Bowling Alone Putman Summary

In, Bowling Alone, Putman poses a very important question, why is civil society declining in the past several decades? Putman starts off his question by viewing the works of Tocqueville when he visited America. While being in America in the 1830’s, he found that civic association, norms, and networks are what make up America’s society. Along with that, he thought that social capital benefitted our society. Putman then goes on to question why civil engagement decreased in our society. Our voter turnout, membership of church, and public or town meeting membership, fraternal organizations, and women organizations have decreased while individual bowling has increased. Although these specific organizations are dwindling down, organizations such as AARP, nonprofit organizations, and support groups are growing. Society now is also more focused on workplace-based social connections and less of neighborhood involvement. Our trust for each other has also decreased. Throughout this whole essay, Putman is making a correlation between social connectedness and civic engagement and is making a correlation between social
capital and individuals. In conclusion to this, Putman questions why the U.S. Social Capital is wearing away and how can we change this. He briefly goes over why he thinks social engagement may be decreasing, such as women working or how there are more divorces. He also analyzes how technology has changed our way of using our leisure time. To close Putman’s article, he gives a way of overcoming this social problem: figure out which organizations are the most beneficial to society and how to make those organizations grow.
In the article, …., so and so starts by addressing the concepts Putman introduced in Bowling al…. and how a crisis would bring back the need for organization. He then goes on to say how the 9/11 attack has given young adults a feeling of responsibility to be civically involved. This article brings the idea that civic decline may actually go back up and that trust between others in society is increasing. Sander and Putman then go on to show how technology can actually be used for good by using Obama’s campaign on 9/11 as an example. Even though involvement is increasing, a gap between society is increasing. Those from a more wealthy or fortunate standpoint are increasingly becoming involved, while those who are less fortunate are not and that in order to avoid this gap we need to give the everyone a need to engage. Ultimately, this article is saying that if we find out how to use online behavior to benefit our society, we will benefit America as a whole.
I have participated in my home-town community through The National Honors Society, Student Council, volleyball, and cheer, and church.
In The National Honors Society and Student Council my role was to fundraise money for certain organizations and our community and to raise awareness for those certain causes, while in volleyball and cheer I was a member in these sports and competitively tried to beat other teams while encouraging my own. I have participated in my college community by being involved in Christian Business Leaders, Impact, and church. In Christian Business Leaders I help our Outreach program by finding activities and ways our organization can help people, and then by carrying them out. In Impact and Church, I am involved and surrounded by people who hold each other accountable to live Christian lives and to reach out to others and show God’s
love.
My previous community engagement does confirm the arguments in the readings, because of my lack in participation to political groups, yet participation to more social or religious groups. Decades ago, the social norm was to be a part of political groups and organizations or to join a cause to overcome a struggle. Now, our society still faces struggles, but we do not feel that the need to overcome these struggles are as great due to the fact that the struggles have increasingly been overcome. Also, due to the continual betrayal of our government, our society no longer feels that they have a voice, much less that there voice would be heard. After multiple scandals and discretion the government has provided to us, our society feels the need to turn our backs on the organizations. Our society is also more focused on ourselves now. We no longer are involved in groups that are beneficial to each other, but that the primary goal is to help ourselves. Take support groups for example; you go to a group, vent about yourself, and ultimately you are looking for a positive outcome for yourself, not for the group or society. Commitment is no longer a priority to us. America enjoys the come-and-go groups more now. Even when we bowl we no longer desire the commitment to join a league, because we would rather bowl with our friends and not have to deal with the commitment that comes with being in a league. Our focus on what group we join is also changing due to the people that exist in this world. Baby boomers are now starting to pass away, hence the decline in fraternal organizations. As time progresses, there will be different problems our society has to face. We are no longer pressed to join political groups because our society feels that there is no longer a greater demand for them. Due to this, society has choose to focus on other types of groups and the different ways to be involved in those groups. Our society is now more focused on the self and not necessarily the interaction one gets out of a group.