842 Chapter 31 From Boomers to Millennials
But the membership numbers were misleading.
Since 1970, church attendance among persons
younger than sixty has declined about 20 percent.
The UCLA survey cited in the introduction to this
chapter found that in 1968, 9 percent of entering col-
lege freshmen said they never attended church; by
2000, that percentage had more than doubled. By the
1970s, moreover, millions of Americans went to
church by turning on the TV. “Televangelists” such as
Rex Humbard, Oral Roberts, Jerry Falwell, Pat
Robertson, and Jim and Tammy Bakker founded their
own churches and educational institutions, supported
by direct appeals to viewers. A few established their
own colleges, such as Falwell’s Liberty University,
Oral Roberts University, and Robertson’s CBN
University (renamed Regent University in 1990). A
number of scandals involving prominent televange-
lists caused disillusionment and widespread defec-
tions. On the other hand, the rapid spread of cable
television greatly increased the number of available
channels, enabling scores of new evangelists to reach
out to viewers. Community-based ministers saw
congregations shrink; thousands of churches closed
their doors for good. Some churches devised “heal-
ing rituals” to ease their abandonment of formerly
sacred space.
Participation in team sports fell at about the same
rate as church attendance. By the first decade of the
twenty-first century, more young people played bas-
ketball and soccer than in the past, but far fewer
played softball, baseball, football, tennis, and league
bowling. The fields on which young Boomers often
spent much of their lives had been sold to developers
or fenced in and locked.
The lack of exercise among Millennials became a
source of national concern. In 2010 Surgeon General
Regina Benjamin announced that one in three American
children was obese. One reason, Benjamin explained,
was that youngsters between ages eight to eighteen
averaged seven hours and thirty-eight minutes a day on
electronic media—watching TV, talking on cell phones,
playing video games, and logged into the Internet. That
year, First Lady Michelle Obama inaugurated a nation-
wide antiobesity campaign named—appropriately—
“Let’s move!”
Some Millennials exercisedwhile engaged with
electronic media. (Multitasking became a redundant
adjective for the Millennial generation.) Since 2000,
membership in gyms skyrocketed. And often
Millennials could be seen pounding away on tread-
mills or other exercise machines, staring at TV moni-
tors or listening to music with an earpiece. Not all
Millennials are sedentary; but many are nearly always
plugged in.
The rise of online learning is an illustration of the
transformation of social activities into solitary Internet
pursuits. By 2009, over 4 million Americans enrolled in
online courses, twice as many as in 2003. For many,
especially full-time employees, ease of access compen-
sated for the lack of face-to-face contact with other stu-
dents. Tim Scott, a twenty-five-year-old clerk in a
drugstore who enrolled in technology courses at the
University of Phoenix, explained, “This is pretty much
the only way I could get a college degree.” Online edu-
cation spread to all walks of life. Some people took
courses to learn new languages and career skills, such as
“Dental Anthropology,” “Clown Education,” or “Golf
Course Management.” Others logged in to learn new
hobbies, such as “building a kayak,” “paragliding in the
Alps,” or “Salsa dancing.” Employees were required to
take mandatory online courses on company policies and
sexual harassment. Although surveys suggest that most
online learners prefer classes in which they interact with
real people in a classroom, the fact was that often regu-
lar classrooms had themselves become anonymous and
impersonal. As Harvard Professor Clayton Christensen
observed, “Anything beyond the 10th row in a large
lecture hall is distance learning.”
One reason distance online education took off
was that it spared commuting students the hassle of
driving to college and finding parking. Such experi-
ences underscored the extent to which cars had
become the predominant mode of transportation,
another shift from the earlier social context of mass
transit to the mostly solitary experience of driving.
Bus and train ridership was declining well before the
advent of the Boomers; but the postwar population
shift to the suburbs accelerated the ascendancy of cars
over mass transit. As more drivers—nearly always
alone—clogged the highways, traffic jams grew
longer. By 2005, the average American spent thirty-
eight hours a year stuck in traffic. Although many
found repose within the solitary confines of a car,
others coped with the loneliness of driving by chat-
ting on their cell phones or texting friends. (A Pew
poll in 2010 found that one in three texting teenagers
did so while driving a car.)
The postwar suburban home itself was conceived
as a private refuge from the hustle and bustle of
downtown. But over time suburban homes became
still more private. Newer houses were set farther back
from the curb; high fences and thick hedges discour-
aged the over-the-barbecue conviviality of the 1950s
suburbs. By the 1990s, many well-to-do people
moved into privately owned “gated communities,”
surrounded by high fences and patrolled by private
security guards. Only residents and specified guests
were allowed in.