We’ve Bowled Alone: Now We Need to Build Together
Robert Putnam’s “Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community” has now been around for over twenty years. In it he expressed how there was a decline of participation in civic organizations such as PTAs, unions, and bowling leagues. This lack of meeting up with social groups outside of close friendships makes it so there is less latent trust within a society.
This has had knock-on effects of lowered trust in government, universities, and civic institutions, which has contributed to the rise of the far right that is dismantling much of America’s federal agencies that keep our waters clean, provides children access to food, and makes America a global research powerhouse.
The collapse of in-person social groups also impacts entrepreneurship and economic mobility. These social networks help individuals find jobs, secure loans, and gain access to mentorship when their applications might be rejected by a computer. The erosion of the trust these networks provide makes upward mobility harder as there are fewer people willing to “take a chance” on people that might not look perfect on paper.
Community connections also foster collaboration and business opportunities. With fewer local organizations, innovation slows down. There are fewer community problems that founders are aware of to know to solve. There are fewer ways to meet potential co-founders. And there are fewer ties with potential customers that are needed to develop the kind of deep trust needed to invest into a start-up as a client or an investor.
Opportunity Redesigned
I am building a company called Adjacent with the goal to help people access greater opportunity and rebuild these community connections. The basic idea of Adjacent is that people can put what they are working on — a business, research, art, or activism — as a Project card in the app.
Then you can check in to a community space — a co-working space, a coffee shop, a library, a university incubator — anywhere that hosts an Adjacent community, and you can see what others are working on in the space and what help they Need. When you help someone, you get a point. Over time, you can showcase to your followers that you are a strong contributor to the community. With every Need solved, Project Creators move ahead faster with their projects and Collaborators build greater ties to others in their community.
Adjacent needs Community Leaders that understand that we desperately need stronger collaboration infrastructure, designed for the world we live in today.
It might not be bowling leagues….but it could be even better. Please reach out if you want to get an Adjacent incubator up and running within your community. Together we still have time
You can access Adjacent on iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/the-adjacent-app/id1672408601
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.adjacent.adjacent&pcampaignid=web_share
Web: www.adjacent-app.com
