Additional added structure to our already busy schedule is the over-arching
theme to the decline of our intimate social circles. I agree with the
radio broadcaster that this deserves a red flag. People have less time
due to job and extracurricular activities to develop and maintain
close relationships. Time, trust, technology- I am with Smith-Lovin in saying that
there isn't any one correct answer or reason as to why the decline,
but more of a compilation that has created an off balance within
society and positioned it as the norm. I agree with Putnam- this isn't
something that we will be able to change in the next two weeks, but
rather we will in deed need to reinvent ourselves if this is something
in fact we have the desire to change. Smith-Lovin talks about the work
place taking up an increased amount of time, but as stated in the
broadcast we are also not moving a considerable amount more than
people did 25 years ago, but instead it is how and where we live that
is having the effect. McPherson says that we don't live as close to
one another anymore and have less ties to our immediate community and
thus our relationships have become less face to face and generally
less intimate; we have longer commutes, longer work days, higher
expectations, weekends, travel, jobs are seemingly more than they used
to be.
Putnam brings up a good point that trust also plays a part in the
change as trust in most things, an overall general trend, has been
declining and is establishing a long-term wearing effect. Our
Presidents have lied to us, our country has its doubts on war, our
spouses are cheating and divorce rates have sky rocketed. People
probably want to spend more time where they have direct control in
their limited free time- with their immediate family to instill some
sort of damage control for the lack of face time available to spend
with the one relationship bound by law(marriage)- which Smith-Lovin would
probably agree with as she says that American's are now more than ever
connected to their spouses and Bott may agree because moms are now
moms, wives, employees, friends, group members, etc. and husbands have
to spend more time trying to compensate for the decline in
availability and having to balance two more tightly packed schedules.
Luckily Wellman and Wortley say that our kin ties are the
strongest and that we, as a society on average, still do a decent job
with the maintenance of this relationship. With this noted, we must
also realize that this key part of our network will likely die before
us and could possibly result in social isolation if our networks don't
expant further. And we know…social isolation is as bad as smoking.
2.) Social ties create support. We need our networks. Our close
circles, our discussion networks, our families, our friends. A great
example brought up in the radio broadcast was that of the Katrina
disaster. The people affected by the tragedy lived in an area with a
large percentage of social isolates. Although this isolation was
obviously not the cause of the devastation, some may say that it was
partially responsible for the cause of the aftermath. Obviously it was
no ones fault, but the people affected by the tragedy deserved better
care than they were/are given and had they had stronger network
ties/associations, I believe they would have had a better chance at getting it. Our lack of
civic engagement (due to our mainly adequate trust issues) now leaves
us hanging. Lovin-Smith and Putnam would agree that our social ties
are now taking place more on the internet and on cell phones, but
these are necessarily the people who will be bringing you chicken soup
when the times are rough or disaster strikes. Granovetter would agree
that we need to take the time and effort to maintain our friendships,
although he sees the many benefits of these weak ties, but also that these ties put upon us even further constraints and can create a drag effect. With this noted, the more extensive our network, the more free-flowing exchange of information and ideas will be. If we continue on the trend of sticking together like birds of a feather, we will continue to hear the same thing over again and not gain the experiences and knowledge I think everyone is entitled too as a contributor to such diversity. But at the same time, differences can easily create distance- something as simple as people working different hours- can make homophilious relationships look more attractive (as easier often looks automatically glamorous.) In my opinion I think kin ties will get stronger and social networks will continue to fade even further as long as money is the driving force and people are willing to sacrifice extensively for it. I would also be interested in seeing more advantages of smaller networks.