Everyday life: We explain what everyday life is, what elements it is made up of and its characteristics. Also, examples of everyday life situations.
What is everyday life?
When we talk about everyday life or daily life we are referring to the common and ordinary life of every day, the one in which, in theory, nothing special happens, given that the actions and events that take place in this time are considered mundane, inconsequential, common.
This is because the repetition of everyday actions over the course of days and months creates a feeling of monotony and also of security in each individual, since they assume that nothing surprising will happen to them, for better or worse. However, everyday life is not the same for everyone, but depends on the way and conditions in which each individual lives, so that what is natural and everyday for some, may be exceptional for others. You must read about Industrial Company once.
For example, the everyday life of a child living on the Caribbean coast could be perceived as striking and fun by a child from the Siberian steppe, and vice versa. But behind this type of comparison lies a truth regarding human nature, and that is that we tend to take for granted what is familiar and everyday to us, and, at the same time, to idealize and desire what is foreign.
Most of our lives are spent in what we call everyday life, and it manifests itself in an endless number of actions that we carry out automatically, without realizing them, but which ultimately define who we are and where we live. In fact, everyday life in past periods of history was very different from what we have today.
Eventually, an unexpected situation can alter our everyday life and force us to live a period of adaptation, but everything that is repeated ends up being, again, natural and repetitive. The latter is known in psychology as adaptation. Maybe you should definitely read about Understanding once.
Characteristics of everyday life
Everyday life is characterized by the following:
- It is daily life, which is repeated every day and in which nothing extraordinary usually happens.
- It covers an immense set of familiar facts and actions that we do not usually detail, unless something happens that takes us out of context, such as personal hygiene, work or rest. It is the daily space in which social relationships and routine ties occur and in which the vast majority of life takes place.
- It generally refers to the daytime hours of the day and part of the nighttime hours. Usually the daytime hours are considered working and active hours, and the nighttime hours are considered leisure and rest hours.
- It is an important field of study for sociology and psychology, since these disciplines see the construction of daily life as a reflection of the entire social system.
Examples of everyday situations
Many ordinary situations occur in everyday life, which vary depending on the person and their historical, social, economic and cultural context. Broadly speaking, the daily life of a contemporary Western individual includes situations such as the following:
- Sleeping and waking up, and ideally waking up few times (or not at all) throughout the night.
- Eating at least three times a day (breakfast, lunch, dinner). Drinking, ideally, eight glasses of water a day.
- Cleaning the body: brushing teeth after each meal, bathing once a day, doing one’s physiological needs and then washing one’s hands.
- Working, which can occur in very different ways, and is reserved for adults. Children and young people, on the other hand, ideally dedicate themselves to studying.
- Taking public transport or using a private vehicle to travel from home to the place of work or study.
- Exchanging goods and services, that is, buying and selling things, which is necessary in the capitalist system in order to carry out many other daily tasks.
Elements of daily life
In daily life we interact with numerous physical, technological and other elements. Some of the most common in Western daily life are:
- People, such as our relatives, friends, partners, acquaintances and coworkers, or like the people we see every day on the street and that we do not know.
- Household appliances, such as washing machines, mixers, refrigerators, ovens, microwaves, televisions, irons, hair dryers, clothes dryers, dishwashers, shredders, among others.
- Technological devices, such as computers, smartphones, tablets, video game consoles, smart televisions, among others.
- Air conditioning devices, such as air conditioners, stoves, heaters, humidifiers, fans, among others.
- Furniture, such as tables, chairs, armchairs, sofas, beds, among others.
- Personal hygiene items and substances, such as toothbrushes and toothpaste, towels, soap, shampoo, conditioner, moisturizer, toilet paper, the shower, the toilet, the bathtub, among others.
- Vehicles, such as cars and motorcycles, buses, trains, subways, trams or bicycles.
- Urban spaces, such as our home, the street, the square, the train or subway station, the office, the school, the schoolyard, the sports field, the gym, the bank, among many others.
