In 1995, Putnam published a short article in an academic journal, in which he described how league bowling had drastically declined and proposed that this apparently minor phenomenon symbolized a much broader and vitally significant social change. Unexpectedly, the article caught the attention of both the popular media and the political world, provoking both effusive praise and sharp criticism. Together, they contain the results of nearly 500,000 detailed interviews covering an astonishingly wide range of information - from how many times the average American votes, volunteers, and goes to church, to how often he or she surfs the Internet, drinks a beer in a bar, or gives another driver the finger. By virtually any possible measure, Putnam found, Americans today are increasingly disengaged, not only from the public sphere, but from informal and private social relations. Social bonds, for example, are by far the most powerful predictor of life satisfaction.
Social capital is also a strong predictor of personal heath.
If you both smoke and belong to no groups, it's a close call as to which is the riskier behavior. Furthermore, American communities vary widely in the amount of social capital available to them. The states of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Vermont rank highest on the Social Capital Index, for instance, while Georgia, Mississippi, and Nevada rank lowest. Politics and civic engagement. The change is most obvious in the sphere of politics - voting, political knowledge, political trust, and grassroots political activism are all down.