We hurt ourselves, our children (especially our boys) and our community when we lead an overcommitted, fast-paced way of life.
Sadly, what Dr. James Dobson calls “routine panic” characterizes the vast majority of men and women in Western nations. The result of being too busy? We become increasingly isolated from those we love. Our children suffer the most.
Three sobering trends:
1. Robert D. Putnam, political-science professor at Harvard University, and his colleagues have interviewed nearly half a million people over the past 25 years. In his book Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, he reports on the growing trend toward overcommitment and isolation in America. The single most significant factor contributing to this dismal trend? The increase in the number of two-career families.
2. James Davison Hunter reports in the Weekly Standard: “Americans are going to church less often than we did three or four decades ago, and the churches we go to are less engaged in the wider community.”
3. Dr. James Dobson reports: “Television, the Internet, and other forms of electronic communication have also weakened the linkage between generations and interfered with the transmission of family traditions.”
4. Oxford Health Plans of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut found that significant percentages of employees in the United States are overworked. One in six employees is so pressured by job demands that he doesn’t take the vacation time earned. One in three said they work and eat lunch at the same time. Another one-third said they have no breaks or downtime while on the job. They’re working themselves to death.
5. Dr. Armand Nicholi, a psychiatrist from Harvard University, reports that routine panic that isolates us from each other produces much the same effect as divorce. Parents in the United States spend less time with their children than those in almost any other nation in the world. As a result, psychiatric problems are soaring in America. If this trend continues, Dr. Nicholi concludes, “serious national health problems are inevitable.”
6. Pollster George Barna reports: “It is becoming less common these days for a teenager to have time isolated for focused interaction with family members. Most of the time they spend with their family is what you might call ‘family
and time’: family and TV, family and dinner, family
and homework, etc. [Spending] time together doing unique activities — talking about life, visiting special places, playing games, and sharing spiritual explorations — has to be scheduled in advance. Few do so.”
In short, what Dr. Putnam calls the “social capital” of America is shrinking, stealing much of the meaning and enjoyment out of life.
