Innovation/Global Risk

 America Is In Need of Social Glue

By Shlomo  Maital  

 

 

 

In his pathbreaking book Bowling Alone (2000), author Robert D. Putnam argued that the United States has lost much of its social glue, that once helped American society to cohere, and that we are in danger of becoming a nation of strangers to one another without adequate social bonds.

  Now comes Eric Klineburg’s book Going Solo, together with reporting in the NYT by Jason DeParle and Sabrina Tavernise.  They note that more than 50 percent of American adults are single and 28 per cent of households consist of just one person. There are more single-person households than married-with-children households. And half the births to women under 30 occur outside marriage. 

    In other words, not only general social bonds have disintegrated, but family and marriage bonds as well. 

    As I am about to turn 70, I can attest (and have evidence from many others my age as well) that the key to happiness in later life is the love of spouse, family, children, relatives and friends.  This is not only ‘social glue’, it is ‘happiness glue’.  I have seen people retire in cold Northern American cities and flee to Florida for its sun and warmth, only to realize, too late, that they have lost (at times forever) crucial social glue of friends and family.  The climate may be warm in Florida, but the society is aged, alienated and in many cases unhappy.  And moreover, because of the preponderance of older people, Florida’s state budget can’t afford to provide even minimal social benefits to the golden agers. 

     In some ways, social networks and Internet contribute to the lack of social glue. A computer screen is no substitute for face-to-face, yet many young people now seem to prefer the impersonal, non-commitment nature of screens to faces. 

     If I could share some lifelong wisdom with young people, it would be this:   Don’t undervalue your own personal ‘glue’.  It’s hard to see sometimes.  Strengthen it.  Do good for friends and families.  They will do good for you, too.   In the end, you will find that your own personal happiness rests far more on this glue than on what you own.