Busy Life In America

1. Busy Life In America By: Shelby Blonquist Social Problems SOC 1020

2. Table of Content • Introduction • Reflection Paper 1 • Don’t Hurry, Be Happy: Research Highlights Link Between Busy Lives And Bliss • Rushed Chart • How the Last Decade Changed American Life • Busy Life Chart • Conclusion • Last Reflection Paper

3. Reflection Page 1 Busy Life in America I have never thought about the question of the busy life in America becoming a social problem so I do not know much about this topic. The first thoughts that come to mind would be that if people get to busy they do not have a social life anymore. A social life is many things like being with friends or going out to the store to buy things. When people get to busy instead of going out to be with friends you stay at home and text so you lose an important line of communication that connects people to one another and the outside world. People not going out to stores to buy things instead they stay at home and use the internet to buy movies and books and the internet turns into the center of your social life. This is how business close and why people lose their jobs because busy life does not work with going out and buying things from the store. Children and young adults have to busy of a schedule could be another way of social problems starting. When lives get to busy with school, after school activities, sports, etc. social problems start because they do not have time for friends or for other aspects of life that are good to help keep people involved in society. I am going to learn a lot from this research paper because I do not know how a busy America can cause social problems because I always thought of it as a lazy America causing social problems because lazy makes it that the well- being of society starts to hurt. I thought that people not having jobs was a big factor to causing social problems because when people do not have jobs they do not contribute to the economy and that puts a heavy burden on people who have jobs to support those people. This paper will show me how a busy America can cause social problems.

4. Don’t Hurry, Be Happy: Research Highlights Link Between Busy Life And Bliss This article is by Rebecca Sheir and it is about two questions how rushed you feel and how often you have time on your hands. In this article a University of Maryland sociologist named John Robinson, did some research on how busy America is affecting people. He found that the percentage of American’s who are always feeling rushed has gone down since 2004. His research also found that 8 to 12 percent of Americans say that they never feel rushed. These statistics brought Robinson to the conclusion that the busiest Americans are the most blissful. Busy America life seems to be working because the busier people are the happier they are and that works for people in society.

5. Rushed Chart This chart shows the decline in Americans feeling the rush of busy life from the 1980s to the 2000s. • http://www.psmag.com/blogs/news-blog/key-to-happiness-keeping-busy-without-feeling-rushed-51284/

6. How The Last Decade Changed American Life • How The Last Decade Changed American Life from the Barna Research Group, looked at how the busy life has changed in the last decade. They start their research off with the finding that only one third of Americans today describe themselves as busy, compared to about half the population who said they were a decade ago. Less Americas seem to be describing themselves as busy, but since this change only eight out of ten Americans say they are happy unlike a decade ago when nine out of ten said they were happy. Less busy life brings a slight change in happiness, but 82 percent of Americans still consider themselves happy. Looking into the future all though people say they have a less busy life 57 percent still want to get ahead in life. This article shows that the busy life has changed in the last decade and the percentage of busy life has dropped.

7. Busy Life Chart This chart shows who feel they are living the busy life, from 2004 to 2014 the percentage has job by 17%. • https://www.barna.org/barna-update/culture/624-how-the-last-decade-changed-american-life#.U2HYDmBOUcA

8. Conclusion • The busy life in America has changed in the last few decades. Americans are claiming to be less busy and having more free time on their hands. The busy life is not so busy anymore and people in our society are finding that to be not such bad things. The busy life has changed and will continue to change in the future.

9. Last Reflection The busy life in America has been going on for decades; working hard and having a busy life seem to be the norm for society. That seems to be changing with people finding that they feel less rushed and less busy, having more time on their hands seems to be a luxury people like. Busy life and time are becoming more equal over time and even switching spots of more time and less of a busy life. From researching this topic I found some very interesting facts that I did not know before. Now days only one third of Americans say they are busy and it is interesting because a decade ago half of Americans were saying they were busy or too busy. The busy life is still happening, but less Americans say they are busy; the busy life is dropping and starting to be replaced with a life with less hustle and bustle. Less and less people are feeling the rush of a busy life in America. I learned that since the 1980s and 1990s there has actually been a gradual drop in Americans feeling rushed. I learned that the busy life is not as prominent as it was decades ago. The rush has gone down for Americans. This is looking like a new trend for the past decade and maybe it may stay the trend for years to come. This information for the future will help me keep in mind of the changes that are accruing in America. In the future being able to watch and see if the busy life takes another turn back up into more Americans feeling rushed and busy or seeing if the trend keeps going where more and more Americans feel less and less rushed and busy. No one knows what the future holds for the busy life in America, will we be seeing more busy life or keep seeing less busy life, or will a whole new trend start for American life. The busy life in America is constantly changing, watching for the changes and understand them is what can help find the next busy life trend.

10. Resources • http://wamu.org/programs/metro_connection/13/05/24/dont_hurry_be_happy_research_highlights_link_between_busy_lives_and_bliss • https://www.barna.org/barna-update/culture/624-how-the-last-decade-changed-american-life#.U2HYDmBOUcA • http://www.psmag.com/blogs/news-blog/key-to-happiness-keeping-busy-without-feeling-rushed-51284/