the way we live
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Americans Spend Half of Their Spare Time Online
According to Netpop I Play, a new report from Media-Screen, broadband users spend an hour and 40 minutes (48% of their spare time) online in a typical weekday, and more than half of that is spent accessing activities related to entertainment and communication.
Hectic Lifestyles Make for Record-Low Election Turnout, Census Bureau Reports
Nearly 5 million registered voters said they did not vote in the 1996
presidential election because they couldn't take off from work or school
or were otherwise too busy, contributing heavily to the lowest voter
turnout reported in a general election since the Census Bureau began
collecting these data in 1964, according to the Commerce Department's
Census Bureau.
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Among Americans who were registered but did not vote, more than 1 in 5
told us they didn't go to the polls because they couldn't take time off
from work or were too busy -- triple the proportion who gave this reason in
1980.
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| source: | U.S. Census Bureau
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Highlighted Stories
Simplify Your Life return to top
Cut the Stress, Simplify Your Life
If stress is wearing you down, take some advice from those who have left their stress behind -- simplify your life.
Simplifying your life doesn't necessarily mean doing without. It might, but it doesn't have to. Rather, the prevailing philosophy of today's voluntary simplicity movement is not to live without possessions or to live in frugality, but to slow down and live a more balanced, deliberate, and thoughtful life. And as research increasingly shows, a healthier life as well.
It's no longer news that stress can take its toll on both your physical and mental health. Numerous studies have shown a link between stress and high blood pressure. In one such study, for example, scientists at the University of California at Irvine reported in 1998 in the Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine that men with highly stressful jobs had systolic and diastolic blood pressure readings that were approximately 10 points higher than those with less stressful jobs.
Read more  Downsize Your Life Together
By Sheri & Bob Stritof
Simplify Your Lives
There are many benefits for your marriage if you make the decision to downsize your life together. Simplify your lives whether you are newlyweds, a couple with children, or an empty nest couple.
The idea of downsizing involves more than moving to a smaller home. Downsizing also means reevaluating how you spend your time and your money.
Ideas on How to Downsize Your Lifestyle
* Move to a smaller residence.
* Hire help with the maintenance of your home.
* Take a look at your involvements. Drop one activity from each of your schedules and your children's schedules.
* Ask yourselves how much stuff you really need. If you haven't used something in the last two years, donate it or sell it. You will be surprised as how a decluttered home will lessen stress and can simplify your life.
Making the Most of the Newly Found Free Time
Now that you have done some downsizing, you should have to spend less time on keeping your home in order -- both outside and inside. Having less cleaning and less yardwork should free up time for the two of you to spend together.
* Take walks.
* Have an evening out on a regular basis.
* Take a trip together more often.
* Listen to music with one another.
* Read books together.
* Visit some off the beaten path locales.
Living simply usually results in having more with less.
Read more Christie Kade's Hectic Childhood
Christie Kade was a little girl growing up with cancer. Her parents could not afford her operation, and then, Christie decided to start a business with her father, Aaron Kade. The business was called Make-an-Animal, her little business helped all of her friends with cancer, and 45 percent of the money that they made went to her hospital. Eventually Christie's parents saved up enough money to pay for Christie's leukemia treatment. Soon Christie's cancer went away, and all of her friends and family say that it was a miracle that she survived.
Read more Commuting Costs Outweigh Savings From Remote Housing
For low- and moderate-income families, the money that's saved by moving further from work can be equaled or exceeded by the extra money that needs to be spent on transportation, according to a new study from the Center for Housing Policy, the research affiliate of the National Housing Conference.
The combined cost of housing and transportation for working families averaged 57% of annual income and was fairly consistent across the 28 metropolitan areas that were studied, according to the report, "A Heavy Loan - The Combined Housing and Transportation Burdens of Working Families."
Nationally, the study found that for every dollar a family saves on housing by moving further out, it spends 77 cents more on transportation.
"Working families are increasingly moving further from their jobs to find affordable housing," said Jeffrey Lubell, executive director of the research group. "Yet, we found that many of these families end up spending more on transportation costs than they save on housing. Ultimately, these findings emphasize the importance of coordinating the development of housing and transportation policy, as well as expanding the supply of affordable housing close to both central city and suburban job centers, improving public transit in areas with lower housing costs and reducing the costs of commuting by car for working families."
In 17 of the metro areas studied, the average transportation expenses for families with annual incomes from $20,000 to $50,000 are actually higher than their housing costs, the study found. Overall, working families spend an average of 28%, or $9,700, of their incomes on housing and nearly 30%, or $10,400, on transportation. The transportation costs include auto ownership, auto use and public transportation, and take into account the cost of commuting as well as traveling for school, errands and other daily routines.
The combined costs of housing and transportation ranged from a low of 54% of income in Pittsburgh to a high of 63% in San Francisco, but 25 of the 28 areas were within three percentage points of the average combined burden of 57%.
Read more Breaking Free of Suburbia's Stranglehold
Families Simplify Lifestyles in Quest for Meaning That Constant Hustle Obscured
By Annie Gowen
Jennifer McNelley's life felt like one big errand -- an endless series of Target runs and school drop-offs and commuting to two jobs from her Loudoun County home.
McNelley, a single mother of a 6-year-old, was feeling "overwhelmed and hopeless" when a flier appeared in her mailbox announcing a sermon series at her church called "Death by Suburb." The congregation would spend five weeks talking about the suburban lifestyle -- the consumerism and the overcaffeinated schedules, and how it all can choke the life out of you if you're not careful.
"That's how I feel . . . like we're squeezing in everything," said McNelley, 33. "My daughter has cried about it. She feels like we're always rushing. She asked me the other day, 'Mom, how come you never laugh anymore?' All I can think about is what needs to get done, laundry and everything else. It's affecting us hugely."
Turns out, many of McNelley's Ashburn neighbors were struggling with the same question: Is there a way, a slower way, to eke out more meaning in one's daily life? Now, they are all letting go of something so they can do more things that really matter.
Her friends Liz and Doug Schnelzer are letting the grass grow. Steve and Julie Johnston put their McMansion on the market so they could quit worrying about money and give more to charity. It was clear to McNelley that she needed to do something different, although she wasn't sure what.
Read more Americans less happy today than 30 years ago: study
By Deepa Babington
ROME (Reuters Life!) - Americans are less happy today than they were 30 years ago thanks to longer working hours and a deterioration in the quality of their relationships with friends and neighbors, according to an Italian study.
Researchers presenting their work at a conference on "policies for happiness" at Italy's Siena University honed in on two major forces that boost happiness-- higher income and better social relationships -- and put a dollar value on them.
Based on that, they concluded a person with no friends or social relations with neighbors would have to earn $320,000 more each year than someone who did to enjoy the same level of happiness.
And while the average American paycheck had risen over the past 30 years, its happiness-boosting benefits were more than offset by a drop in the quality of relationships over the period.
"The main cause is a decline in the so-called social capital -- increased loneliness, increased perception of others as untrustworthy and unfair," said Stefano Bartolini, one of the authors of the study.
Read more Girls Rejecting Bad Girl Image
A new 'modesty movement' aims to teach young women they don't have to be bad, or semiclad.
By Jennie Yabroff
Newsweek
July 23, 2007 issue - Consider the following style tips for girls: skirts and dresses should fall no more than four fingers above the knee. No tank tops without a sweater or jacket over them. Choose a bra that has a little padding to help disguise when you are cold. These fashion hints may sound like the prim mandates of a 1950s "health" film. But they are from the Web site of Pure Fashion, a modeling and etiquette program for teen girls whose goal is "to show the public it is possible to be cute, stylish and modest." Pure Fashion has put on 13 shows in 2007 featuring 600 models. National director Brenda Sharman estimates there will be 25 shows in 2008. It is not the only newfangled outlet for old-school ideas about how girls should dress: ModestApparelUSA.com, ModestByDesign.com and DressModestly.com all advocate a return to styles that leave almost everything to the imagination. They cater to what writer Wendy Shalit claims is a growing movement of "girls gone mild"--teens and young women who are rejecting promiscuous "bad girl" roles embodied by Britney Spears, Bratz Dolls and the nameless, shirtless thousands in "Girls Gone Wild" videos. Instead, these girls cover up, insist on enforced curfews on college campuses, bring their moms on their dates and pledge to stay virgins until married. And they spread the word: in Pennsylvania, a group of high-school girls "girlcotted" Abercrombie & Fitch for selling T shirts with suggestive slogans (WHO NEEDS BRAINS WHEN YOU HAVE THESE?). Newly launched Eliza magazine bills itself as a "modest fashion" magazine for the 17- to 34-year-old demographic. Macy's has begun carrying garments by Shade clothing, which was founded by two Mormon women wanting trendy, but not-revealing, clothes. And Miss Utah strode the runway of the 2007 Miss America pageant in a modestly cut one-piece swimsuit. (She didn't win the crown.) According to Shalit, this "youth-led rebellion" is a welcome corrective to our licentious, oversexed times. But is the new modesty truly a revolution, or is it merely an inevitable reaction to a culture of increased female sexual empowerment, similar to the backlash against flappers in the 1920s and second-wave feminists in the 1970s?
Read more Young adults aren't sticking with church
By Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA TODAY
Protestant churches are losing young adults in "sobering" numbers, a survey finds.
Seven in 10 Protestants ages 18 to 30 -- both evangelical and mainline -- who went to church regularly in high school said they quit attending by age 23, according to the survey by LifeWay Research. And 34% of those said they had not returned, even sporadically, by age 30. That means about one in four Protestant young people have left the church.
"This is sobering news that the church needs to change the way it does ministry," says Ed Stetzer, director of Nashville-based LifeWay Research, which is affiliated with the publishing arm of the Southern Baptist Convention.
"It seems the teen years are like a free trial on a product. By 18, when it's their choice whether to buy in to church life, many don't feel engaged and welcome," says associate director Scott McConnell.
The statistics are based on a survey of 1,023 Protestants ages 18 to 30 who said they had attended church at least twice a month for at least one year during high school. LifeWay did the survey in April and May. Margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Read more Study links attention problems to early TV viewing
By Andrew Stern Tue Sep 4, 12:12 AM ET
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Watching television more than two hours a day early in life can lead to attention problems later in adolescence, according to a study released on Tuesday.
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The roughly 40 percent increase in attention problems among heavy TV viewers was observed in both boys and girls, and was independent of whether a diagnosis of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder was made prior to adolescence.
Read more 72 Ideas to Simplify Your Life
A simple life has a different meaning and a different value for every person. For me, it means eliminating all but the essential, eschewing chaos for peace, and spending your time doing what's important to you.
It means getting rid of many of the things you do so you can spend time with people you love and do the things you love. It means getting rid of the clutter so you are left with only that which gives you value.
However, getting to simplicity isn't always a simple process. It's a journey, not a destination, and it can often be a journey of two steps forward, and one backward.
If you're interested in simplifying your life, this is a great starter's guide (if you're not interested, move on).
Read more Spending More for a Little Solace
As big Labor Day sales roll around, computer stores will tell you about laptops that now come with biometric fingerprint readers. Car companies will talk about "variable air suspension" features that allow you to change the ride of a car, depending on terrain. And video game manufacturers will hawk "ambient intelligence" accessories, including one that blows wind in your face as you make virtual hairpin turns.
For many years, marketers and salespeople have realized that there is money to be made selling people features they do not need and may never use. Many people report being stumped when asked about the intricacies of their DVD players or the complexities of their digital cameras; most sport-utility vehicles with complex off-road traction systems are rarely driven on anything but asphalt.
So if people don't use expensive high-end features, why do they pay more to get them?
Read more
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Suggested Reading
 The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Parents are Going Broke By Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi Warren, a law professor at Harvard (The Fragile Middle Class) and her daughter Tyagi, a former McKinsey consultant, have joined forces here to argue here that the two-parent middle-class working family is on the brink of financial disaster. The number of families declaring bankruptcy or receiving a foreclosure against their house has shot up dramatically. Presenting carefully researched economic data to support their arguments, the authors contend that, contrary to popular myth, families aren't in trouble because they're squandering their second income on luxuries. On the contrary, both incomes are almost entirely committed to necessities, such as home and car payments, health insurance and children's education costs. When an unforeseen event such as serious illness, job loss or divorce occurs, families have no discretionary income to fall back on. The authors recommend a number of useful societal solutions to get families out of this trap, such as legally prohibiting credit card companies from charging grossly unfair interest rates and exposing banks that employ a loan-to-own strategy that steers minority customers to higher mortgage rates with an eye to future foreclosures. Warren and Tyagi point out that families buy homes they cannot afford in order to live in a neighborhood with better schools. Their proposed solution, however-to institute a public school voucher system with wider choice-is less carefully thought out. Overall, however, this is a needed examination of an emerging social problem.
 Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic By John de Graaf, David Wann, and Thomas H Naylor In their eye-opening, soul-prodding look at the excess of American society, the authors of Affluenza include two quotations that encapsulate much of the book: T.S. Eliot's line "We are the hollow men / We are the stuffed men," which opens one of this book's chapters, and a quote from a newspaper article that notes "We are a nation that shouts at a microwave oven to hurry up." If these observations make you grimace at your own ruthless consumption or sigh at the hurried pace of your life, you may already be ill. Read on.
The definition of affluenza, according to de Graaf, Wann, and Naylor, is something akin to "a painful, contagious, socially-transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more." It's a powerful virus running rampant in our society, infecting our souls, affecting our wallets and financial well-being, and threatening to destroy not only the environment but also our families and communities. Having begun life as two PBS programs coproduced by de Graaf, this book takes a hard look at the symptoms of affluenza, the history of its development into an epidemic, and the options for treatment. In examining this pervasive disease in an age when "the urge to splurge continues to surge," the first section is the book's most provocative. According to figures the authors quote and expound upon, Americans each spend more than $21,000 per year on consumer goods, our average rate of saving has fallen from about 10 percent of our income in 1980 to zero in 2000, our credit card indebtedness tripled in the 1990s, more people are filing for bankruptcy each year than graduate from college, and we spend more for trash bags than 90 of the world's 210 countries spend for everything. "To live, we buy," explain the authors--everything from food and good sex to religion and recreation--all the while squelching our intrinsic curiosity, self-motivation, and creativity. They offer historical, political, and socioeconomic reasons that affluenza has taken such strong root in our society, and in the final section, offer practical ideas for change. These use the intriguing stories of those who have already opted for simpler living and who are creatively combating the disease, from making simple habit alterations to taking more in-depth environmental considerations, and from living lightly to managing wealth responsibly. (S. Ketchum)
 The Overspent American: Why We Want What We Don't Need By Juliet B. Schor The Overspent American explores why so many of us feel materially dissatisfied, why we work staggeringly long hours and yet walk around with ever-present mental "wish lists" of things to buy or get, and why Americans save less than virtually anyone in the world. Unlike many experts, Harvard economist Juliet B. Schor does not blame consumers' lack of self-discipline. Nor does she blame advertisers. Instead she analyzes the crisis of the American consumer in a culture where spending has become the ultimate social art.
 unSpun: Finding Facts in a World of Disinformation By Brooks Jackson and Kathleen Hall Jamieson Americans are bombarded daily with mixed messages, half-truths, misleading statements, and out-and-out fabrications masquerading as facts. The news media–once the vaunted watchdogs of our republic–are often too timid or distracted to identify these deceptions.
unSpun is the secret decoder ring for the twenty-first-century world of disinformation. Written by Brooks Jackson and Kathleen Hall Jamieson, the founders of the acclaimed website FactCheck.org, unSpun reveals the secrets of separating facts from disinformation...
 Oil on the Brain: Adventures from the Pump to the Pipeline By Lisa Margonelli Americans buy ten thousand gallons of gasoline a second, without giving it much of a thought. Where does all this gas come from? Lisa Margonelli's desire to learn took her on a one-hundred thousand mile journey from her local gas station to oil fields half a world away. In search of the truth behind the myths, she wriggled her way into some of the most off-limits places on earth: the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the New York Mercantile Exchange's crude oil market, oil fields from Venezuela, to Texas, to Chad, and even an Iranian oil platform where the United States fought a forgotten one-day battle.
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More Suggested Reading
 Back to Basics By Reader's Digest Editors This how-to, user-friendly guide teaches self-sufficiency-covering all of life's essentials: shelter; alternative energy sources; growing and preserving food; home crafts; directions for making herbal remedies; and even home-grown entertainment.
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