When was the last time you had any interaction with your neighbors? Yesterday, a week, a month, a year? How about never? Well according to a recent survey that is the growing trend. A third of Americans say they've never interacted with their neighbors. Which is the complete opposite of what it used to be. According to research done 40 years ago over a third of Americans say they hung out with neighbors at least twice a week.

Author Marc Dunkelman of the book The Vanishing Neighbor says, "There used to be this necessity to reach out and build bonds with people who live nearby." His reasoning for the decline: limited social capital (time and attention, and more ways to spend it). Dunkelman says this is tragic though because we talk less with people who have different opinions. "In those everyday interactions that you would have, you might not be convinced they were right, but you'd begin to understand that they have a legitimate point of view."

Source:

Linda Poon, “Why Won't You Be My Neighbor?” Bloomberg CityLab (8-19-15)