Hacker News Reader

You should give http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling_Alone a read. Might offer some new perspective:

He has described the reduction in all the forms of in-person social intercourse upon which Americans used to found, educate, and enrich the fabric of their social lives. He believes this undermines the active civil engagement a strong democracy required from its citizens.

View on HN

There was a story on NPR a few years ago about this exact phenomenon in retirement communities in Florida. Places where there was no one under the age of 55 and no kids around.

The societies quickly degenerate because no one has any incentive to invest in infrastructure beyond what they can use in the next 10-15 years. They care about the functioning of the society to the extent that it affects them directly.

That's the same idea as in this David Brooks' editorial, in case anyone's interested:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/opinion/28brooks.html

Reply on news.ycombinator.com