Modern Family and Marriage

Modern Life: Find the Differences

The life has significantly changed over the past decades. To some extent, society has re-estimated its values and changed the priorities. This paper will briefly review the differences that have happened within the last decades in education, occupation, marriage ages, birth and divorce rates.

Based on the conversation with the members of my family from the previous generation, I made several conclusions. First, it was easier to become a college student in the past. Nowadays, teenagers have to strive in order to enter a college and get a degree.

Secondly, the majority of people had jobs connected with physical activity. Today, the picture is different because common occupations involve intellectual work. People mostly work at the offices and use their computers and brains, not muscles.

Thirdly, for the past decades, the average marriage age has increased. Successful career and self-realization are the main goals for the youth today. Family is usually on the third, fourth or some other place. The same pertains to having a child. Couples decide to take this serious step after they achieve their goals such as obtaining a good job or buying a house. This is a reasonable and logical behavior. However, such pragmatism causes the decrease in the birth rate.

The most significant plus of the previous generations is that they had stronger family values. They did not divorce as often as people do today. They tried to save their marriages because the family was the main priority. Unfortunately, nowadays people often sacrifice their family happiness for career.

As for my family, it follows modern principles. A successful social member should get a degree, find a well-paid job, achieve the goals and then think about creating a family. This plan may seem too down-to-earth, but it does work in the 21st century.

Many aspects of life have varied over the past years. Today, people prefer to have other professions. They think about marriage and having children later, and divorce more often. However, changes in a society are a natural process. The patterns that exist in my family differ from those that were popular several decades ago. Yet, this does not mean that life has become worse, it has just become different.