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Most housing built since WW2 is not conducive to neighborly socializing - they have larger front lot areas separated from neighbors, no front porches, rear patios isolated from neighbors, and in the last 30 years air conditioning which keeps people inside. Most homes in my area hire lawn service companies, and also have attached garages - so you never see neighbors outside at all. Homes and neighborhoods have become miniature isolated compounds.
There are also fewer children per household left to play outside, and even in homes with children many are in organized activities, or are kept in organized play groups, shuffled in SUVs by their helicopter parents. Outside the local middle school there have to be 100 cars lined up to pick up kids every day.
There are still neighborhoods where people are outside, but that is usually older less wealthy neighborhoods - typically immigrant or minority, but still many working class areas in older Northeast and Midwest cities.
It's still present in some places down south, especially during the summer. There's people outside mowing their lawns, going for a jog, walking the dog, kids playing outside, older couple sitting outside talking and enjoying the weather.
To me, its a difference for the worse, not for the better. Why would someone want to spend the better part of their life soaking in mindless TV shows, and not even know the people who live in your community and on your block?
Anyway, the question is, are there still places where what I'm describing, what I grew up with, can be found. Places where there is still a lot of vitality and not so much isolation.
I'm hoping someone will give me some hope that there is!
The previous poster is correct, things have changed a lot in the digital-age. I was talking to a friend about this same phenomenon a while back. In our hometown, the neighborhood used to be packed with kids in the late 80s-90s where we grew up. Everyone rode their bikes, and everyone was always out and about. Neighborhood gatherings, cookouts, people out on their porches were also very common.
It's not like that anymore. Technology, digital entertainment systems, and the like are so common. People tend to entertain more inside their homes more around the technology.
To answer your question. In Chicago (your hometown) we still have pretty strong neighborhoods where you can find this congeniality. I see this in some sections of Lincoln Park, Old Town, Lakeview, and a couple months ago I was in Irving Park and there were lots of neighbors sitting on their porches and there was a big neighborhood block party. I'm sure that there are other Chicago neighborhoods where this is common, since we are such a neighborhood-centric city. I have family in Philly, and although it's been about 10 years since when I've visited them, when I was there you saw lots of people socializing outside and immersed in the neighborhood. I've seen this in sections of the St. Louis area where I have friends too.
The spread of the internet, the rise in crime awareness (AKA increased paranoia), the tighter and more restrictive laws, the introverted youth becoming increasingly introverted, people exhausted because most jobs have no logical schedules which screws with sleep and time to relax, increased stress due to new bills (cell phone, internet) and a tougher work environment (most people do the job of two or three people at one job and still work a second or third to get by).
These are all major contributors. The US is not the social and happy place it claims to be and, to a certain degree, once was.
Things are getting worse and instead of banding together and helping each other we are all fixated on blaming one another and fighting about it.
I don't think Americans realize how common abuse is in the workplace in this country, or that they are being abused in many cases. We actually rank much closer to countries like China than to our supposed "peers" like Australia, Canada and pretty much every developed country. Even Japan is more worker-friendly than America now.
You'd think Americans would demand their rights, but they generally don't even realize there is a problem and believe that capitalism and economic growth requires most people to work two grueling jobs without any logical hours. Instead they blame immigrants and people with disabilities who are on welfare for their woe, not the companies that are exploiting their labor and not being held accountable for anything they do just because they're a "business".
I'm not really a communist but the persecution of working people and the poor in America and the UK is downright insane these days.
Still common in our middle/working class neighborhood, but I agree it's confined to areas with older homes and usually lower income people. The well-to-do like to isolate themselves inside their homes on the outskirts of cities rather than socialize outdoors with their neighbors.
Like it has been mentioned here that the digital age has changed the way we used to do things. The evenings of sitting out front, socializing with the passing neighbors has changed into communicating with each other by tapping a keyboard, while sitting behind closed doors. It saddens me to see that houses that have recently been built in our subdivision have nice, big porches that seldom, if ever we see anyone using.
We have always liked sitting on our front porch, watching the comings and goings of people, and wildlife as they move about. As a plus, a neighbor, walking the neighborhood might decide to come up and sit with us for awhile on the porch, and we get caught up on the comings and goings of the community, and socialize as well. It's a shame porches aren't more appreciated these days.
Most housing built since WW2 is not conducive to neighborly socializing - they have larger front lot areas separated from neighbors, no front porches, rear patios isolated from neighbors, and in the last 30 years air conditioning which keeps people inside. Most homes in my area hire lawn service companies, and also have attached garages - so you never see neighbors outside at all. Homes and neighborhoods have become miniature isolated compounds.
There are also fewer children per household left to play outside, and even in homes with children many are in organized activities, or are kept in organized play groups, shuffled in SUVs by their helicopter parents. Outside the local middle school there have to be 100 cars lined up to pick up kids every day.
There are still neighborhoods where people are outside, but that is usually older less wealthy neighborhoods - typically immigrant or minority, but still many working class areas in older Northeast and Midwest cities.
^ This....That neighborhood that the OP posted looks like neighborhoods you would see in outer city and first ring suburban neighborhoods in areas in both regions. It actually kind of reminds me of this neighborhood: https://www.google.com/maps/@43.0615...8i6656!6m1!1e1
Last edited by ckhthankgod; 09-08-2015 at 10:03 AM..
They're all out in the back yard behind the fence.
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