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Bill Kelso
How the US has Changed since 1960
As we start a new year, many of us will be enjoying the final chapter of our lives. As we get older it is only natural to wonder how the world has changed since we were young kids at McClatchy.
To answer that question a whole series of organizations have recently released survey data spanning the last 60 years. In case any members of our class have wondered about how our country has evolved during this period, I thought I would summarize some of the recent findings. The changes, to say the least, are dramatic. As we shall see they include 1) first a significant decline in trust of the American government as well as in each other 2) secondly, a dramatic fall off in the percentage of American who are proud of their country, 3) thirdly, a remarkable drop in the number of friends people have with a noteworthy number of Americans having no friends at all, and 4) fourthly a growing tendency for the younger generation to avoid becoming grown up.
Major Changes in American Society
The first two trends which primarily concern our government, show a growing tendency for American to lose trust in public officials as well as each other.
For example, in the 1960s some 77% of Americans trusted the government to do the right thing almost always or most of the time. Today that figure has dropped to around 25%. As Americans have lost trust in their government, they have also begin to lose trust in their fellow Americans to be considerate or to do what is right.
In the 1960s when we were high school students, America was described as a High Trust Society. Today it would be considered a Low Trust Society, comparable to what many political scientists call the failed states in Latin America and Africa. Unfortunately, low trust societies tend to lack the record of investment and risk taking necessary to build a prosperous and healthy economy.
The loss of trust in America, is also reflected in the growing decline of people who are proud of their country, The Gallup Poll which started collecting this data in 2002 found that 70% of America were extremely proud of their country in 2003 but that this figure declines to 38% in 2022. That sentiment varies from one party to the next. Gallup found that 56% of Republicans are extremely proud of their country while the figure falls to 22% for Democrats.
Major Changes in Individual Lives.
If the changing attitudes towards the government are troubling, they probably do not affect most people on a personal level. However, the shift in attitude towards the government, unfortunately mirrors even more dramatic changes in our personal relations. These individual changes may dramatically affect the quality of our daily lives.
The most significant finding is the pronounced decline in personal friendships. The phenomenon was first noted by a man named Robert Putnam who wrote a bestseller called Bowling Alone. With the arrival of the 20th century, he noticed that more and more Americans were bowling alone, as they seemed to have fewer or no mates.
Later survey data only confirmed Putnam’s findings. In 1990 for instance only 27% said they had three of fewer close friend while only 2% said they had no close friends at all.
Today the situation is much worse as over 50% of American report that they only have 3 friends while 12% report that they have no close friends at all. The problem is more severe for men as around 15% of them have no close ties of any sort, There is thus the danger that many of the elderly which includes our McClatchy Class of 63, will die as recluses or be extremely lonely in their final years.
The key question is what will be the situation facing all of us at the end of our time: will we be alone or surrounded by friends and family? In many cases our spouses may have passed away or we may be divorced, and our kids may be working in distant cities. However because many of our classmates have moved into retirement communities, which will hopefully welcome them, they may have the opportunities for creating new relationship to fill the void.
For younger people there may be other alternatives. Increasing studies are finding that as young Millennials have fewer friends, they tend to turn to their parent for emotional support. Among the younger children of baby boomer, close to 50 % percent are living with their parents. While people our age may have to struggle with being alone, the younger generation can rely on their parents for the support many of the baby boomers in earlier decades once received from their friends.
Despite some promising new possibilities, the studies also point out difficulties of creating new friends for people of our age. The problem is that in attempting to create new friendship, people might be rebuffed which will only accentuate their sense of loneliness or alienation
The Ambiguous Role of the Internet
Ironically enough, the internet may be both a cause and possibly a solution to this problem of declining friendship.
The threat the internet poses for friendship has been widely studied. When people can get online and read the Facebook page of their classmates or fellow workers, they may realize that they were not invited to a party by many of their so called friends. The public knowledge which is present on the internet can lead people to feel excluded and not appreciated by people they thought they were close to. In the 1960s ignorance of other people’s activities was a kind of bliss. We never felt ignored, if we were unaware of what other people in our class were doing.
Conversely, on the other hand, the internet can also provide a life line to people who feel abandoned or alienated. The best example is that people in our class can use David’s website if they are feeling lonely or isolated. I remember years ago I was struck by a wonderful comment by Bill Yeager who argued that if anyone had serious problems they should post a comment on the website and someone could reach them within 30 minutes. As we get older and more frail, Bill’s comment seem really thoughtful.
Delayed Adulthood
The final dramatic change in America is the growth of what is called late adulthood which is particularly common among those born from the 1990s onward. The term refers to a delaying of traditional milestones of adulthood such as getting a driver’s license, moving out, dating, and most importantly starting work. For people of our age, this is a phenomenon we will probably see in the behavior of our grandchildren.
As present there is no clear agreement as to why this phenomenon of delayed adulthood is occurring. Some think that since people are living longer now than in the past, young people are spending more of their life as arrested adolescents. Others think that as parents and the government go to great lengths to cater to the needs of the young, they feel no need to take responsibility for their own lives. On many college campus universities go out of their way to make students feel safe. But when we were younger, schools often taught people to be resilient rather than safe, to learn how to handle conflict and setbacks by working harder and more skillfully. But as we seem to have embrace a culture that downplays individual initiative and responsibility, many young people choose to remain adolescents and refuse to face the difficulties of daily life. However, for anyone who grew up in the 1960s and cruised K street after a football game, or watched Milner, the drag racing king of American Graffiti, leave competitors in the dust, it is hard to fathom that 16th years today would not want their driver’s license. Growing up was something our generation embraced rather than shunned.
A Different Future
Finally, as we get older, we should realize how much the world has changed since we were high school kids. In light of the above trends, it is pretty clear that our children and grandchildren may be both less prepared as well as less likely to live in a trustful and welcoming world accompanied by friends that we knew.
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