Civil Society

Bowling Alone by Robert D. Putnam was the book that first got me interested in the insidious role of TV.  See here  and here for a taste of his argument.  In his book he catalogues the many ways that Americans are becoming less, and less civically engaged.  He also makes a detailed argument as to why it is TV that is the culprit.     According to Robert Putnam: More people in America watch 'Friends' than have friends.

Excerpts from Bowling Alone

The Psychology of Entertainment: A Nation of Watchers

According to Olken’s research, in Indonesia, where TV coverage isn’t yet universal, one finds that “better signal reception, which is associated with more time spent watching television and listening to radio, is associated with substantially lower levels of participation in social activities and with lower self-reported measures of trust.”

"Americans are more socially isolated today than we were barely two decades ago."

"Americans' Circle of Friends Is Shrinking" - Science Daily (June 2006)

In 1985, when researchers asked a cross-section of Americans how many confidants they had, the most common response was three. When they asked again in 2004, the most common answer -- from 25% of respondents -- was zero, nil, nada.

The effects of TV on voter turnout (pdf)

Importance of Civil Society

More recently, Robert Putnam has argued that even non-political organizations in civil society are vital for democracy. This is because they build social capital, trust and shared values, which are transferred into the political sphere and help to hold society together, facilitating an understanding of the interconnectedness of society and interests within it.

"In democratic countries, knowledge of how to combine is the mother of all other forms of knowledge; on its progress depends that of all the others." Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1835.

Collective Efficacy and crime abatement - Can Block Clubs Block Despair?

"...the poll found that nonvoters are not just disconnected from politics, but also from their communities. Nonvoters were less likely to trust others, to have a strong support network of friends and family or to know their neighbors than regular voters were."

"Because whenever the government has done anything to bring about change, it's done so only because it's been pushed and prodded by social movements, by ordinary people organizing, by, you know, Lincoln pushed by the anti-slavery movement. You know, Johnson and Kennedy pushed by the southern black movement."

Reading & Democracy

A new study by the National Endowment for the Arts suggests that reading transforms lives. "Regular reading not only boosts the likelihood of an individual's academic and economic success -- facts that are not especially surprising -- but it also seems to awaken a person's social and civic sense,"

Twilight of the Books and Why Undecided Voters Can’t Make Up Their Minds (Maybe)

Reading & Voting

From the study "To Read or Not To Read":   "It also found that the better a person's reading skills, the more likely that person voted in the 2000 election. The Education Department study showed 84 percent of proficient readers voted, compared with 62 percent of those with basic skills and 53 percent of those with poor skills."

Libraries as Civil Centers

Toward the “Great Good Place:” Should Libraries Have Coffee Shops?  (pdf)

San Francisco libraries have become neighborhood best-sellers

Churches as Civil Centers

The Left can learn from Rick Warren and Mega-churches.

Uninformed Electorate

"How aggressively stupid is America when it comes to our debates over taxes, budgets and the size of government? That's been difficult to answer with any precision, beyond simply citing the Tea Partier who famously told his congressman to "keep your government hands off my Medicare." But now we have some hard numbers to tell us how deep this ignorance really goes." - Huffington Post (Feb 2011)

"Only one in four Americans can name more than one of the five freedoms in the First Amendment, but more than half can name at least two family members of "The Simpsons" - MSNBC (March 2006)

"Our uninformed electorate - Bennett's research found that "most Americans were 'out to lunch' when it came to basic information about politics" in the most recent election year." - The Carpetbagger Report (Aug 2006)

..young people are increasingly saying that they are learning about the campaign from comedy shows such as the Daily Show and Saturday Night Live. "But the poll finds that people who say they are learning things about politics on comedy shows don't know much about the current campaign."

How TV Teaches Stupidity

Dumbing-Down of America

As noted in Amusing Ourselves to Death, books brought about the "Age of Reason", TV on the other hand has brought about the "Age of Entertainment".

Attention-Deficit Citizenry. As Amusing Ourselves to Death points out debates, during the 1800's would last hours. The example he gave was a 7 hour debate between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas (and this was considered a short debate). Each speaker given at least one hour to speak at a time.  Nowadays, debaters are allowed at most three minutes (so the audience doesn't get bored).

Generational Effects

As Robert Putnam pointed out, TV's effects differ from generation to generation.  The "Greatest Generation" didn't watch any TV growing up, and was very civically engaged.  The "Baby Boomer Generation" grew up with some TV (less civically engaged).  And the "GenX Generation" which basically grew up on TV (apathetic and disengaged).

Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled--and More Miserable Than Ever Before (2006) Very readable sociology book. Jean Twenge argues that the children of the "Me Generation" have become the "Me Me Me Generation".  Although based on solid research, she peppers the book with many quotes from TV and movies (as a reflection of today's culture).

Review of "Generation Me"

"Have We Become a Nation of Narcissists?"

"Is there an epidemic of narcissism today?"

"The "debate" about narcissism increasing: More twists than a crime novel "

"Jean Twenge, a San Diego State University professor of psychology who has studied the psyche of college students, recently found that the ego of incoming college freshmen has become acutely inflated over the past four decades."  -  Washington Monthly (June 2011)

"College students today are significantly less empathic than students of the 80's or 90's, according to a new study by the University of Michigan. The 30-year longitudinal study of nearly 14,000 students found a 40% drop in empathy from the late 70's, with the sharpest decline occurring after the year 2000." -  Psychology Today Blog (May 2010)  and  Science Daily (May 2010)

"I'm particularly fascinated by the negative influences of narcissism and perfectionism in our lives, as these are traits that seem to be celebrated in many ways in modern American culture. For example, many cultural heroes of popular TV shows, particularly those shows that portray the lives of doctors, lawyers and successful business people, are hard-driving individuals who seem to have no life other than work. What each shares is a grandiose sense of his or her own self-importance that is central to the definition of narcissism."

Tuned Out: Why Americans Under 40 Don't Follow the News (2005) David Mindich finds that "In 1972, half of all college-age eligible voters participated in the presidential election; in 2000, only 32. The decline in voting in midterm elections is equally frightening: In 1974, 24 percent of eligible 18-to-24-year-olds voted; in 2002, that turnout was only 17 percent. Put another way, the 2002 figure means that for every young person who voted, five stayed home."

"This political disengagement cannot be explained away as merely the habits of youth, because today's young are markedly less engaged than were their counterparts in earlier generations."

Youth turnout less than all other age groups - 2002 & 2004 (PDF)

..young people are increasingly saying that they are learning about the campaign from comedy shows such as the Daily Show and Saturday Night Live. "But the poll finds that people who say they are learning things about politics on comedy shows don't know much about the current campaign."

"...turnout among those under age 30 was 20%, according to a press conference this morning with Rock the Vote, CIRCLE, and League of Young Voters" -  Psychology Today Blog (Nov 2010) 

Natural Environment

Pergams and another researcher set out to determine why visitation to national parks dropped 25 percent between 1987 and 2003.

Nature Conservancy President Steve McCormick said the study suggests Americans and their children in particular are losing their connection to the natural world.

Childhood pastimes are increasingly moving indoors - Free Range Kids versus Battery Cage kids

Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder (2006)

"The numbers coincide with national polls indicating that children and teenagers play outdoors less than young people did in the past. Between 1997 and 2003, the proportion of children ages 9 to 12 who spent time hiking, walking, fishing, playing on the beach or gardening declined 50 percent, according to a University of Maryland study."

"In a typical week, only 6 percent of children ages nine to thirteen play outside on their own. Studies by the National Sporting Goods Association and by American Sports Data, a research firm, show a dramatic decline in the past decade in such outdoor activities as swimming and fishing. Even bike riding is down 31 percent since 1995." - Alternet

Other ways that TV effects democracy

"Television is a dream come true for an authoritarian society: those with the most money own most of what people see; fear-based television programming makes people more afraid and distrustful of one another, which is good for the ruling elite who depend on a “divide and conquer” strategy; TV isolates people so they are not joining together to create resistance to authorities; and regardless of the programming, TV viewers’ brainwaves slow down, transforming them closer to a hypnotic state that makes it difficult to think critically."  -  Alternet (July 2011)

- Soundbites

- Because people are getting most of their political information from the TV, politicians are forced to spend huge amounts on TV advertising.  The result is politicians more, and more beholden to special interests.

- America has become a celebrity obsessed society. What are effects of millions of people emulating narcissistic celebrities ?

- A depressed society: Evolution Of Despair

- Televisions (per capita) by country

- The Martin Luther King You Don’t See on TV

Good God, it isn't as simple as just picking up a book you laid down half a century ago. Remember, the firemen are rarely necessary.  The public itself stopped reading of its own accord.  You firemen provide a circus now and then at which buildings are set off and crowds gather for the pretty blaze, but it is a small sideshow indeed, and hardly necessary to keep things in line. So few want to be rebels any more. And out of those few, most, like myself, scare easily. Can you dance faster than the White Clown, shout louder than 'Mr. Gimmick' and the parlor 'families'? If you can, you'll win your way, Montag. In any event, you're a fool.

People are having fun."

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury