The Anti-Social Century

I’ve been a fan of Derek Thompson for a while now, and his podcast Plain English. I’m also excited about his upcoming book Abundance with Ezra Klein. He is one of the best writers, and I enjoy his beat around technology and social issues.

He put together a huge title piece for this month’s Atlantic, about how Americans are spending more time alone. It’s a long read, but a great retelling of the ills of American society and how folks have fewer friends than we used to:

Home-based, phone-based culture has arguably solidified our closest and most distant connections, the inner ring of family and best friends (bound by blood and intimacy) and the outer ring of tribe (linked by shared affinities). But it’s wreaking havoc on the middle ring of “familiar but not intimate” relationships with the people who live around us, which Dunkelman calls the village. “These are your neighbors, the people in your town,” he said. We used to know them well; now we don’t.

Also check out the podcast discussion

Derek did a podcast episode as well, featuring Nick Epley who was interviewed for the piece. It talks a lot about the value of connecting with people in day to day life, and how that can meaningfully make you happier and more connected over time.

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Hey there! I'm Eric and I work on communities in the world of software documentation. Feel free to email me if you have comments on this post!