Changing Cultures

Simply by comparing your current culture ways to how your ancestors, even your grandparents and different, older, generations it is easily seen that culture is not constant, it is always changing and adapting to the changing environments. One aspect that seems to be increasingly changing is the idea of individualism. This means that individuals are prioritizing their own personal goals before the other members of their culture. This idea can be compared to those cultures/people that are collectivistic, which means that these individuals encourage more importance of collective goals of the whole group and but the groups goals ahead of their own. In my own culture I can think of one example that shows how this is changing. This is just a simple example to put the idea across of what I'm talking about. My grandmother, about 60 years ago, would have lived on a farm with her mom and dad and 8 other siblings. This large family everyday would work together on the farm, to provide for the family as a whole. The dad would work and bring home the money, the mom would cook and clean for the whole family, and the children would do chores around the farm. At the end of the day everything was do to help each other out. Today, in my family, it is more individualistic. For example, often anyone of us would not want to eat whatever the rest of the family was cooking so that person would then cook their own separate supper. Fend-for-ourselves-meals we would call it. Now,thats not to say that my mom wasn’t there to cook for me and my siblings, we just choose to make our own food because we often had other plans and were busy off doing our own thing with our friends. Less time is spent with the family as a whole, and we tend to put ourselves ahead of others. Another example ties into the feminist movement. Females are becoming more independent and individualistic. Compared to before there are higher rates of women getting an education, having jobs, etc. Why is this happening some people might ask? The world is becoming a demanding place and financial stress puts people in positions where they have to start fending for themselves. Media and Tv and social networks allow for people to connect with their friends and entertain themselves without actually having to leave the house. This means that there is less time spent with others, and more time with yourself. In other cultures who do not experience these things they tend to be collectivists, there helping each other out and interacting more with other members of their culture. With the way technology is growing, who knows, maybe we will loose collectivist cultures altogether.