Hello all, We?d appreciate your comments on our draft abstract. The title remains a bit awkward, so any suggestions on that are particularly welcome. Best, Abby, Kira, and Anant Evidence that Generational Replacement is Shrinking Americans' Discussion Networks Kira Matus, Anant Thaker, Abigail Williamson Abstract Comparing Americans' discussion networks in 1985 and 2004, McPherson et. al. (2006) find a substantial drop in the number of people adults talk to about important matters. Over this period, the mean number of discussion partners reported on the General Social Survey fell from three to two, while the mode fell from three to zero. Since questions about discussion networks elicit information about respondents? most intimate ties, this finding suggests that Americans today have fewer sources of socio-emotional support. We extend McPherson et. al.'s findings, using exact matching to demonstrate that changes in the racial, educational, and income composition of the population do not account for network shrinkage between 1985 and 2004. Rather, we find evidence of Putnam's (2000) claim that generational replacement is key in explaining shrinking social networks, as consecutively less social cohorts replace the especially gregarious World War II generation.