What social cohesion?

This article prompted me to think about how well we know out neighbors. We know the neighbors to our South quite well.  Our kids play together on the street, we carpool them to taekwondo class and we have dinner occasionally.  The neighbors to our north? We barely know their names; we wave to them when we pass each other on the street. The neighbors to our East are going to have a daughter (we know because we saw the pink balloons for the baby shower) but we haven't even gone and talked to them about it.  The neighbor to our West glowered when the then-five-year-old hit a ball over the fence and went to ask for it back, so we've not talked too much to them.  So, that would make it what?  25%?

In the India of my parents' generation, neighbors become friends.  My parents are still in touch with many of the neighbors they've had over decades of itinerant jobs. When a son of a family who were our neighbors 30 years ago came to Dallas on a job-related trip, he visited us in Norman.  A couple of other neighbors showed up at the wedding of one of my cousins, simply because the cousin had spent a year living with my parents ...

Talking to my people of my generation though, the low-social-cohesion of the US lifestyle is becoming the norm in India too.  My friend in Bangalore knew the names and occupations of his neighbors, but not much else.