At many high school’s, putting in a certain number of community service hours is required. Boys and girls all over America play sports, join boy scouts or girl scouts, play in the band at school, volunteer, are in youth groups.
We are involved with Project Angel Heart through this class, but we have all shared stories of previous volunteer experiences. Filling the holes of a college resume with clubs and sports seems more important now than it has previously because of admission competition. It seems more important now to be involved if one wants to look good on a resume because interviewers and bosses see involvement, volunteerism, clubs and sports as a sign of a strong character and a person willing to go the extra mile in a job as well as in life.
These things were also true of older generations; they played outside when they were little and joined clubs and sports. It seems now though, that kids are joining less and less.
According to the statistics in Robert Putnam’s Bowling Along, younger generations are becoming less and less involved in the community than generation that came before them. In Bowling Alone, Putnam quotes Tom Kissell saying, “Kids today just aren’t joiners.”
You have all had your own experiences in joining and being involved in the community both because of this class and prior experiences. In this involvement, have you found any reason to see how Kissell’s statement could be true? If you have found the decline in involvement to be a legitimate claim, why do you think involvement is decreasing in American youth? If you don’t think there is a decline in involvement, why do you think Putnam claims that there might be?
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Based off of his statistics, I could see how Robert Punam can state that “younger generations are becoming less and less involved in the community.” Though, I can also see a counter argument against his claim. On Putnam’s side of the argument, certain statistics show that kids are not signing up for organized activities. This seems true because there are so many distractions for kids that could keep them at home like television, video games, or the internet. All these forms of entertainment may be keeping kids away from getting involved in after school clubs or extracurricular involvement. Though, a counter argument raises interesting questions. Maybe kids aren’t getting involved in activities that would be surveyed, like maybe a neighborhood sport, or individually volunteering at a local organization.
Because I don’t want to oscillate between both sides of the argument, I will take a stance on the side that kids are just as involved as they were twenty or thirty years ago. Firstly, there are so many ways of transportation now than there were thirty years ago. Most high school students have their own car which enables them to drive back and forth to school at their own leisure. This makes it easier for students to stay for after school activities without having to inconvenience their parents for a ride.
Secondly, I think that students are joining more clubs which makes it difficult to greatly contribute to any one club. In my high school, many students were involved in a world language club, some type of performance club like forensics or drama, a national honor club, a service club, and probably another activity like sports or music. It isn’t bad to be involved. It means that more input is contributed to each organization. Maybe each individual can not contribute as much to each, but as a whole the school is benefitted because more students are informed and are at least participating when possible.
Thirdly, for whatever intentions, students are striving for more volunteer hours. It may be through a school organization like Key Club where hours are mandatory, or individually because of scholarships or resumes. Students feel the need to volunteer more and more because everyone is doing it. Everyone is wanted to be recognized because colleges are looking for it. Maybe intentions have changed over the past thirty years from volunteering willingly to volunteering for x number of hours so they can be logged. But does this really matter? If students are getting involved, isn’t that what the older generation wants from us? They want to to be prepared to eventually run our society. I think we are just as involved and learnin just as much as thirty years ago.
From my experiences, I don’t really see much truth to the statement that kids today aren’t joiners. While I do believe that many kids join and get involved with organizations and groups for their resumes, I still believe that there are those who “join” for other reasons in addition to making their resumes look more attractive. If I think back to my high school, where not many people were focused on going to college, kids were involved in lots of activities within in the school anyway. Most kids belonged to at least one club or organization in the school. Even I, a fairly lazy person, got involved with the yearbook class and other activities. By my senior year, I was extremely involved with the yearbook as one of the editors. Many of my friends were involved with the student senate and the mock trial club. Even though we were a very small, rural school we still had many people involved in sports or organizations. Maybe because we were such a small community anyway, getting involved just came naturally.
However, once in college, I think I see people, and myself, become more apathetic. For me, I have begun to volunteer regularly, but have also not been involved with organizations here at DU, despite my interest. This past week was Holocaust awareness and Genocide prevention week, there were so many programs and lectures that I missed that I wanted to be a part of, but didn’t have the time to. I think time is one of the major obstacles that keeps students from being more involved with their community. I tried to get involved with the Amnesty International club, but I wasn’t able to attend the meetings on Monday nights during winter quarter. I also wanted to be a member of the environmental club as well as the AIDS awareness organization, but I never did get involved. I also think that because so much is happening and changes in college, I know that I cannot deal with too many extra things outside of classwork. However, I would like to change that for myself and hopefully next year, I can find the time and energy to join organizations here on campus and be more involved within this new community here.
Robert Putnam’s article is filled with convincing statistics and examples of how our generations is lacking in community volunteerism. “A dying, un replaceable bread” as Putnam relates it to the older generation; the decline is involvement is a legitimate claim. The reason why involvement is decreasing is because of the characteristics that come with our American society. One of these characteristics that adds a major impact on involvement is “social capital”. A tool or training that helps enhance productivity, I feel that social capital has been missing more and more in our society.
First, social capital creates a very positive, strong bond between you and others. This tough bond is extremely important in that is includes productivity, organization, and communication. A good example in Putnam’s article is steelworkers going out for drinks every Friday with their fellow co-workers. This multistranded network shows more that social connection between these workers. It shows the important connection/ friendship they have with each other. Without this type of social capital, there would be a lack connection and with a lack of connection comes poor performance, lack of trust, and no real strong emotional/psychical ties to ones involvement. In all of Putnam’s examples, theirs a lack of social capital that causes little to no involvement. For example, the school band that got new uniforms only to find that only three students wanted to play shows that there is no strong connection between the band program and the school. A strong social capital, say between the coach and dozens of students at the school could provide a stronger involvement and a better band program.
“Social capital, like its cousin “community”, sounds warm and cuddly”. There is appeal, along with strength that creates an effective, contributing group/organization. If you look at places and system that struggles to succeed positively, you can see their lacks social capital. Without social capital, there is no real helpful push to guide you and that is why there is a decrease in American youth involvement.
Although I am unsure of any definite answers, I find this topic to be very thought provoking. Is involvement is American youth truly decreasing? According to Putnam’s statistics, the answer is yes. In my own personal experience, I would argue to the contrary. Involvement in youth today may be shifting, but I do not believe that it is decreasing.
In order to make the claim that involvement is decreasing, one must consider the social standards of society today. It seems that increasing emphasis is being placed on individualism, identity, and making a name for oneself. The youth today strive to stand out rather than to blend into a given community. One must stand out in order to get a certain scholarship, job opportunity, or promotion. Competition may be fierce, and every individual must fight for his or her place in the social hierarchy. I do not believe that this used to be true. In years past, individuals needed one another in order to survive. The individual contributed to the well being of his or her community, and the community in turn sustained the individual. As society becomes more advanced and one’s basic needs are met, the individual begins to seek personal recognition.
And yet, how does one attain this recognition? More often that not, recognition comes from joining. Students join organizations or perform services that will look good on an application. The more organizations, the better that application will look. In this sense, actual involvement may decrease as students spread themselves thinner and thinner across many different areas. Students may claim membership without any significant participation. A little bit here and a little bit there. Joining seems to be less about forming meaningful connections and more about establishing individualism.
Perhaps the connotations associated with joining are changing.
Perhaps one’s motivation to join has shifted.
Yet, the youth today are still “joiners.”
The claim that "kids today just aren't joiners" is an interesting one. I say this because I think that to some degree it is true. Kids typically are a little selfish, and why not? It is one of the few times in life that we have the luxury of thinking mostly about ourselves. That said, I have experienced that most kids readily get involved.
It may be true that some kids join to boost their resume, but the fact is they are still joining. To me, it would seem that the increased pressure on youth today to have community service would mean that there are more kids getting involved. In any case, I have seen many kids getting involved (free will and resume pressured alike). In high school, I didn’t know many people that didn’t play at least one sport or participate in a club. Most of us did those things because we liked them, not because we had to. Being part of a team or a club gives people a sense of belonging and accomplishment, and I think that this is most often the motivation for joining. Here at DU, I found myself much less involved than in high school, and it took some time and work to fill the void. In high school, I played volleyball, was a member of National Honor Society, in Student Leadership, etc. At first at college, I was happy just adjusting and focusing solely on school. When I wanted to get more involved though, I found it difficult. I looked into a couple of club sports, but nothing really clicked. It was not until I found Saddle Up! that I felt like I was living a balanced life again. It takes some rearranging and some time to make this work, but I really think it helps to have something beyond myself to focus on sometimes. I know that I am not the only kid that strives to be involved. Sometimes, it is difficult time wise and most of the ground work has to be done by the individual, and people still find a way to be involved. This is a testament that kids today ARE joiners.
In my opinion there is absolutely no decrease in involvement amongst America’s youth. In fact, I would argue that we are currently experiencing the highest degree of youth involvement that this country has seen in decades. Based on this fact, I believe that the real problem is that America’s youth is getting over-involved. By this I mean that we joining so many organizations that we ultimately are not dedicating ourselves to one important cause. This in turn has the affect to make it appear as though we not really that involved. In essence it’s an illusion. The reason for this stems from societal pressures to build our resumes in order to bolster our personal recognition and make us distinguishable amongst the millions of others people our age. Life is a competition and we are merely trying to give ourselves the upper hand. With the increasing competition of the job market as well as university admission, it makes sense that America’s youth and students are doing everything that they can to set themselves apart, to make themselves unique.
Americans have become increasingly concerned with their own well-being. There has always been a natural pressure that forces people to take care of themselves before helping others. It goes down to the chemical level. Adrenaline triggers the fight or flight reaction when produced, not a “lets help others” reaction. On the other hand, in times of need, people have sacrificed what is preferred in order to benefit the greater good of their country. During World War II, women went to work in factories in order to support the war effort, to do what will help the country emerge victorious. But has society (and America in particular) taken the self-centered state of mind to the next level? Has capitalism pushed people into a selfish and apathetic stupor?
War efforts over time can demonstrate this fundamental shift. In World War II, people did everything they could in order to fulfill their “duty” to their country. But as the century progressed, U.S.A. became involved in increasingly unpopular wars. Vietnam, The Cold War, The Gulf War, and Iraq, Public opinion about the leaders of the country has plummeted. Look at Bush’s approval ratings. Americans feel like the easiest thing to do is to not care. They feel like they cannot do anything, that they cannot make a difference. Rather than get frustrated about the inability to make a difference, they choose the path of apathy. I would argue that this opinion about the government has crossed over into the way people conduct themselves with others. If people cannot work for a change in the greater governing body, they can only focus on their own well-being. People are not as concerned with the welfare of others—at least not as much as they once were. When they participate in community service, they are filling those “holes in their resumes”, they are no longer fulfilling their “duty to society and to others”
Honestly, I don’t believe that Putnam’s claims about today’s youth being less inclined to join voluntary organizations is completely true because he doesn’t take into consideration recent social and economic factors. First of all, youth today are trained from a young age to be competitive, to gain an edge over everyone else in order to achieve success in adulthood. This means sports teams, dance classes, and yes sometimes volunteering. However youth today are more self interested and instead of joining groups for the benefit of someone else, they are looking to gain accolades for themselves. Participation clearly exists though the motivation and interest has shifted.
Like Putnam says, there are “ever more groups speaking (or claiming to speak) on behalf of ever more categories of citizens”. What I take this to mean is that today regardless of a person’s interest, there’s an organization for them to join compared to past generations when the tendency was to join nationally known organizations like Boy Scouts. Because today’s groups cater to specific issues like youth religious groups, humanitarian groups, ethnic alliances, and so on, membership is understandably lower. However, people are still joining as long as the group reflects their values, beliefs, and interests.
Another factor is cost. Now to join a sports team, or skill-based organization usually involves money that not all families are able to pay. For parents to engage their kids in the community can be a financial and time strain. Also today, people lead busier lives, and simply find it difficult to schedule time for someone else if there is no incentive for them. In my own life, I have found that as people mature do they begin to volunteer in order to help someone else. Diminished is the egocentrism typically found in youth who shop for the best organization to enhance their resume. I think it’s rare for a person to be passionate about an issue at a young age unless it directly affects them and their family, or they begin to realistically view their surroundings and learn that they are not the center of attention. and their comfort the only important thing.
I don’t believe that Putman is correct in saying that the youth of today isn’t as involved today in the community as they were in the past. I believe that we are involved in ways that aren’t documented by surveys. I think that ways that the youth of today are involved in the community is through sports, the arts, through music, or any other activity. Every kid finds their own passion and they work hard at that one particular thing until they master it. Many youth join their high school sports teams or they join select teams and work towards greater achievement. Kids that aren’t into sport find their passions through arts like drawing or painting. Also, they might find their passion through music, their high school band or by starting a band. Whatever your interests are, these all benefit the community. We may not be out picking up garbage on the side of the road, or joining the local boy scouts, but I feel that being involved is anything is still considered being involved in our community.
The reason why Putman may think and statistics say that the youth isn’t involved is because I feel that the youth of today is involved in more individual and unique activities than the youth of our parent’s generation. Being an individual can still mean that we benefit the community. I also believe that it is true that we aren’t “joiners”. We don’t join what others do, like our friends, we find our own passions and follow them through.
In Putnam's book, he shows how we have become increasingly disconnected from family, friends, neighbors, and our democratic structures. He further argues that the connection that we have with each other has declined and that it is impoverishing our lives and community. In addition, he believes that the younger generation is becoming less involved with the community.
Although, I would agree with some of Putnam's arguments, it is tough to agree with him completely. I would argue that society does not join less, trust less, give less, vote less, and socialize less. Because Putnam's book, "Bowling alone," was written years ago; I believe that Putnam's measure of social capital misses growing measures of social participation. For example, almost all the students at the University of Denver are members of facebook.
Some people would argue that students are busy playing computer games, facebooking, or surfing the internet instead of going to group meetings, or visiting neighbors. However I do not believe that the Internet has been the reason of social disconnect. Since the internet gives individuals access to people, places, groups all over the world. People can even make new friends on line without meeting them in person. Therefore, I believe that in many ways "our" generation has a stronger communication connection.
I don't think there is a significant decline in service involvement. However, because society keeps growing, I think the small percentage of people who DO volunteer, are less recognized, as they are mixed in with an exponentially growing population. So, I think the same amounts of people continue to volunteer, but the percentage of people doing so is decreasing dramatically to to the constant increase in members of our public community.
This is just what I think- I am not saying Putnam is wrong. There is a large possibility that there IS a decline in service engagement. Perhaps, students feel so pressured to maintain a 4.0 GPA, that they now consider that (grades) the most important aspect of their developing career. Previously perhaps students had more time to do things that they enjoy. Assuming many are inherently "good", this availability of time would have led to more volunteering. Now, with so much competition and feeling like one is such a small part of a large population, people think it isn't a necessity to becoming successful.
There is a very important problem with this though/ As the population and competition increases, so does the need for service. With more people, comes more issues. This means that if the service engagement is NOT declining, and is actually staying constant, there would still be a problem. We need to keep service engagement INCREASING with population growth.
In my opinion, I don't agree with Putnam's findings that "kids today just aren't joiners". In my high school, the majority of the students were part of an organization, played sports, or both. I do not consider myself a "joiner" per se, but I will say that I was a devoted member to organizations and clubs, neither of which had anything to do with my resume. In my experience, people are joiners.
Still the question troubles me: Is the youth increasingly less involved decade by decade?
There lies a fault in the comparison. During the previous decades, there have been major issues that unified America in a fight against them. In the 21st century, it doesn't seem that we can even manage to unify ourselves to win a war. With events such as WWI, WWII, Vietnam, and the Cold War, the United States was able to achieve the unification naturally, through the passion of the nation to fight for what it believed it.
In today's world, we have no single enemy to fight again. We are not stopping the spread of communism or detecting the locations of secret bombs in Cuba, we are fighting against terrorism. A many-headed beast, unable to be contained or killed, that spreads regardless of our attempts to stop it. The youth may not be as politically involved as in past decades, but the times don't call for it as they once did.
I believe, regardless of Putnam's findings, that kids are just as involved as they once were just in different ways than previous generations.
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