There is a gap in people’s degrees of social connection as the percentage of respondents who say they don’t have any close friends has increased, especially among those who didn’t complete college.
The majority of American people formerly had close buddies.
The percentage of respondents who answered they didn’t in 1990 was modest and essentially the same for all education levels: 3% for those without a college degree and 2% for those with one.
However, a new poll indicates that the share has increased generally, especially among those without a college degree, resulting in a sort of class gap in people’s degree of social interaction and connection. Almost 25% of American people with only a high school degree or less reported not having any close friends. In that group, the percentage was significantly greater among Black adults: 35%.
Only 10% of college graduates had the same sentiment.
The results are based on a poll of around 6,600 adults carried out by the nonprofit poll Center on American Life, which studies the influences of politics, society, and technology on people’s lives.
As per Daniel Cox, the head of the center and one of the co-authors of a paper that summarized the results released this week, “our social fabric seems to have two layers now.” “It has two sections: one seemingly intact for people with college degrees and the other seemingly in ruins for those without one.”
The results coincide with a nationally acknowledged increase in social isolation. An AHA poll from January found that almost 30% of respondents reported feeling lonely at least once a week over the previous year, and 10% reported feeling lonely every day.
A year ago, the U.S. Surgeon General proclaimed loneliness to be an epidemic, noting its associations with heart disease, stroke, dementia, and early mortality. The high rates of loneliness among inhabitants in San Mateo County, California—which contains a portion of Silicon Valley—led to the declaration of a public health emergency.
Cox, a senior fellow of polling and public opinion at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative Washington think tank, stated that although the pandemic helped bring the issue to light, “this decline had gone on for decades before.” “There’s been considerable decline and atrophy in American social connection,” Cox said.
He suggested a few theories that may account for the pattern. One is that people may be less inclined to join social organizations or spend time with friends and family since being alone is no longer dull in the age of video games and streaming services. Another is that there are less possibilities for social interaction for those without college degrees, maybe due to restricted access to open public areas or a lack of funds or time to frequent establishments like restaurants and bars.
According to Cox’s poll, compared to those without college degrees, those with college degrees were more likely to visit restaurants or coffee shops and engage in discussion with neighbors. Additionally, they had a higher likelihood of belonging to a sports league, reading club, or recreational group (such as a regular poker game or neighborhood association).
According to Cox, “we place a lot of the burden of making and keeping friends on individuals rather than on institutions.” “All the work and effort has been transferred to individuals, who now have to plan, schedule, and coordinate their social engagements instead of allowing them to naturally arise from the things they are already doing.”
According to the poll, those with college degrees were also more likely to frequently attend church or be a member of a labor union, two settings that have traditionally provided social chances for those with less formal education.
The poll also discovered a difference in educational attainment when it came to free public spaces like parks and libraries. Less than 25% of persons without a college degree reported never having visited a park or community garden in the previous year, compared to over 40% of those with a college degree. Additionally, compared to a quarter of persons with a high school education or less, almost half of college graduates reported having visited a library at least a few times in the previous year.
“A lot of people find that the hours of operation at community centers and libraries, which are legitimately free, aren’t regular enough,” Cox said. “There are just not enough of those places to meet the demand, and many of them are closed in the evenings.”
The problem could be somewhat geographical: There are fewer public meeting places in communities with greater rates of poverty, according to a 2022 research. According to Cox, many municipalities lack the funding necessary to make improvements to their public areas.
In addition, restricted leisure time and inadequate transit options probably contribute, according to Oklahoma State University associate professor of sociology Adam Roth, who was not part in the poll.
“That is going to be a prohibitive factor if you live out in the suburbs and you have to change buses or trains or get in your car and do that however-long commute,” Roth said.
But everything is not lost in the narrative. Less than 3% of respondents to a survey compilation between 2022 and 2023 stated they had no friends at all, despite the fact that Americans wanted to be closer to their friends. Both intimate connections and casual acquaintances were examined in the surveys.
The researcher, Amanda Holmstrom, a professor of communication at Michigan State University, stated, “Our data didn’t really spell doom and gloom.” “People feel that they don’t always have the time to take care of their friends, even though they have friends.”
Naturally, there are still advantages to casual connections. According to Roth, when people connect with a greater range of people—including those they hardly know—on a given day, they report feeling more psychologically well-off. In general, social contacts aid in easing or preventing the symptoms of sadness and anxiety. In fact, participation in local activities and in-person contacts have been related to reduced inflammatory levels.
The fact remains that all kinds of social contacts and connections are important, especially when it comes to one’s health and wellbeing, according to Roth. However, the likelihood that we will engage in particular social interactions depends, at least in part, on the communities in which we reside.
