Letter: Slow erosion of communities can be averted by purposeful involvement

Editor,

We live in a society that is more connected, and yet at the same time more disconnected, than ever before. Social media has transformed the way we communicate, and has made creating social connections that previously would have been improbable as easy as clicking a button.

At the same time, repeated studies show that the number of close friends the average American says she/he can talk to in a time of need has dropped sharply over the last half-century. Other evidence points to the same trend: the number of people who would describe themselves as lonely, who live alone and who don’t interact outside of work/school situations have all increased steadily over the last 50 or so years.

We seem to have a lot more “friends,” and a lot fewer real friends. The reason for this largely depends on who you ask. The religious among us point to a sharp downward trend in religiosity, particularly among the young. More Americans than ever before are describing themselves as not religious, or openly atheist. The religious have a point. For hundreds, if not thousands of years, religious services were the primary social context in which we, as members of a family, engaged with our communities, and other relationships were built upon that shared social bedrock. You lose more than your religion when you stop going to church, and I say that as an atheist.

There are those, too, that claim that it is actually the result of the technology itself -- that the internet, a system designed to connect us, is actually driving us apart. We are making more time for the content that is now at our fingertips at all times, and less for the people in our lives. I can certainly see this phenomenon at work in my life, and I suspect, upon a critical examination, you would be able to as well.

Whatever the reason, I find this trend towards a disconnected society disturbing. Stable societies are not built by or for disconnected, disengaged individuals. I have this overwhelming sense that the social fabric that binds us together is becoming precariously thin.

You might have heard something like this before, and if you have, you probably heard it from a religious conservative. I am neither religious nor conservative, but I think that they have a strong point here -- one that deserves to be judged on it’s own merits. We’re mature enough as a society to recognize the importance of the ties that bind us, while at the same time recognizing that LGBT individuals have the right to marry, and that women have the right to choose.

My challenge to my fellow UNM students, especially freshmen, is this: Get Involved. It doesn’t matter what you’re involved in, and I guarantee that you will be better for the experience, so just do it. It’s good for you, it’s good for the UNM community you’re a part of, and ultimately it’s good for our society.

Sincerely,

Kevin Pham

UNM student