Penna Dexter

The New York Times recently published an opinion piece about America’s boy crisis. It’s by social scientist Richard Reeves and Harvard political scientist and author of Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam. Here’s their summary of the problem:

“Since 2010, suicide rates among young men have risen by a third — they are now higher than they are among middle aged men. The share of college degrees going to men has fallen to 41 percent, lower than the women’s share in 1970. One in 10 men aged 20 to 24 is effectively doing nothing — neither enrolled in school nor working. That’s twice the rate in 1990.”

These issues merit more attention than they receive. Dr. Reeves and Professor Putnam say leaders sometimes fail to act for “fear of being seen as somehow anti-woman.” Now, they warn: “alarm bells are ringing.”

Dr. Reeves delves into young men’s social struggles in his 2022 book, Of Boys and Men and now in this op-ed, reporting that they’re less involved in civic organizations and even family life than their elders were. A recent Gallup poll asked young men aged 15-34 if they had experienced loneliness “a lot” on the previous day. Twenty-five percent said they had. One in seven said they have no close friends. Three percent said this in 1990.

Detached, socially isolated young men “can become susceptible to reactionary voices” online. Dr. Reeves and Professor Putnam warn that they’re “vulnerable to totalitarian ideology and appeals to violence.” The authors point us back to what in the 1900’s was called “the Boy Problem.” The solution was to build male-centered organizations to equip boys to become good men.

Today, civic organizations are struggling. Organizations founded strictly for boys are now coed or no longer exist. Most YMCA  members are female. Boy Scouts is now Scouting America.

Thankfully, many young men are turning to churches. Perhaps their leaders can find wisdom in what worked 100 years ago.