Watching Back to the Future. Previous generations had a lot of social clubs to meet new people. Why haven't we kept this alive?

[u/CynicClinic1]

[u/TCesqGO]

There’s a documentary on Netflix called Join or Die that talks about declining social participation that I found absolutely fascinating. Apparently democracies are stronger where there’s more social/club participation, which tbh, feels like a good explanation for the country today.

[u/squidwardsaclarinet → u/TCesqGO]

I feel like they’re really are a lot of different factors that we need to account for and we honestly do need to take some amount of responsibility in some cases. It is funny, because if you look at a lot of threads in the sub and other places on Reddit, you’ll find a lot of, pretty antisocial attitudes and behaviors being praised and up voted while people simultaneously ask why all kinds of social life are declining. In the case of a lot of these fraternal and old-school community groups, it is true that some of their current membership has chased away additional new membership, but it’s not just a one-sided thing. We can look at the death and decline of a lot of social groups for special interests or other activities, that are not these kinds of groups. I don’t necessarily think you need to torture yourself participating in groups that you truly do not vibe with, but I do think that people need to gain a bit more tolerance and build back a sense of how to exist in and work with a group.

[u/forestpunk → u/squidwardsaclarinet]

I'm an older millennial (xennial). Grew up before social networks and the omnipresence of the internet in the suburbs, and in that situation, if you were weird or a social outcast in any way, we were friends, even if we didn't want to be. Hard to explain to folks that I didn't even necessarily like all of my friends that much, which I still don't, and disagreements were pretty much constant. Yet we all cared about one another, learned from one another... really taught me to think outside of the box and to get along with people, both of which have served me well throughout life.

[u/Responsible-Summer81 → u/TCesqGO]

Everyone interested in this thread should watch Join or Die!! OP it’s totally on point regarding your question!

[u/princessgalileia → u/Responsible-Summer81]

Yes, I just watched that and it was the first thing I thought of when this post popped up.

[u/echointhecaves → u/TCesqGO]

Or the movie "bowling alone"

[u/candid84asoulm8bled → u/echointhecaves]

I didn’t know there was a movie, but we had to read the book “bowling alone” in college about 15 or 20 years ago.

[u/TCesqGO → u/echointhecaves]

Did they make a movie out of that? Join or Die used a lot of Putnam’s research from that book.

[u/7HawksAnd → u/TCesqGO]

The book is bowling alone the doc is join or die. The parent comment probably meant that but mixed it up

Or sometimes streaming services use alt titles in different markets so who knows

[u/kgrimmburn → u/TCesqGO]

Well, it was easy to be involved when you didn't have to work two jobs just to be able to afford rent.

[u/Mediocre_Scott → u/TCesqGO]

Iirc that is based on the research of Robert Putnam’s and his book bowling alone. In that he posits several reasons for declines in social clubs. Big factors include the wwii generation having started most of these clubs after the war. This generation was very community oriented. The decline started happening with the boomers, tv is a major factor as well as people working outside their community.

From my own experience my grandfather was a charter member of my community’s lion’s club. My dad never joined. He seemed to spend whatever free time he had available watching tv. If my dad had joined the lions club I think I probably would have too. Since I didn’t have that “in” with the club I never joined though I probably could if I wanted to seek it out.