Message from the President

Membership in scientific societies has been slowly declining over the past quarter-century. Why?

This change is part of a broader trend, as membership in many civic institutions has been declining for decades. This point was presciently made by Robert Putnam in his book Bowling Alone, published in 2000. Putnam noted that for most of the 20^th century, a majority of people belonged to multiple civic groups, including bowling leagues, book clubs, neighborhood associations, parent-teacher organizations, rotary clubs, and many others. However, starting in the late 20^th century and continuing to the present day, there has been a dramatic decline in participation in all of these types of civic groups.

This decline in civic participation is almost certainly correlated with the rise of technological individualization. The growth of television and the internet has individualized leisure time, pulling people away from communal activities. So many individuals these days dedicate a huge amount of their time to engaging in social media and other online interactions, which comes at the expense of real-world interactions (such as engagement in civic groups) that used to be much more common. As Putnam argued, this shift is a key reason why so many people today feel so lonely and alienated from others.

For scientists, the equivalent of bowling leagues and rotary clubs is participation in scientific societies. Some might ask: Can’t scientists these days just go online to keep up with the latest discoveries being made around the world? What is the point of meeting in person, networking, and engaging in other society activities?

In the same way that the decline of civic groups has led to a general social malaise around the world, I would argue that declining participation in scientific societies contributes to malaise in the scientific community. Indeed, many published studies have documented the benefits of scientific society engagement, both for individual members and the scientific community as a whole, suggesting that declining engagement in scientific societies is destined to produce deleterious effects.

In 2020–21, during the Covid-19 pandemic, membership in most scientific societies cratered, with members unable to travel and some letting their memberships lapse. During this same time, though, many scientists realized just how much they missed the discussions, networking, collaboration opportunities, and other benefits they’d been getting from engagement with their societies. Thus, over the past few years, there has been a notable surge in the membership numbers for most scientific societies, including ASPET, a beneficial trend that hopefully will robustly continue into the future.

If you are feeling like your career could benefit from more networking, more collaboration possibilities, and more ideas from freewheeling discussions with colleagues, try boosting your engagement in your favorite scientific society, which hopefully is ASPET!

Sincerely,