I am studying in Political Sociology the concept of social capital. Social capital has a few different, and oftentimes vague, definitions but the version I'm referring to is Putnam's. Robert D. Putnam's book Bowling Alone has recently been known to be the definitive source of research for this area of study. I read through most of the book so far and am beginning to understand why people feel so isolated and fail to participate in groups anymore. While he presents a valid case about the effects of low social capital in our society, I think there's more to the source of the problem than mainly television and the internet. I think he didn't emphasize enough that Americans are working more hours with less pay and their job security is less certain than it was half a century ago. We are also now driven by a highly consumer-centric society. Even our "experts" are hired by businesses to support faulty claims that their products will make us happy. So it's difficult to distinguish who to trust or not. He compared groups that are supposed to represent the interests of the people to mail order catalogs. Their members (like the AARP) only participate by writing a check for them once a year. Some of those groups don't even have any members and yet they exist! So who can we trust? Our families and close friends? Toqueville once warned of the dangers of individualism. By focusing inward rather than outward, democracy cannot possibly survive. This does not mean to ignore your own self-interest. In fact, it would require enlightened self-interest to help someone out in the hope that it may come back to you if enough people were of the same mindset (Sidenote: I highly recommend watching the movie "Pay It Forward" for a better idea of this concept). The problem is that there's a general decline in people who have that type of mindset. I learned that evangelicals tend to focus inward rather than outward like other denominations of the Protestant church. That may explain why the spreading of this type of faith has lead to high social capital within it's confines, but provides low social capital to the nation overall.

I don't know if I mentioned this or not but I am a research assistant to my professor from last quarter that is studying how social capital plays a role in how we trust figures of authority. We are studying a case of video-malaise that occurred when the Catholic priest scandals broke into the news a few years ago. We find out through experimentation that the trust in authority figures who don't have anything to do with the scandal goes down as well as the trust in the Catholic church. Interesting stuff.

Overall, I would like to figure out why people are so isolated now. Why is the only apparent way to gain significant social capital is through church? I know that many people go to church because of the social aspect to it (though few would admit it). They want to feel like they belong somewhere. I know that was the main reason why I used to go. And now that I have "fallen" out of being a Christian and going to church often, I realize that it's difficult to maintain the friendships that I had made. Sometimes I miss it, but I know that I'll just be deluding those around me if I go back. I'd rather find my own journey. I don't want to blindly accept what's force-fed to me anymore. I want to explore all possibilities and perceptions of our world, not just one or a few. I just wish there were others next to me as I continue down that path.