Politics and Society

I found a web site where their whole mission objective is to reunite and strengthen social capital throughout our nation's cities. The company's name is Social Capital Inc. and it is a internet based program that aims to connect neighbors through an intensive e-mail based program and essentially a billboard for social groups to post upcoming events that allow people to stay active in the community based on individual interests. They draw much of their data and facts from Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone and are also working directly with Robert Putnam to find other various ways to connect people. One of their biggest programs is Engaging the Youth where programs are set up to teach children to become actively involved at an earlier age in both civic programs and politics.

The Social Capital Inc. program is just one of many programs that is actively attempting to reestablish a sense of civic engagement. I feel that their whole idea is very necessary for society and people will be willing to get involved because they are approached on a platform (internet) that they use for multiple hours a day. E-mail is the next generation and anyway that you can get out and reach a multitude of people at the same time will invoke many people to become involved. One of their tools I think is really interesting is a electronic messageboard where people can post upcoming events but also a means for people to become connected for help. One of their services has allowed for elderly folk find help shoveling driveways and often times the help comes from their neighbors they live next door to. I find it hilarious that people come together through the internet to help one another and get to know each other yet they live next door to each other! Putnam described situations such as this in Bowling Alone when he alludes to people not getting to know their neighbors anymore and becoming more reclusive to their immediate family and not sharing social ties to those around them. The SCI program is a wonderful idea but I am also skeptical of some of its intentions. The program I mentioned earlier about teaching kids to become more socially and politically active is both beneficial and harmful at the same time. I think that we need to open childrens minds to staying connected socially but I think that instilling politics into an adolescence mind is a very scary tool. Politics are dirty and corrupt in many aspects and I feel it is not right to object a child to such theoretical and engaging concepts. However, this only happens if this program falls into the hands of the wrong people and I believe that the SCI is not one of those organizations. It is important for people to stay socially and politically active otherwise we could potentially lose civic freedoms or the government may become more than what it's built for.

http://www.socialcapitalinc.org/aboutus/index.htm