What is causing the decline in our quality of life: greed, crime, commuting, working women? Or is it that we watch so much TV? The Government, influenced by a Harvard professor, thinks that might be the cause, writes Kathryn Holmquist.

Name your poison. Is it materialism, immorality, declining Mass attendance, urbanisation, family breakdown, the welfare state, movement of women into the workforce and two-career families, inadequate parenting, sex and violence in the media, or globalisation? Each has been blamed for the perception that Irish society is deteriorating despite its economic success.

Few will disagree that while the quality of the things we own has improved, our quality of life is declining. Many of us are afraid that we are going the way of US society, where urbanisation and disconnection reap horrors such as the serial sniper. Understanding problems in the US could help us to forestall them here before the worst happens.

If you want to understand the collapse of social cohesiveness in the US, you won't explain it merely from the single point of view of money, drugs, crime, religion, family values or any other moral theory you can name, argues Robert Putnam, author of Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (Simon and Schuster).

The true culprit is in our own homes: TV. And it's not the violent and sexually exploitative content of TV programmes that is as much to blame as the fact that we spend so much time watching it, he claims. The real issue is that TV has taken us away from involvement in communities and a greater society. The more TV we watch, the more isolated and distrustful we become.

What we lack is "social capital", a feeling of belonging, trust and responsibility. Community connectedness is not just about warm fuzzy tales of civic triumph," says Putnam.

"In measurable and well-documented ways, social capital makes an enormous difference in our lives . . . Social capital makes us smarter, healthier, safer, richer and better able to govern a just and stable democracy." In the Irish context, social capital has become the buzzword for social policy-makers.

The Cork County Development Board has stated: "The concept of social capital sounds abstract, but it couldn't be simpler. Do you trust people? How many clubs, societies or social groups are you a member of? If your child gets sick do you have support to call on? Basically, how much social contact do you have in your life? These social ties, according to research, will help you live longer and are probably worthy money to the economy."

Putnam, a professor of public policy at Harvard University, is the man of the hour in the Taoiseach's office. He has acted as adviser to Bertie Ahern, who keeps a copy of Bowling Alone on his desk.

Ahern was introduced to Putnam's concept of social capital by Maureen Gaffney, chairperson of the National and Economic Social Forum. And Putnam will speak next week at a conference organised by Céifin, Values and Ethics: Can I Make a Difference?, in Ennis, Co Clare. The conference will discuss ways to encourage social capital in Ireland and will be chaired by none other than Maureen Gaffney.

The concept of social capital is attractive to government, because it does not seek to blame government for society's problems. It is attractive to women because it doesn't blame their involvement in the workforce for the breakdown of family life.

Putnam says that the unhappiness of much family life, as parents struggle to cope with family and career, reflects employers' and government's failure to bolster families through family-friendly work policies, accessible quality childcare and other support systems. Social capital is attractive to organised religion as well, as a kind of antidote to secularisation.

Putnam is fascinated by the decline of the Irish post office at the centre of rural life, as TV took hold. Ireland BT (Before TV and Before Telephones) centred on the village post office, the pub and the Mass gates as the chief communications centres.

TV and telephones removed the necessity to be physically in the presence of others in order to feel involved. As we settled down to The Late Late Show, in preference to gossiping in the local post office, we became more concerned about wider issues, while becoming more likely to ignore what was happening next door. And, as in the US, we have become increasingly distanced from politics as ard fheiseanna have moved from being dynamic town meetings to bland TV PR stunts.

Like Americans, today we're spending so much time watching TV that we have sacrificed social involvement in favour of becoming entertainment junkies. Instead of participating in sports, we're becoming spectators. Rather than volunteering in a variety of ways to improve the quality of life for our neighbours, we sit on our backsides in front of the TV railing against the decline of society.

We lack statistics to back this up, although Putnam's figures are certainly reflected by Irish trends if we rely on anecdotal evidence.

US citizens spend 40 per cent less time socialising informally today than they did in 1965. AS TV took hold over the last quarter of the 20th century in the US, families with children aged eight to 17 stopped spending as much time together.

Family holidays fell from 53 per cent to 38 per cent, regular family dinners collapsed from 50 per cent to 34 per cent, attending religious services fell from 38 per cent to 31 per cent, and "just sitting and talking" together declined from 53 per cent to 43 per cent.

Social isolation has made US young people, aged 18-29, far unhappier than people aged 60-plus. Suicide, depression and physical malaise (headaches, stomach pains and so on) have increased rapidly among the young since 1975.

Putnam's explanation: the average US adolescent spends three-and-a-half hours a day alone with only the TV for company. Almost all forms of social engagement in the US - from union membership to petition signing - continue to plummet among young people. They are increasingly individualistic; they feel disconnected from politics and emphasise the personal and private over the public and collective. Putnam describes them as visually oriented, perpetual surfers, multi-taskers and interactive media specialists who ultimately feel insecure.

Enduring problems of social exclusion, urban sprawl and rural isolation have made the experience of being a young Irish person in 2002 one of "personal loneliness, lack of purpose and engagement", according to the National Economic and Social Forum's draft report: The policy implications of social capital in Ireland.

In September, the Forum held a think-tank discussion that attempted to respond to the growing problems of changing communities and social disconnection in Ireland.

"There is a growing awareness that strengthening community spirit along with a shared ethic of care and mutual responsibility is a key challenge today in Ireland," the report states.

As well as feeling isolated, people feel cynical about government and perceptions of fair-play, trustworthiness and capacity to change things for the better, it adds. As family and other community ties have weakened, the role of the State and the market have remained as strong as ever.

Increasing prosperity has created as many problems as it has solved. For example, growing cocaine addiction among middle-class youth comes from "a sense that people are lost, directionless, without good emotional infrastructure", believes Stephen Rowan, director of the Rutland Centre in Dublin.

Yet despite this, Putnam - and one of his champions, Father Harry Bohan, the driving force behind Céifin - remains optimistic. Ireland has far higher levels of social capital than the US, exciting things are happening on the ground and it's not too late to shift back towards greater community involvement, Father Bohan asserts.

He believes that there is a hunger in Ireland to be more involved on the community level and that local communities can counteract disillusionment with politics. On the other hand, social capital has undesirable characteristics as well. Tightly knit networks can use their access to financial assets, information or authority to exclude others.

"Very negative manifestations of social capital are evident in criminal or corrupt networks that seek to misappropriate funds or deny just to particular groups," according to the NESF report.

This negative social capital is all too obvious in the form of the scandals of paedophilia in the church, the irresponsibility revealed by the haemophilia tribunal and the corruption uncovered by a series of tribunals into the political process.

So there is a sense in which TV liberated us from a small-minded, limited world and brought us into the consciousness of The Late Late Show in its hey-day, when we began to challenge the church and the oppression of women, among other issues. There is no question, for Putnam or Bohan, of our returning to the Ireland of the past, which was as oppressive as it was innocent.

Yet in our hunger to become sophisticated global players, we need to avoid throwing out the baby with the bath-water. As far as social capital is concerned, we're way ahead of the Americans and by building on it, we may avoid some of their mistakes.

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• Prof Robert Putnam, gives the 2002 Philip Monahan lecture "Community and Engagement in a Changing America" November 8th, UCC. His address will be followed by a question and answer session.

• Céifin's conference, Values & Ethics: Can I Make a Difference, November 6th to 8th, West County Hotel, Ennis, Co Clare, €350. Tel: 061-365912/3. E-mail: ceifinconference@eircom.net Conference website: www.ceifin.com

• Medical Correspondent Dr Muiris Houston will answer queries on the issues and illnesses featured in the recent Your Health series today from noon at: www.ireland.com/health/ Queries should be sent by e-mail only to mhouston@irish-times.ie