Changes in people’s lifestyles

In the present age, people have dramatically changed the way they live, which in turn affects their family relationships. Personally, I think this tendency comes with both positive and negative effects.

On the one hand, changing lifestyles bring about various positive impacts on family connections. Firstly, people are paying more attention to their well-being nowadays, and therefore family members tend to go to fitness centres together to lead healthier lifestyles. As a result, spending time working out together will help to bridge the generation gap and promote better communication between family members. To illustrate, when a child takes part in some forms of sport or physical activities with their parents, they will feel more open to share things and seek advice from them.  Secondly, thanks to developments in technology, devices such as smartphones, tablets and laptop computers have not only become an indispensable part of our lives but have also helped to make communicating with our friends and families much easier, particularly between those who are separated by long distances.

On the other hand, changes in lifestyles also have their downsides when it comes to family relationships. To begin with, the overuse of such technological devices mentioned above, can also hurt family relationships. For example, if family members become too immersed in using their devices for individual recreational purposes, like checking their social media accounts or browsing their favourite websites, they may neglect their relationships with other family members. Consequently, the amount of quality time that a family spends together is likely to reduce, negatively impacting family relations. Furthermore, these days, people are becoming more and more career-oriented and are subsequently losing the balance between work and family life. In fact, it has become more common that family members are less available at home, even outside of official working time, leading to weakened family interactions.

In conclusion, while some changes in lifestyle are advantageous to family relationships, the opposite is true for other changes. (324 words)

Vocabulary

• Paying more attention to their well-being
• To lead healthier lifestyles
• To bridge the generation gap
• To promote better communication
• To be immersed in something
• Recreational (adj)
• Career-oriented (adj)