It’s been nearly a quarter-century since the sociologist Robert Putnam published Bowling Alone, a book that documented the falling enrollment of American “chapter” organizations that had long bonded people together, such as the Knights of Columbus and Boy Scouts, and the decline of civic engagement in general. Since then, with the rise of the Internet, social media, and smartphones (not to mention rising rates of opioid deaths and suicide), Americans have become yet more isolated from their neighborhoods, communities, and even families. In response, many have decried the demise of “mediating” institutions: collective efforts that exist between the individual and the state and create thick, personal social ties.
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