Article Analysis: Social Isolation In America

In this weeks article, Social Isolation in America: Changes in Core Discussion Networks over Two Decades, the authors McPherson, Lovin, and Brashears analyze the change in discussion networks of individuals between 1985 and 2004. The first survey was conducted in 1985 by the General Social Survey (GSS), and later replicated in 2004 again. The results found in 2004, showed that there was a drop in the size of core discussion networks, more specifically the ties shifted away from neighborhood and community ties (2). The authors stress that this drop is significant because interactions with others influence one indirectly by shaping who one becomes (2). First of all, in order to begin understanding core discussion network, the authors explain that it is important to determine what relationship they want to measure. The GSS simply asked people with whom they discussed personally important topics. With this in mind, the number of discussion partners in the typical interpersonal environment has decreased by nearly one person (7). The type of relationship most notably reported was with a spouse. On the contrary, network relationships with members of a group or neighborhood, this stresses that community relations have weakened. The results also showed that racial diversity has gone up and has increased
The five they mention include: study design, context, fatigue and cooperativeness, convergent data from other sources, and demographic change as a source of network change. For this reason is it urged to control for demographic factors, this is because education is positively associates with network size and educational levels have increased over time. It shows that more educated and younger individuals have significantly larger discussion networks. This relationship represents other major class divisions in society