Lifestyles through the Years

By Rosa Mendy –

Do you find yourself comparing today’s lifestyles with the way you grew up? “When I was younger…” becomes a staple sentence for us all, over time. It doesn’t necessarily mean, though, that things were better in the past than they are now. Extraordinary changes in the way we work, play and live our day-to-day lives may have thrown up more than a few challenges, but many advances have made our lives easier and maybe even more fun.

So hold onto your hat for a quick whizz through lifestyle changes since the 1960s.

For many people, the 1960s was the decade when things really began to change. In a post-war world, with rationing largely finished and a new generation who wanted to do things differently, ambitions changed and technology enabled young people to express themselves more. Alongside that, travel options became more available, allowing people from overseas to come to the UK to live and people from the UK to travel further afield.  The credit trend began, and the consumer society had definitely arrived. Being free to express yourself in your work, your clothing, your taste in music and your politics was incredibly important.

In the 1960s, advances in working practices meant that people could afford to have more ‘free time,’ which was often spent with the family. With the increase in car ownership people from cities could get out to the countryside, so activities such as walking and cycling for fun became more popular – although just like today, you would have needed your waterproof jacket even in the middle of summer!  There was a growing demand for green spaces in the cities and easier access to the countryside, and this increase in free time resulted in stronger family connections and community services being developed.

In the 1960s and 1970s, leisure opportunities were confined to traditional pursuits such as the theatre, the pub or indoor games with the family. As more people acquired black and white and then colour televisions, evening entertainment increasingly consisted of the family gathering together to watch the most popular programmes. Families would usually spend each meal together at home and around the table. Outside major cities, fast food, alternative cuisine and takeaways were unheard of – most mothers stayed at home, and took their home cooking advice from magazines and early TV cookery programmes.

Heading into the 1980s, the economy was booming. Inevitably, this played a major role in considerable lifestyle change and key trends. Cars were becoming more affordable and so were holidays, so people began spending their time outside the UK, discovering the climate, food and culture of countries such as Spain and Greece. The first mobile phones were brought to market, video tapes, video recorders and home computers started to appear, and developers began building out-of-town shopping centres – shopping was starting to become a leisure pursuit rather than a necessity.

The 1990s with them the electronic age and enormous technological changes with the birth of the World Wide Web just at the turn of the decade. New generations of children had parents who had grown up with more freedom and who were still interested in design, fashion and music, so this generation needed to create their own subcultures – which, as trends do, turned out to be cyclical, with the adoption of clothing such as the men’s polo shirt, which returned to popularity as street fashion for teenagers at the same time their parents and grandparents were still wearing them on the golf course. (click here to see a range of polo shirts).

Today, flights are cheap, cars run on electricity and nearly everyone has a smartphone. The internet is the first place we turn to for information, our children run their lives on their electronic devices and we worry about how our planet will cope with the demand on its resources. At the same time, we have more opportunities to travel, more places to visit, more leisure time and – for the majority – are better off than those of our age were in the 1960s. Life certainly changes, but without it, what would we do for nostalgia?

Written by Rosa,  bringing you topical pieces in lifestyle and ongoing trends.