Phone-based retirement

The Atlantic

I don't write about sociology but I am interested in the collapse of social capital, especially as it relates to engagement with natural history. In the US there has been a lot of discussion recently about "phone-based retirement" - retired people are spending more time on (mobile) screens, with less engagement in traditional activities (such as stitting in chilly church halls listening to natural history talks). In his book Bowling Alone, sociologist Robert Putnam used the collapse of US 10 pin bowling leagues to illustrate the decline of social capital. While Putnam was describing a pre-Internet society, the same trends have continued and probably accelerated (Covid or no Covid). Putnam says he doesn't know the "answer" to this. Which is good, because neither do I. Currently it's hard to see how this trend could be reversed. For a mere £9 a year I can "participate" in all of Cambridge Natural History Society's talks online via Zoom. That, together with the super output of the Biological Recording Company, is in some ways an amazing prospect; and in others, thoroughly depressing.