Economy
Yes, the Internet Is Taking Up Time You Used To Spend With Actual People
Fresh data for the debate on social capital in the digital era.
Robert Putnam warned nearly two decades ago about what he called the "technological transformation of leisure." The influential academic, who went on to pen the book Bowling Alone, put it this way back in 1995:
In other words, the more people sit at home, alone, in front of a glowing screen, the less time we have to form the kind of social bonds with neighbors, friends and organizations that help strengthen communities. Putnam was thinking 18 years ago about a deep-seated technological trend that sounds almost outdated today: "The most obvious and probably the most powerful instrument of this revolution," he wrote, "is television."