Talk:Lifestyle (social sciences)/Archives/2012

List
Copied from List of alternative lifestyles:

Some alternative lifestyles:
 * Alcoholism
 * Atkins Nutritional Approach
 * Bigotry
 * Bodybuilding
 * Bohemian
 * Breatharianism
 * Buddhism
 * Chastity
 * Christianity
 * Farming
 * Fetishism
 * Homelessness
 * Marriage
 * Monogamy
 * Nomadism
 * Parenthood
 * Piracy
 * Polyamory
 * Poverty
 * Quadrigamy
 * S&M
 * Sobriety
 * Transvestism
 * Vagrancy
 * Vegetarianism
 * Wealth


 * If Heterosexuality can be counted as a lifestyle, y not Homosexuality? --ILovEJPPitoC 06:06, 4 Oct 2003 (UTC)
 * I have updated the list to reflect the required change.
 * Heterosexuality, bisexuality, asexuality, homosexuality, gay, lesbian, are not lifestyles, they are sexual orientations within the realm of human sexuality.
 * -Modified 23:57, 21 May 2006

I think the section on swinging in the article is inappropriate - no indictment on swingers, but the little-known fact that "the lifestyle" is code for "swinging" doesn't deserve its own section! Sharalumiette (talk) 09:11, 26 November 2007 (UTC)


 * The word "lifestyle" apparently first appeared in 1939. (Previous generations may not have needed the concept. The concept is not relevant to a homogeneous society.)

Were most, or even many, societies really homogeneous before the 1930s? I can tell you already it is not so -- flappers come to mind, which were around in the 1920s. I'm sure there have always been heterogeneous groups in every society, we just don't know much about them, especially if the people of the time try to repress them and any memory of them. Often we know little about certain places in the past, having only a handful of documents of the time period. There could easily be important people in "different" groups who, it just happens, we don't know about. While the precise concept and word for "lifestyle" may not have been around since 1939, I think the general idea is timeless. - Furrykef 03:15, 24 Oct 2004 (UTC)


 * All societies are heterogenous (many gens, many types, many tribes). However, prior to the 20th Century heterogenaity was actively repressed by the dominant culture or the state.  The first instance of social /tolerance/ of heterogenaity in class society could be the UK's tolerance of ultra-protestant dissenters.  However, this is probably an example of an early capitalist state tolerating differentiation: dissenters were often astute capitalists.  Describing cultural, religious, racial or ethnic minorities as "lifestyles" in the pre 20th century period is seriously a bit off. Fifelfoo 23:13, 24 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Perhaps so, although I could argue about that, too. But the statement claimed that societies were homogeneous, and we agree that they weren't; whether heterogeneity was accepted or not has no bearing on if it was there. - Furrykef 01:44, 25 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Moved commentary from article
I have moved the following from the article so it can be discussed. If we can arive at a conclusion that can be verified, then we can add that to the article.
 * Lifestyle is the logical extension of consumerism. We now choose our life like a hat, a car or the skin on our .mp3 player.  There even appears to be a do-it-yourself movement, mentioned above, for people who enjoy playing with the existing machinery to make their own styles (see punk rock).
 * As pointed out concisely above, lifestyle describes a way of life that one acquires and also a standard set of images and words that companies can use to interact with their customers. This forms a feedback loop that reinforces who you are - theoretically, you become more and more like yourself (see narcissism). Anon.

On your first point that we choose between lifestyles in the same way that we choose between commercial products, I think is a simplistic view of human decision making processes. I do not think that we choose the punk rock lifestlye or the science nerd lifestyle or the nonconformist lifestyle or any other lifestyle. Lifestyles are not entities that a person chooses in their entirity. Lifestyles are not available to be "purchased" as a package. Nor do we consciously choose a lifestyle (in most cases). Instead we make thousands of small decisions that refect our individual aspirations and history. When a social scientist (like a sociologist) or an applied scientist (like a marketer) looks at the thousands of small decisions that we make, they look for patterns, and when they find a pattern that is common in the population they give it a label (such as the punk rock lifestyle). A lifestyle is not a package we choose to buy into, it is a label imposed on groups of people who make similar decisions. mydogategodshat 07:36, 19 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Hi - can I add a viewpoint? Not sure if I should open a new thread or not. I made the most recent edits to the article (I am 139.222.101.51). Feel free to move them here if you like as I didn't know this page existed before I edited. (I'm new to this wiki thing). I provided some text for this article a long time ago that still seems to be up there in a paraphrased and more succinct fashion. I have added some key references, although two of them are focused on the lifestyles and consumption debate.

I think the argument should be that consumption is the most important voluntaristic aspect of a lifestyle in modern (western) society. We use products to signal to ourselves and others who we are and we buy things that are consistent with our self identity. But Mydog is also correct. We are also constrained by the systems around us (both in terms of physical systems and the social systems that we are born or socialized into). SalmoClarkii (talk) 10:22, 10 June 2008 (UTC)

Improvement Drive
The article Culture of Italy has been listed to be improved on This week's improvement drive. You can add your vote there if you would like to support the article.--Fenice 14:22, 9 August 2005 (UTC)

Removed this image, because I believe it to be irrelevant to this article. Although not meant as an accusation, if anything it just looks like an iPod ad to me.

62.45.69.209 20:53, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

Lifestyle is what we think about life in accordance with our perspective and the acts we perform stemmed from the attitude we develop from the expereince we gain with time. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 210.18.24.72 (talk) 07:33, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Moving page for dab link
There's already three hatnotes on this page, and one more (for the condom company) is being made, so I'm going to move this page per WP:DAB to create a disambiguation page. I will move it to Lifestyle (sociology).--otherlleft 04:28, 12 February 2010 (UTC)

why is this article so bad?
I've never seen such a poorly written article. Maybe we should start over. Bhny (talk) 02:59, 10 June 2012 (UTC)