Social capital has become one of the most active areas of analysis and debate in the last decade. Among social scientists, Robert Putnam has been perhaps the most passionate advocate of the social capital model. Starting with "Bowling Alone: The Strange Disappearance of Civic America," Putnam has articulated a wide vision of the role of social capital in our society. According to Putnam, a significant component shows that social capital and engagement have reduced in areas such as attending to religious services, clubs, organizational membership, and interacting with others face-to-face in communities. Putnam additionally points out that Americans have also disengaged psychologically from politics and government over this era. He gives several reasons for this decline and claims that generational sequence occur for about half of the general change. He also examines what the shortage in social capital is doing to individuals, communities, and America. Ultimately, he states how America could reverse the trend and start regenerating social capital. Putnam studies various areas to see whether a decline in …show more content…
He argues that television also accounts for some of the change. Based on the essay, Putnam clearly states that “Television has made our communities wider and shallower. In the language of economics, electronic technology enables individual tastes to be satisfied more fully, but at the cost of the positive social externalities associated with more primitive forms of entertainment.” Meaning that these technological trends are disrupting a lot of opportunities for social-capital formation. Technology keeps growing that, “the same logic applies to the replacement of vaudeville by the movies and now of movies by the VCR….Is technology thus driving a wedge between our individual interests and our collective interests? It is a question that seems worth exploring more