World-Herald editorial: The changes keep coming

It’s a holiday. Let’s take a break from dead-serious discussion of issues and look at some interesting developments in American culture.

>> First, religion and young people. A sociologist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Philip Schwadel, has published findings indicating that young people who grew up attending worship services are more likely to remain churchgoers into adulthood than was the previous “baby boom” generation.

Generation X — meaning Americans born between 1961 and 1981, who came of age in the late 1980s and early ’90s — “are surprisingly loyal to their faith,” UNL reports in describing the findings.

Baby boomers, Schwadel found, are 40 to 50 percent more likely to drop out of attending religious services than are Gen Xers.

A key reason, Schwadel said, is that religious believers have more options than ever in pursuing choices for religious worship and commitment.

It’s true that a larger portion of Americans do not adhere to religious beliefs. Nearly 16 percent of Americans polled were in that category in 2006, up from 6 to 8 percent in the 1980s. Schwadel notes, however, that “with the decline in religious disaffiliation among post-Boomer cohorts, it is possible that this growth in nonaffiliation may soon level off.”

Americans are full citizens whatever their attitudes toward religion, of course.

>> Second, seniors and the Internet. Everyone knows how the Internet continues to change the way we live. Some new statistics about use of the Internet and new-media communications by specific age groups are of particular interest.

It’s no surprise that, according to the Pew Research Center, a whopping 86 percent of young people ages 18 to 29 use social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. But the increase among older generations is notable. Among Americans ages 50 to 64, nearly half use social networking sites.

And for Americans 65 and older? The current figure is 26 percent — one in four. That’s striking.

Although younger Americans are less keen on e-mail these days, e-mail usage is widespread among those ages 50 to 65 (at 92 percent). And — remarkably — the Pew findings indicate that among those 65 and older, it’s 89 percent.

>> Third, the TV/Internet convergence. The Wall Street Journal reported last week about the intense jostling that’s beginning to occur as large providers maneuver to become players in Internet-via-TV technology.

One example: “Apple is working on a new device that streams Internet video directly to television sets.” No major provider, the article said, wants “to be left behind as the Web merges with television.”

In coming years, this no doubt will be something to talk to Grandma about on her Facebook page.

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