Does anyone remember the book : "Bowling Alone"? It became reality.

[JanMichael]

Our society drives the bulk of us to do everything alone. Ok, a significant-other is grand, but it's limiting too.

Everything is driven to become a solo act, even shopping/the web, even banking/the web, even driving/no public alternatives. MSM provides the easy to digest news and views too.

This loss of Human contact is destructive to the, this may seem preposterous, the Individual more than anything else.

What's really lost here are things like understanding, Empathy, Sympathy and sadly, Reality.

What's this all mean?

What do those lost qualities normally provide?

EDIT: There are answers to my question, from SoCalDem:

"We have kids who started out in the playroom as kids, and are now dating each other.. We have had numerous marriages.. people go on vacations together.. There is real community.. We share weddings, funerals, graduations, houses burning down..being rebuilt.. sending care packages to soldiers-children of our members.."

We lose community, whatever that is, we lose it. It isn't just bowling either, it's community theatre, community swimming pools, it's parks, it's plazas, it's a freakin' tram...

Why do we bowl alone? Why do we make, accept, this outcome?

[jdj]

1. I haven't read it, but it's the drive to be consumers.

We are driven by tv to get more so we won't think of ourselves as poor.

But most of us are poor, poor debtors, just an injury,divorce, or job loss away from poverty. the real kind.

[SoCalDem]

2. On Tuesdays, I bowl with 109 of my friends, and on Wednesdays

99 more of them.. Leagues are still alive, but barely.. It;s sad too, since these two leagues have been together for 15 years or more.. We have kids who started out in the playroom as kids, and are now dating each other.. We have had numerous marriages.. people go on vacations together.. There is real community.. We share weddings, funerals, graduations, houses burning down..being rebuilt.. sending care packages to soldiers-children of our members.. It can still happen, but there must be a commitment made.. and that;s what a lot of people cannot seem to do these days.

[whistle]

3. All in preparation for inter-planetary space flight

[Nay]

4. I can only answer for myself, and I am an introvert from birth,

but for me there are these factors:

1. After having to interact politely and cheerfully with all people at work all day, no matter how rude, deluded or bullying they are, the last thing I want to do when I get home is interact with more people. No matter who they are. I suspect many extroverts are feeling this pressure, not just us introverts (who feel that pressure all the time).

2. American society has forced everyone to be competitive and aggressive at work and in games, and many people cannot stop this behavior in other venues. When I go out, I am assaulted by aggressive drivers who just have to be ahead of me; gymrats who won't wipe their sweat off the equipment; linejumpers at parks and theatres; loudmouths at charity meetings; pedestrians who bump you in the mall or sidewalk because, in their own minds, they are the only ones who matter. These are not the types of people I want to spend my precious leisure time with.

To a certain extent, we can ameliorate the above two factors by choosing our companions carefully and developing a circle of kind friends, but this is not the same as a community, really. It is a subset of a community. By definition, community has to include everyone, and frankly, a lot of us someones are pretty tired of the way everyone acts in public. Thus we avoid the public as much as possible.