Re: #5. My own personal experience was that it began earlier, and went beyond people joining groups like the Elks. In the late 1970s and the '80s, I lived in two older neighborhoods in Cincinnati, OH. One was built in the 1920s, the other before WWI. But all the houses on those streets had front porches--not just a 4x4 concrete step, but wooden-floored porches that ran across the whole front of the house. And in the evenings during the warm months of the year, people sat out on those porches and talked back and forth. Back then, air conditioning was not universal yet, and while people watched television, it wasn't as dominant as it became later. And back then, before cable took over, most of the TV shows in the summer were reruns anyway. So people sat on their porches and talked to each other and to anyone walking by.
There were changes in housing design after WWII. Most modern houses did not have porches, just a concrete front step that wasn't big enough for one folding chair, much less space for the whole family to sit out front. Yards were larger, making it harder to talk to your neighbors if they were outside. And of course, the rise of air conditioning and the increase of available programming on television, followed by computers in the late '80s and after, kept people inside more. (We got our first home computer from Radio Shack in 1983).
IMO, housing design (and all architecture) is about place....so my take on your very information post is that, for whatever reason (but I think MOSTLY it was about availability of land and the resources necessary to/available for building + the rise of the two-earner family) the decision was made by those who design homes to shrink the front/community connecting area of a home, and thus push the family unit inside the walls of the family fortress.
Could this "trend" have been the solonliness seed that gave us bowling alone?
Dr. Burge, IMO, your choices for this posting (and the discussions they probably engendered and which I hope are ongoing) are canary-in-the-coalmine insights on/into the state of the nation, not just the state of American religion.
Question: Have you done an work/postings on the state of religious adherence worldwide? If so, I sure missed it/them, and would appreciate your providing links to the postings.
Politics and Religion are kind of your bread and butter; funny that adding in sex (to complete the dinner part ruining triad) was so popular.
Re: #5. My own personal experience was that it began earlier, and went beyond people joining groups like the Elks. In the late 1970s and the '80s, I lived in two older neighborhoods in Cincinnati, OH. One was built in the 1920s, the other before WWI. But all the houses on those streets had front porches--not just a 4x4 concrete step, but wooden-floored porches that ran across the whole front of the house. And in the evenings during the warm months of the year, people sat out on those porches and talked back and forth. Back then, air conditioning was not universal yet, and while people watched television, it wasn't as dominant as it became later. And back then, before cable took over, most of the TV shows in the summer were reruns anyway. So people sat on their porches and talked to each other and to anyone walking by.
There were changes in housing design after WWII. Most modern houses did not have porches, just a concrete front step that wasn't big enough for one folding chair, much less space for the whole family to sit out front. Yards were larger, making it harder to talk to your neighbors if they were outside. And of course, the rise of air conditioning and the increase of available programming on television, followed by computers in the late '80s and after, kept people inside more. (We got our first home computer from Radio Shack in 1983).
IMO, housing design (and all architecture) is about place....so my take on your very information post is that, for whatever reason (but I think MOSTLY it was about availability of land and the resources necessary to/available for building + the rise of the two-earner family) the decision was made by those who design homes to shrink the front/community connecting area of a home, and thus push the family unit inside the walls of the family fortress.
Could this "trend" have been the solonliness seed that gave us bowling alone?
Just askin'.
Dr. Burge, IMO, your choices for this posting (and the discussions they probably engendered and which I hope are ongoing) are canary-in-the-coalmine insights on/into the state of the nation, not just the state of American religion.
Question: Have you done an work/postings on the state of religious adherence worldwide? If so, I sure missed it/them, and would appreciate your providing links to the postings.