What is a conventional lifestyle?

well I'm middle aged... ideal weight for my age and size I'm told..... and when I'm pissed off I just have squinney sit on me.... soothes me quickly and utterly....

Jeez, when did this turn into True Confessions?

Okay, okay! I'm just a musclebound blacksmith, so handsome I have to beat the women off with a stick, renowned for my keen eye, penetrating wit and innate modesty.

Once I get that lying thing solved, I'll be perfect!

excellent. nothing conventional. But I'm trying to define what it is not what its not.

Sorry. Didn't mean to make this into a meet-and-greet and get off topic.

and what do you beat off with?

I think "conventional" might still be defined the same old ways, and not unreasonably.

For instance, working x hours a week, having a significant other and x number of regular aquaintances, watching television and movies, participating in some community-based activities (church, Lion's club, Golf or Bowling Group, support group), attend or attended public schools, ......

I know it's not as easy to paint a conventional picture in the smorgasbord, salad bowl of America, but I think there are still some fairly universal things....

thanks snood

smorgasbord... that reminds me must do some conventional eating..

Steve--

I encountered that little factoid about twenty years ago and have forgotten where I found it. The source would have been reputable, otherwise I wouldn't have stored it in "Illuminating Statistics".

From my own observation, that figure is accurate. Most people prefer to think that they don't run with the herd; that they are original thinkers free of hampering conventional attitudes.

Once upon a time the Official Conventional Family was Male Breadwinner, Female Housewife and two children. With luck, one child was male, the other female.

Even during the late '40's and 50's when the Mythic Conventional Family was accepted as the actual norm there were exceptions: single parents and large families and working mothers and Boston roommates....

Back to the original premise. Most people identify far more strongly with their subgroup than any mythical norm of society. Part of the identity of the subgroup is differentiating that particular subgroup from all other subgroups whether or not the supposed distinctions exist.

My lunch table of Goths is better than your lunch table of Jocks. My suburb with twisty streets is better than your city neighborhood laid out on a grid. Organic vegetable eaters have the edge on people who ignore pesticides. Neo Conservatives have higher IQ's than the lunatic fringe.

On the other hand--there were warts.

Since subgroups, by definition, are much smaller than Society in General, the ardent minority members of the subgroup can claim to be unconventional.

Every human being on this earth yearns to be just as individually important to everyone as they were as newborns to their mothers.
Uniqueness is equated with unconventionality--hence the statistic.

"Convention" in the UK would seem to me to be along the lines of...read the Express or the Mail...live in urban semi...get married before age 30...have 2.4 kids...have 5 weeks holiday a year, take 2 weeks abroad...save a small amount of money....eat out twice a month...don't support Manchester United...floating voter LibDem/Socialist/Tory when older.

Of course, nobody is really like that.

Steve - I see that you have got all the 'conventional' answers already, which is good...

When you are done with your homework, ask me about unconventional lifestyle.

Yeah, I guess I could see a large percentage of american saying they were unconventional....everyone wants to be unique..

as in "i'm unique, just like you"

When I observe people, it seems a lot of the things they do to make themselves unconventional actually has the opposite effect.

Austin has this slogan about the people here, which I absolutely hate, and I feel my fingers and chest tighten up as I get ready to type it....ok....here goes...

"Keep Austin Weird"

GOD! That is the stupiest thing I have ever heard! It's on bumper stickers and signs and I don't know what all. I cannot wait for it to die out. I'd like to find the person who wrote it and throw them into a wood chipper.

Many people here say they have unconventional lifestyles...but there's so many of those people all doing the same thing....like Set said, they're conventional.

To me steve, being conventional is being low key about whatever type of life you lead....living it, loving it, not harming anyone by living it, not pushing it into another persons face.

We've all know someone who, after a long time we learn something really unusual about them....and you realize you thought you knew it all. Does that make them all of a sudden any more or less conventional than they were a minute before? No.

I'm not saying hiding your lifestyle, just not making a big deal about it.

I hate the word "lifestyle", anyway, and I double-hate lifestyle magazines.

Not that I've ever read one. But there's too many of them, and folks who should know better stand and read them in W H Smith and get in my way.
(on the very rare occasions I unconventionally go into W H Smith)

thanks all for your inputs

now all I have to do is write it all up and present it...

I've come to the conclusion there is no such thing as a conventional lifestyle. There are some things we need to do, eat sleep er and other things...

but the conventional lifestyle is like a mirage, you get closer to it and it moves away.

well...no-one here's conventional, least of all ......??

I think convention is what your parents think, what your high school friends thought, what your post high school friends think, and what your management at the workplace think, plus other places of interest such as your site of religious affiliation or camera club.... all put in a blender with some ice and a bit of tequila.

In other words, I think convention is primarily local, with larger and larger ramifications.

Hey, that's good, Dadpad.

(In posting that, you're obviously at the apex!)

This probably explains things better than I can



http://www.businessballs.com/maslow.htm

Thanks Dadpad. I had forgotten all about Maslow. Now I remember him from business school.