Derek Thompson

It was a real pleasure. Thank you.

The big picture here is that this is a long, long, long article that really pivots around one simple statistic, just one fact. And that fact is that Americans spend more time alone and less time in face-to-face socializing than we ever have going back at least 60 years in official government data and maybe going back 100, 150 years, given how social the first half of the 20th century was.

The big picture here is that this is a long, long, long article that really pivots around one simple statistic, just one fact. And that fact is that Americans spend more time alone and less time in face-to-face socializing than we ever have going back at least 60 years in official government data and maybe going back 100, 150 years, given how social the first half of the 20th century was.

The big picture here is that this is a long, long, long article that really pivots around one simple statistic, just one fact. And that fact is that Americans spend more time alone and less time in face-to-face socializing than we ever have going back at least 60 years in official government data and maybe going back 100, 150 years, given how social the first half of the 20th century was.

We have never in our lifetime spent this much time alone and this little time socializing with other people. And I think that statistic needed an anchoring. It needed a naming. It needed a big picture treatment because the way we spend our minutes is the way we spend our lives. And if we're spending our minutes alone, well, that has huge implications for The economy, we can talk about that.

We have never in our lifetime spent this much time alone and this little time socializing with other people. And I think that statistic needed an anchoring. It needed a naming. It needed a big picture treatment because the way we spend our minutes is the way we spend our lives. And if we're spending our minutes alone, well, that has huge implications for The economy, we can talk about that.

We have never in our lifetime spent this much time alone and this little time socializing with other people. And I think that statistic needed an anchoring. It needed a naming. It needed a big picture treatment because the way we spend our minutes is the way we spend our lives. And if we're spending our minutes alone, well, that has huge implications for The economy, we can talk about that.

For our politics, I hope we talk about that. And really, for our personalities. I think that our personalities change when we spend less and less time around other people with every passing year.

For our politics, I hope we talk about that. And really, for our personalities. I think that our personalities change when we spend less and less time around other people with every passing year.

For our politics, I hope we talk about that. And really, for our personalities. I think that our personalities change when we spend less and less time around other people with every passing year.

So the most important fact in the article is that according to a famous book by Robert Putnam called Bowling Alone, between the 1960s and 1990s, Americans participated in associations and clubs, bowling leagues and union clubs, less and less and less. And when the book came out in 2000, it caused a huge debate. Was Robert Putnam just lying with statistics? Did he have this all wrong?

So the most important fact in the article is that according to a famous book by Robert Putnam called Bowling Alone, between the 1960s and 1990s, Americans participated in associations and clubs, bowling leagues and union clubs, less and less and less. And when the book came out in 2000, it caused a huge debate. Was Robert Putnam just lying with statistics? Did he have this all wrong?

So the most important fact in the article is that according to a famous book by Robert Putnam called Bowling Alone, between the 1960s and 1990s, Americans participated in associations and clubs, bowling leagues and union clubs, less and less and less. And when the book came out in 2000, it caused a huge debate. Was Robert Putnam just lying with statistics? Did he have this all wrong?

Was America really at the beginning of a golden age of hanging out? But in the last 20 years, socializing has declined another 20% for all Americans and more than 40%, or roughly 40%, for teenagers and the poorest Americans. We're in a social depression, and it has enormous implications, I think, for just about every station of human life.

Was America really at the beginning of a golden age of hanging out? But in the last 20 years, socializing has declined another 20% for all Americans and more than 40%, or roughly 40%, for teenagers and the poorest Americans. We're in a social depression, and it has enormous implications, I think, for just about every station of human life.

Was America really at the beginning of a golden age of hanging out? But in the last 20 years, socializing has declined another 20% for all Americans and more than 40%, or roughly 40%, for teenagers and the poorest Americans. We're in a social depression, and it has enormous implications, I think, for just about every station of human life.

And I really wanted this piece to be very specific about the thing I was talking about. So Robert Putnam was famous and in some quarters controversial for talking about a concept that he called social capital. So the idea was that people have literal capital.

And I really wanted this piece to be very specific about the thing I was talking about. So Robert Putnam was famous and in some quarters controversial for talking about a concept that he called social capital. So the idea was that people have literal capital.

And I really wanted this piece to be very specific about the thing I was talking about. So Robert Putnam was famous and in some quarters controversial for talking about a concept that he called social capital. So the idea was that people have literal capital.

They have financial capital where you can just look at someone's W-2 or tax returns and you can say, all right, well, Michael is rich and Nathan is poor. But there's also something that you can call social capital. Are you rich in relationships? Are you rich in friendship? Are you rich in the kind of community networks that you live in?