The Disconnected Network?

A comprehensive new sociological study from researchers at Duke and Arizona universities paints rather grim portrait of US social isolation on the rise and deep social connections on the wane.

The study suggests a notable weakening of the social safety net that once stitched together family, neighbors, and close friends. The findings seem to suggest a kind of inverse relationship between the new networked culture and actual old-fashioned "off line" connections between citizens.

It's true that citizen-users today can befriend, defriend, and refriend more easily than ever before; we're friendstered, face-booked, linked-in, and flikr-ing  away to our heart's content. And yet: could this digital abundance be leading our culture toward a state of interpersonal scarcity, if left to its own devices?