood.

....In the most diverse communities, neighbors trust one another about half as much as they do in the most homogenous settings. The study, the largest ever on civic engagement in America, found that virtually all measures of civic health are lower in more diverse settings.

"The extent of the effect is shocking," says Scott Page, a University of Michigan political scientist.

OK I fully believe this. If you have hardworking, quiet, pennypinching Chinese on one block, and free-spirited, hip-hop-playing American blacks drinking malt liquor from brown paper bags on the next block, probably the two groups are not going to think alike on much.

But monotone (un-diverse) groups can really vary in friendliness also. A uniform bunch of Irish (or Italians, or whatever) in New Jersey will call out and speak with each other readily on the street. White ranchers in Montana might have less to say to each other. A lot less. "Yup". "Nope." etc. Winston found folks in FSU friendly. I think probably less so in un-diverse Frisian Islands. Call it the crustiness factor. maybe?

Ladislav has written about how resentments increase as number of outsiders enters an area. The first Cuban is interesting - Desi Arnez. After a while it's "those Cubans". Or whatever. But I think the innate crustiness of a people determines just how frosty they will then become when invaded by others.