Personal life is the course or state of anindividual's life, especially when viewed as the sum of personalchoices contributing to one'spersonal identity.[1]
Apart fromhunter-gatherers, most pre-modern peoples' time was limited by the need to meet necessities such as food and shelter throughsubsistence farming;leisure time was scarce.[2]People identified with theirsocial role in their community and engaged in activities based on necessity rather than on personal choice.Privacy in such communities was rare.
The modern conception of "personal life" is an offshoot of modernWestern society. Modern people tend to distinguish their work activities from their personal life and may seekwork–life balance.[3]It is a person's choices and preferences outside of work that define personal life, including one's choice of hobbies, cultural interests, manner of dress, mate, friends, and so on. In particular, what activities one engages in during leisure-time defines a person's personal life. Religious authorities,moralists, managers andpersonal-development gurus have seized on the concept of an individual life as a fulcrum for potential control and manipulation.[4][5][6]
People in Western countries, such as theUnited States andCanada, tend to value privacy. Privacy includes bothinformation privacy and decisional privacy; people expect to be left alone with respect to intimate details of their life and they expect to be free from undue control by others.[7]
In the past, before moderntechnology largely alleviated issues of economicscarcity in industrialised countries, most people spent a large portion of their time attempting to provide their basic survival needs, including water, food, and protection from the weather.[8] Humans neededsurvival skills for the sake of both themselves and their community; food needed to be harvested and shelters needed to be maintained.[9] There was littleprivacy in a community, and people identified one another according to their social role.[10]Jobs were assigned out of necessity rather than personal choice.[11]
Furthermore, individuals in manyancient cultures primarily viewed theirself-existence under the aspect of a larger social whole, often one withmythological underpinnings which placed the individual in relation to thecosmos.[12] People in such cultures found their identity not through their individualchoices—indeed, they may not have been able to conceive a choice which was purely individual. Such individuals, if asked to describe themselves, would speak of the collective of which they were part: thetribe, theChurch, thenation.[13] Even in the 21st century, survival issues dominate in many countries and societies. For example, the continents of Africa and Asia are still largely mired inpoverty andthird-world conditions, without technology, secure shelter, or reliable food sources. In such places, the concepts of a "personal life", "self-actualization", "personal fulfillment", or "privacy" are often unaffordable luxuries.[14]
The English philosopherJohn Locke (1632–1704) figures among the pioneers in discussing the concept ofindividual rights. In the 17th century he promoted the natural rights of the individual tolife,liberty, andproperty, and included the pursuit of happiness as one of the individual's goals.[citation needed]
 | This sectionpossibly containsoriginal research. Pleaseimprove it byverifying the claims made and addinginline citations. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed.(August 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
The notion of a personal life, as currently understood in the west is in part an artefact of modern Western society. People in theUnited States of America, especially, place a high value on privacy. Since thecolonial period, commentators have noted Americans'individualism and their pursuit ofself-definition.[15][need quotation to verify][16]Indeed, theUnited States Declaration of Independence and theConstitution explicitly raise thepursuit of happiness and theexpectation of privacy to the level ofrights.[citation needed]
George Lakoff sees themetaphor of life as "ajourney" as a noteworthy structuring idea in "our culture".[17]Compare the traditional Chinese concept oftao.
In modern times, many people have come to think of their personal lives as separate from theirwork.[18][need quotation to verify]This9 to 5 paradigm regards work andrecreation as distinct; one is either on the job or not, and the transition is abrupt. Employees have certain hours they are bound to work, and work during recreational time is rare. This may[original research?] reflect the continuing specialisation of jobs and the demand for increased efficiency, both at work and at home. The common phrase "Work hard, play hard" illustrates this mindset. There is a growing[quantify] trend, however, towards living more holistically and minimising such rigid distinctions between work and play, in order to achieve an "appropriate"work–life balance.[citation needed]
The concept of personal life also tends to be associated[by whom?] with theway individuals dress, thefood they eat, theirschooling and further education as well as theirhobbies,leisure activities, andcultural interests. Increasingly, in thedeveloped world, a person'sdaily life is also influenced by leisure-time use ofconsumer electronics such astelevisions,computers and theInternet,mobile phones anddigital cameras.[19][need quotation to verify]
Other factors affecting personal life include individuals'health,personal relationships,pets as well ashome andpersonal possessions.[citation needed]
The way in which individuals make use of their spare time also plays an important role in defining their personal lives. In general, leisure activities can be categorised as either passive, in cases when no real effort is required, or active, when substantial physical ormental energy is needed.[20]
Passive activities include watchingtelevision, listening tomusic, watching sports activities or going to thecinema. The individual simply relaxes without any special effort.[citation needed]
Active activities may be more or less intensive ranging fromwalking, throughjogging andcycling to sports such astennis orfootball. Playingchess or undertaking creative writing might also be considered as demanding as these require a fair amount of mental effort.[citation needed]
Based on 2007 data, a US survey on use of leisure time found that the daily use of leisure time by individuals over 15 averaged 4.9 hours. Of this, more than half (2.6 hours) went on watching TV while only 19 minutes involved active participation in sports and exercise.[21]
Privacy has been understood as entailing two different concepts; namelyinformational privacy and decisional privacy. The former concerns the right to be left alone in respect of the most intimate details of one's personal life and is a more accepted doctrine than the latter which concerns freedom from undue regulation and control.[7]
In this book, I argue that intimate relationships are certainly influenced by our personal preferences but to a large extent our 'choices' are shaped by family circumstances and events in the wider society ...
... we turn to the writings of anthropologists and archaeologists, the majority of whom believe that our earliest ancestors were well fed and healthy. They obtained their subsistence by hunting and gathering, they had a relatively egalitarian ethic and more leisure time available to them than people in any subsequent mode of production.
For hundreds of years, almost from the beginning of corporate history, a divide between the personal life and professional life has been asserted. This is a false divide. ... It is impossible to separate the personal from the professional: the two are intricately linked.
The virtues of personal life are to be regarded both from the side of control and from the side of culture. On the one hand the varied impulses and desires have to be regulated so as not to interfere with the realisation of the moral ideal.
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)... the guru may say, 'Go home and get your personal life straightened out. ...'
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)For Tocquevilleindividualism meant the habit of living isolated from your fellows, of not concerning yourself with any public affairs, and of abandoning those matters to the care of the government as the only clearly visible representative of common interests. Like democratic materialism, democratic individualism led to the death of civic life and opened the door to any despotic power that would assume responsibility for shared interests. ... We need to recognize that ... Tocqueville ... treated the United States as something of an exception. He had described the American republic as shielded from the worst effects of democratic materialism; in his analysis, it was also insulated from individualism.
Long-term, purposeful activities are journeys. ... In our culture, life is assumed to be purposeful, that is, we are expected to have goals in life. In the event[-]structure metaphor, purposes are destinations and purposeful action is self-propelled motion towards a destination. A purposeful life is a journey. Goals in life are destinations on the journey. ... Choosing a means to achieve a goal is choosing a path to destination. ... [T]he love is a journey metaphor inherits the structure of the life is a journey metaphor. ... a career is a journey.
work leisure.
{{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help)
Media related toPersonal life at Wikimedia Commons