I will begin by posting a comment from the Time's forum written by a user called cgehner. "This is another one of the rambling, amorphous, nonsense editorials which Mr. Brooks seems to specialize in. To label the fact that, as a society and as individuals, we have become less cohesive, more shallow, without much of a sense of individual and social responsibility... to label this as "\'The Talent Society' strikes me as ludicrous." I could not have said it better. It reminded me of Sherlock (then again, so does everything) and how he calls himself a high-functioning sociopath. This actually is meant to be a joke I believe because that's what a psychopath is, but either way it fits David Brooks very well. He was probably sitting in his flat, alone, pondering his dwindling social network, because after all, he is a middle-aged man, so he can now speak for all of them, when he wrote this. I disagree with what he has to say, which is, social norms have changed from being married with kids to single and lonely.
This article actually has opened my eyes to something I have been pondering a bit: people who live in major cities have no concept of suburban life and suburban dwellers have no regard for city life. We both tend to make sweeping generalizations about the other in no time at all. I was in Mass General yesterday, and I noticed something. The state of mind one must have in order to survive in the city, is indeed, shifted from that of suburbia, however, we are all still people. Just because a young man lives on his own in the city doesn't mean he's a sociopath who is only concerned with his work. Maybe he knows he can't support another person on his salary. Maybe he just lost his job and his girlfriend left him. Maybe he is a sociopath. No matter the case, one can't just assume he is a hipster who rejects society's wants and substitutes his own. In short, there is not enough (any) research to support Brooks' claims.
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