A group adults sit in a backyard while one of them barbeques.

June 8, 2021

Suburbs Are Not Less Social Than Cities

Many believe there are meaningful differences in sociability based on where Americans reside. New data from AEI’s Survey Center on American Life counters this narrative and finds little difference in the social lives of urbanites, suburbanites, and their rural counterparts.   Continue Reading →

November 23, 2020

The Benefits of Going to a Place “Where Everyone Knows Your Name”

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, these community spaces look a little different right now. Coffee shops, restaurants, and parks have more importance than ever in connecting us to our community and to the world outside our homes. Continue Reading →

Generation Uncoupled

Generation Uncoupled book

Generation Uncoupled: America's New Gender Divide and the Crisis of Human Connection

Buy Now

Survey Reports

Daniel A. Cox
July 23, 2026

A Digital Divide in American Adolescence: Gender, Class, and the New Teenage Experience

If teenage years once represented a time of rebellion, teenagers’ lives today are marked less by pushing boundaries and more by building their own. Many teenage experiences are less common than they once were—dating, working a part-time job, and experimenting with drugs and alcohol are less common experiences. The 2026 American Teenagers Survey from the Continue Reading →

Daniel A. Cox, Jae Grace, Avery Shields
April 27, 2026

Strangers Next Door: The Decline of Neighborhood Socializing and the Class Divide in Belonging

Acknowledgment The American Enterprise Institute’s Survey Center on American Life is grateful to the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation for its generous support of this research. As Americans spend more of their time online, the neighborhood—once a primary physical location for real-world socialization—is playing less of a central role than ever before. Since Continue Reading →