Lifestyles
| Author | Michelle Voto |
| Pages | 459-462 |
Page 459
As the twenty-first century advances, consumers are demanding better servicing in business operations to help simplify their harried lifestyles. The progression of lifestyle changes, in combination with technological and global evolution, will influence the way business and marketing operations function. This article focuses on how family, job, cultural background, social class, social activities, and employment have revolutionized business and marketing operations.
Family life continues to evolve. In the 1950s in America, it was common to see larger families with several siblings. It was also common at that time for the mother to stay home to take care of the household and children while the father worked to support the family.
In American culture in the twenty-first century, one is more likely to see smaller families. It is also common for both parents to work outside the home to support the family and household. The role of the "traditional" mother has changed whereby she is out in the workforce pursuing a career and helping to support the family. In addition, there are many more single-parent homes. Because of both of these trends, many preschool children stay with day-care providers and many older children are at home alone for two or three hours after school until a parent gets home from work, making today's children more self-reliant than children in the recent past. The cultural shift in America directly correlates with U.S. Department of Labor statistics that estimated that employment of child-care workers would increase 36 percent or more for all occupations through 2012.
The amount of time that families spend together thus has changed significantly from previous generations. Working couples have lost an average of twenty-two hours a week of family and personal time between 1969 and 1999. This trend has opened up a market known as e-commerce as parents do not have the time to do the tasks necessary that were once part of their everyday life and still have time to spend with their children. Because of technological advances, however, businesses are providing time-saving services. For example, retail shopping from purchasing clothes to groceries may all be accomplished online, with those purchases being delivered right to one's door. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, in the first quarter of 2005 e-commerce estimates increased 23.8 percent over the numbers from the first quarter of 2004, while total sales increased 7.8 percent during the same period.
In the past, businesses were managed very differently than they are today. Technology and its rate of advancement have revolutionized the way job objectives are met in business operations. For example, higher education has changed drastically because of technology. Online education, by providing...
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