Do we live better than our parents used to?

Résumé du document

Our parents, born during The Glorious Thirty, lived the first years of their life in a society still untouched by oil crisis, very prosperous but so rigid and socially unfair. They grew up with the appearance and early spread of HIV, and lived in the uncertainties caused by the Cold War… However, life was quieter, slower and less stressful; people felt more solidary with one another. It was not impossible to dream of spending the whole life in a small pavilion in a quiet residential suburb.

Our generation was born between the Chernobyl disaster and the Kyoto Protocol when the irreparable damages caused to the environment worldwide began to be taken into account. My classmates and I became really conscious of the world around us with the attacks of 09/2001 and the Iraq war: economic and geopolitical tensions were increasing. Hence, this world is constantly changing: the nomadism and urbanization progress everywhere. Everything is faster and globalized, especially through the development of internet and other communication technologies. These new technologies can sometimes enslave and isolate us but they also allow the emergence of a more libertarian way of thinking, more open-minded, especially toward women.

Extraits

[...] February 2012 Indeed, forty years ago, a computer was still a strange, huge and expensive thing, stored in a special room and manipulated only by the elite, even among the scientists. The only few people who were able to work with it were respected, and their word was law. Now, everybody has a computer at home, even children have access to these machines. The consequences of this evolution are easy to spot: people are more productive, and their work is of better quality in general (in the fields of sound and graphical treatment, in accounting for instance, and even children's homework based on researches!). [...]

[...] However, we seem to always run out of time, which hamper our wellness. One of the proofs is that it is all the rage now to take ones time (for instance with the emergence of concepts such as slow food). Many people miss the simpler life in the 1960s and we cannot blame them for that. Rates: Then: 1 point, Now: 0 point Role-model and culture: In the 1960s media were quite limited, the main were radio and cinema. That is the reason why the idols were movie stars and singers, like Marilyn Monroe (Some Like It Hot), James Dean (Rebel Without a Cause) or Elvis Presley. [...]

[...] In conclusion of each paragraph I will rate the both times in order to make my position clear. I will not evaluate the society (it seems a little bit pretentious) but the ease with which I believe people live / lived at the time. This will allow me to support my final conclusion. I hope you will enjoy the reading! Sections Access to education and diploma The education is a right ratified in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 (Article 26). [...]

[...] Conclusion: We have better diploma and access to school with more ease than our parents used to have but does that means we are better educated? We have more knowledge but, for all I know, we are not better educated Total Rating: Then: 0 point/ Now: 1 point Business environment and work In the1960s, the workforce was overwhelmingly male, and for the most of them, low skilled workers. It was the reign of the great industrial enterprise marked by a Fordist labor organization, with essentially open-ended contract and full-time employment. [...]

[...] ) and alternative medicine (relaxation therapy, acupuncture, homeopathy . ) are legion on Internet. However, people never have been so stressed. Maybe it is due to the reason listed in previous paragraphs. Society is more fond-of well-being concept and ways to evacuate stress than it used to, but it just may be a proof that there is even more suffering and pressure in everyday life. However it could be our state of mind that has changed too: we have more leisure time and think more about ourselves, about our feelings (it goes hand in hand with the current triumphant individualism), which have the harmful effect to make our problems and concerns seem more important than they are in reality Rating: Then: 1 point/ Now: 1 point Conclusion: If we keep to pure rating, it appears that people lived better at our parents' time (17>14). [...]