Posted on 11/10/2026 3:21:53 AM PST by daniel1212
As Americans spend more of their time online, the neighborhood—once a primary physical location for real-world socialization—is playing less of a central role than ever before.... Whether because of social media distractions, travel sports commitments, or the rising use of freelance service providers ... Americans rely far less on close neighbors and venture out less often into their communities. As Marc Dunkelman contends in The Vanishing Neighbor: The Transformation of American Community, less routine interaction with neighbors and others in the “middle ring” of social connections allows us far fewer opportunities to practice constructive debate.[i]...
It’s not only a class divide. The new American Neighbor survey reveals evidence of a religious gap as well. Those who attend religious services frequently are much more socially active in their neighborhoods than are those who seldom or never participate in religious services. Americans who regularly attend religious services have stronger social connections with their neighbors and are more inclined to work with them to address community problems and concerns. Religious Americans interact with their communities differently, and their views about what it means to be a good neighbor are distinct. They are more likely to believe that good neighbors should seek opportunities to help those who live around them, even if their neighbors did not ask for help....
Comparisons to a 2012 study by Pew Research Center show that Americans are engaging less with their neighbors than just over a decade ago.[ii]...
Although the decline in neighborly interactions has occurred among Americans from all backgrounds, the collapse has been far more pronounced among certain groups. Social exchanges between neighbors are much more common among older Americans than among young adults. A majority (56 percent) of seniors report chatting with their neighbors at least a few times a week, demonstrating only a modest seven-point drop from 2012.
In contrast, patterns of socializing with neighbors have changed dramatically among young adults over the past decade. Only one in four young adults now report regularly engaging with their neighbors, but in 2012, more than half (51 percent) of young adults said they conversed with neighbors a few times a week or more.
Only 40 percent of Americans report talking to their neighbors regularly (at least a few times a week). This marks a considerable decline in social interaction between neighbors; in 2012, nearly six in 10 Americans (59 percent) said they talked to their neighbors at least a few times a week. In 2025, most Americans interacted with their neighbors sparingly. More than four in 10 (41 percent) Americans talked with their neighbors no more than a few times a month, while 17 percent report that they did not talk to their neighbors at all...
there is no indication that homeownership is associated with more frequent interactions with neighbors. Americans who rent their homes report engaging with their neighbors about as often as do those who own their homes...
Married Americans report talking to their neighbors more frequently and experienced a smaller overall decline in these interactions over the past decade. ...
Against a backdrop of rising social isolation, most Americans believe that being a good neighbor is more about keeping your distance than about engaging with the people living nearby...
Religious Americans tend to have different conceptions of neighborliness as well. Close to half (45 percent) of Americans who attend religious services multiple times a week say being a good neighbor requires engaging with the people who live around you even if they do not request it.
Looking at all the comments, I identify with many.
Visit a neighbor, unannounced. If he is busy, help with whatever he is doing, for example.
And I agree that internet and social media is substituting for face-face communication. Some younger folks can’t have a conversation.
Now, on a side note, the internet, texting, social media, etc. elicits quick responses. People get frustrated with just a little impatience.
And Jesus encourages us to be patient. Wait on God. Stop forcing the issue personally.
My conclusion is that the modern communication system is taking people away from developing that patience, and away from knowing God and His methods.
We have a bunch of illegals one one side and a Vietnamese kook on the other side.
See? Just the kind of folks the article is talking about!
;]
[Good luck]
Seeing it here in a densely populated NE city of a majority Latinos. Double income no kids. Prima facie testimoiny is that most do not talk or interact with friendly neighbors. Some are SJW's.
Clarification on my above post, the non-social singles are overall mainly Caucasian.
3/4 of the houses on my street are lit up for Diwali.
It also renders us more careless, with more idle words and effects to be held accountable for.
That is somewhat what I have seen in the Latino community in which (as a "gringo") I have bee overall blessed to live and minister in and out of for over 30 years.
However, almost come here for $ and because they prayed to God as to His will, and most soon forsake church (though overall much more religious than Whites), and lose their children to the American culture, in which they overall hardly play outside even in summer, being on endless scroll on their phones in AC apts or otherwise inactive, and overweight. And most do not learn the trades of parents (most all work), being conditioned for socialism.
Edit my post: NOT “because they prayed to God as to His will,”
They just don’t realize how you may need your neighbors at some point. Without community we have no society.
3/4 of the houses on my street are lit up for Diwali.
Mine too. Some of them are really well-done. I might complain about immigration, but I have nothing personal against the neighbors. I generally get along fine, because I can talk about Cricket with them.
I was born in Western PA at the end of the 1960s, so my childhood was essentially the 1970s. First, all the houses on my block had front porches and no central air. People would sit out on their front porches after work and talk or just listen to a Pirate game on the radio in the summer. New houses just don't have front porches (generally speaking), they have back decks inside privacy fences, and they all have central AC. Both of those things can contribute to people not even knowing they have neighbors.
There was also something about having three network TV channels and PBS that also served to bring people together. When we'd go to school in the morning, kids would talk about last night's episode of Happy Days or the Six Million Dollar Man. Today, with the proliferation of online content, it's unlikely any two school kids (or coworkers for that matter) watched the same thing the night before. Even if people are fans of say, Yellowstone, or other streaming shows, they're no longer locked into watching them at the same time every week, so that in many ways eliminates just one more common thread people used to have.
Oh, but we have "virtual church," with all its virtual love and fellowship (make sure your giving is real however),though thank God for good preaching.
I’m very grateful you shared that powerful sermon!
Interesting article, thank you for posting. I didn’t see what I consider the biggest factor in this change. The total hours people work has increased dramatically since women entered the workforce, people are working longer hours and need to work more jobs to get by, and work commutes are longer.
Interesting article, thank you for posting. I didn’t see what I consider the biggest factor in this change. The total hours people work has increased dramatically since women entered the workforce, people are working longer hours and need to work more jobs to get by, and work commutes are longer.
They are multiple, mainly:
While weekly neighbor chats among seniors remain steady at 56%, regular conversations among young adults dropped from 51% in 2012 to 25% in 2025. Weekly religious service attendees talk to neighbors more frequently (49% vs. 35%) and engage more often in shared social or civic activities than non-attendees. Marriage & Ownership: Married individuals talk to neighbors more frequently than those never married (45% vs. 30%)But what it misses is what I pointed out to Gemini.ai, which elaborates:
What the Report Misses: By focusing heavily on education, religion, and marital status, the authors overlook how kids naturally force adults out of their homes and into shared spaces. Front-yard play,..school bus stops, and neighborhood schools (which 62% of respondents live near) historically act as organic "social glue" for adults who might otherwise never speak...
Connection to the Age and Marriage Gaps: Because the survey omits parental status as a standalone breakdown, it likely misses a major piece of why young adults (down to 25% weekly interaction) and never-married adults (30% vs. 45% for married adults) have seen the steepest drops in neighborliness. Delayed marriage and declining birth rates mean far fewer households have children anchoring them to their immediate streets.
Meaning contraception and abortion (pregnancy usually leads to marriage and requires rational planning) have had an insidious effect, which we could also blame the loss to the GOP on (which refrains from making these much of an issue)
Yes, and I think it was the live version, as he preached it more than once. And is says much about the old-school redeemed character that God and used.
It was "progressive," and coincided with the rebellion against God and Biblical faith and morality, which trend continues, so that even here we have posts opposing everything from corporeal discipline of children to making abortion an election issue, and even demeaning faith in God, esp. Biblical evangelical faith.
In the densely populated NorthEast city I have been overall blessed to live and minister in and out of for over 33 years, by the grace of God. then the problem is assimilation.
Most all Central Americans come here as people of faith (almost every one will take a gospel tract in their language), and thus many evangelical types have church meetings in their home, plus buildings. Catholic church has many attendees.
They love children, and their parents, many of whom they bring here to visit in the summer. And they work, thus plenty of parking during the day, vs. night. And their children like to play, and walk with parents to the store, etc. Thus they overall conform to conservative family and spiritual values, which I fit in with vs, with those raised in the typical NE culture.
They are also very amiable and social, despite their apartments being rather sparse. They smile interact with you on the street, though for me, not speaking Spanish limits that.
However, being from S. America, (and mostly Catholic) they are conditioned to socialism and they vote for the party that buys their vote thru outreach (which Republicans hardly do), and welfare type benefits.
And the longer they stay here then the more like the typical liberal NorthEast. They stop going to church, and live together with kids without getting married, and lose their children to the sedentary smartphone culture. Thus you hardly see anyone out even in the summer,as the stay inside AC apartments on the phone and video game and consoles, and usually show little desire to do physically much (bike ridingn etc,), thus being conditioned to dependence and socialism.
And increasingly Latino women become "educated" SJW's
Thus as regards family and spiritual values, their home country is better.
And which evidences that overall, they did not see or were led by God to come here, for if we are born again, we either are missionaries wherever we go, or are backslidden(I know both) or lost souls (as most Catholics are, esp. liberal Americans).
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