Are you glued to your TV screen more than you’re connected to your community? Could watching too much TV be eroding the social fabric of our neighborhoods?
In Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam reveals that television viewing significantly drains our social capital. When we spend hours in front of the TV, we miss opportunities for meaningful human connection. The convenience makes it an easy choice after a long day, despite being less fulfilling than social interaction.
Read on to discover how television transformed leisure from a community experience into a private activity and what this means for our collective well-being.
Social Impact of Watching Too Much TV
Putnam says that a significant drain on social capital is time spent in front of the television. He cites studies showing that watching too much TV harms community life. It replaces time spent socializing and participating in organized group activities, and continual TV use trains people to be passive and apathetic, turning its users into stereotypical “couch potatoes.” What Putnam finds interesting is that, in general, people don’t consider watching TV to be more enjoyable than social interactions, but the minimal effort it requires makes TV a tempting substitute at the end of a long, tiring day.
In his analysis, Putnam is clear that, though TV-watching seems to correspond with community disengagement, correlation does not imply causation—both could be triggered by some external factor. Nevertheless, Putnam finds it damning that the downturn in the US’s social capital lines up almost exactly with the widespread adoption of TV in American homes. This change happened quickly in the 1950s, and by the 1960s an entire generation of children were growing up with TV as a major focus of attention in their lives. Putnam concludes that, despite its benefits, TV has made leisure a private activity, not a community experience.
| The Wider Effects of Television and Digital Media Long before Putnam’s research, others were sounding the warning about TV’s negative impact on society. In 1985’s Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman wrote that, in addition to reducing the amount of time we spend together, television redefined culture itself by turning everything into entertainment. Instead of engaging in political discourse, we elect officials based on how their television image makes us feel. TV turns religious leaders into celebrities who need to create a spectacle to attract and hold an audience, negating the traditional faith experience. In education, Postman argues that TV sabotages schooling by teaching children to respond to images rather than developing their language skills. What neither Putnam nor Postman could have anticipated was how the invention of the smartphone would move passive entertainment out of the TV room and into our pockets. Now, technology draws us away from social interactions even when we’re around other people—a phenomenon researchers call technoference—more colloquially known as “phone snubbing” or “phubbing.” For instance, couples sharing a meal or friends spending time together at the park are today very likely to split their attention between the people they’re with and scrolling through video clips on their phones. Especially among young people, technoference erodes interpersonal connections and poisons the well of future social capital. |
Exercise
- Think about your own TV viewing habits. How many hours per week do you spend watching television or streaming content? Do you feel this time enhances or detracts from your community involvement?
- Robert Putnam connects TV watching with decreased social capital. Reflect on a time when you chose screen time over a social activity. What motivated that choice?
- People don’t necessarily enjoy TV more than social interactions but choose it because it requires minimal effort. How does this observation align with your experience?
- How has the introduction of smartphones changed social dynamics in your personal relationships? Can you share an example of “technoference” you’ve witnessed or participated in?
- Consider your neighborhood or community. What social activities or organizations have declined in participation over the years? Could screen time be a factor?
- Television has made leisure a private rather than community experience. What community-based leisure activities might help counteract this trend?
- How do you think your social connections would change if you reduced your screen time by 50% for one month?
- Neil Postman argues that television turns everything into entertainment, including politics and religion. Do you see evidence of this in today’s society?
- What boundaries or practices have you implemented (or could you implement) to ensure technology doesn’t interfere with your important relationships?
- How might communities intentionally design spaces and activities to encourage face-to-face interaction in our digitally dominated era?
