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P1In previous generations, regular contact with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins was an ordinary feature of family life. Today, many people have far less interaction with their extended family, and understanding why this has happened, and whether it matters, is a question of genuine social significance.

P2The primary cause is geographical mobility. As individuals follow employment opportunities, higher education and better living conditions to distant cities or even different countries, the physical proximity that once made extended family gatherings routine becomes logistically difficult. Changing household economics have also played a role: smaller homes in expensive urban areas leave little space to accommodate visiting relatives, and the pace of working life leaves fewer occasions for lengthy family visits. Social changes in the nature of friendship and community, whereby people increasingly invest their social energy in chosen networks of friends and colleagues rather than relatives they did not select, have further reduced the centrality of extended family relationships.

P3Whether this shift is positive or negative is genuinely debatable. From one perspective, it reflects individual freedom and the expansion of life choices, people are no longer geographically constrained by family obligation and can construct identities and social lives that reflect their genuine preferences. The decline in compulsory proximity also reduces the exposure to family conflict and dysfunction that can accompany enforced closeness.