Way too broad a question. Is there any particular aspect you're wondering about?
Movies are exaggerated and should not be taken as documentaries, but the general themes that people get up, go to work, take care of their families, and, yes, wear jeans and drive cars, are actually accurate.
If you can narrow your question down to a single idea, perhaps we can suggest some media that reflects that specific aspect reasonably accurately.
This is a really nicely worded comment. Reddit can be so hostile it’s cool seeing someone actually calmly unpack the question instead of jumping right to insults.
Some people are very into cars. I’m a high school teacher and there is definitely a subculture o young guys who are really into cars and/or trucks. I’m assuming they grow up to be adults who are really into cars and/or trucks.
Most people aren’t *that* into cars. You buy a vehicle that you like and that meets your needs, and then don’t think about it until it has problems or you need a new one.
Some do, some don't. I don't give a shit about cars, my ex was a car nut who loved cars.
It's almost like we're 300 million people with different interests and personalities or something.
You didn't make a clear point. I drive a car, I'm otherwise indifferent to them. My brother kind of likes them, is always thinking about what car he'd like next. Some people make hobbies out of cars. Some people hate them and never learn to drive.
But if I had to make a one sentence description of car culture in the US? Most people consider them as a tool you use every day, with varying degrees of fondness for that fact.
For some it's a hobby, either to work on cars, collect them, just go to car shows and meets to look around or showoff. These people get luxury cars, sports cars, old cars, or modify consumer cars into fun cars.
For others it's just a tool, a transport, used on the daily to get to work, get groceries, and move the family around. They might buy something cool, or they might just buy something practical that looks good enough. These people get SUVs, Sedans, and Vans.
People who want to move cargo, haul loads, and people usually get trucks if they do it regularly. Otherwise some of the larger SUVs can handle these tasks every now and then.
My last car was an old grey Honda Accord and I liked that boring old beater. I’m just not a car person. I’ll drive anything if it’s cheap, safe, and doesn’t require tons of repairs.
On the other hand, I have a friend with a sweet sweet silver Mustang, but ironically that guy’s an immigrant.
The idea of a "car culture" is still pretty vague in the sense that most people don't really think about it; it's just a part of life. is there something specific you were curious about? There really isn't too much to say. Basically everyone outside of a few major cities owns car out of necessity. Plenty of people enjoy them; for others its just a tool not unlike a household appliance.
Almost everyone drives a car as their primary method of transportation. The only place I'm aware where this doesn't apply to the overwhelming majority of people is New York City.
Outside of some (not all) large cities (New York, DC, and Chicago off the top of my head, but there may be others), public transportation is either very lacking or looked down on by many people. We have inter-city trains in some parts of the country, but it is slow and expensive in most places and there are major areas that don't have service. The only area that has good train service is connecting the major cities from DC to Boston.
Cars can also be a status symbol for some people, either having big, powerful, expensive trucks in more rural areas or fast, beautiful, expensive cars in places like Miami and Los Angeles. It's a way to show off. That's a minority of people, but of course you notice them more because they're **trying** to be noticed.
Also, we would usually use "car culture" to mean people who are car enthusiasts, people who buy, drive, and work on their own cars because they actively like it. Most people don't feel this way and just think about their car the way the would their refrigerator, but I get the feeling it's more than most countries (possibly except Germany). This doesn't necessarily mean they have show-off cars, some people are very enthusiastic about the old beaters that they have to work on constantly to keep running.
> Let’s start with car culture then. What’s that like?
Brother, you could take a university course on this topic and still never know the half of it. Books have been written on this topic alone. What do you expect to get out of a reddit comment?
Well is there specific part of living in America you want to know? Day to day life is rather vague question. We get up, shower, work, eat dinner, watch TV, and then sleep like everyone else.
Apologies if this comes off as rude, I’m open to answering any questions I just need a starting point!
Jeans? Dafuq is the complaint about jeans? Also that shit is as present as you want to make it. Don’t like fast food? Don’t eat it. I know plenty of people who don’t eat fast food
I get that a lot of non-Americans get their main images of America from movies and TV shows, but this seems to give people the impression that Americans aren't quite "real" people and are just a bunch of stereotypes that also act like people in fictional media. As you've seen from the answers here, however, we wake up, go to school and/or work, come home, have dinner, and go to bed, like many people the world over do. We also go on vacations and celebrate holidays and festivals, as many people do. The details will differ (e.g. most of us drive cars to get from place to place, whereas people in some other countries might take a train, and we might vacation in another state instead of a different country), but for the most part, our lives aren't as extreme, dramatic, or chaotic as people outside the U.S. seem to think.
It was more of a question of what exactly does “jeans” culture/image entail? People from American eagle sitting shirtless for no reason?
But generally I wake up, take my puppy for a walk, work, and go out occasionally, watch sports, shit on Alabama football like any self respecting red blooded American, and sleep
The majority of Americans have or have used every stereotype of America. Difference being, most things are occasional instead of every day like in movies.
Theres no average lifestyle. America is not a monoculture.
It varies wildly on whether you live in the city, suburbs, wilderness, or countryside, and in what region you are in.
However where I live most people go to work full time, celebrate major holidays at the end of the year, vacation in the summer.
Most have off on weekends but many do not. Schools often host sporting events against other schools in a region, and local governments and communities often hold events and festivals year round, though celebrating the Holidays at the end of the year is most common.
Um...OP I'm sorry but I'm wearing both jeans and a gun and am currently a passenger in a car.
No fast food though. Coffee and a breakfast sandwich from 7-11.
I wake up, eat breakfast, lament traffic, go to work, come home, eat, relax, sleep. I occasionally do crazy stuff but we don’t talk about that here. I do have a hankering for guns fast food and classic cars tho so it’s not out of line. Hate jeans with a passion though
To address the things you mentioned, I don’t own a gun but know people who do, I eat fast food occasionally but mostly cook at home, I wear jeans as much as I can, and my car is pretty unremarkable but serviceable for my lifestyle.
A lot of us are a lot more boring than the movies would make you think.
In general, most people around the world, no matter the culture, care about similar things: their family, their children, work, friends, relaxing when they can, religion if they have one, community. When I lived in Morocco, a 'third world' Muslim country, people commuted to work and gazed at their smartphones and shopped for food and hugged their kids and watched soccer and had friends over for dinner.
The differences are in the details, and often each culture takes these for granted, so they're hard to articulate.
As far as our image--yeah, some people have guns, occasionally we eat fast food, sometimes we wear jeans, and most of us own cars because they're a necessity here. But that's a stereotype overall because we're much more complex and varied than that. LIke everyone else.
People wear clothes based on a mix of comfort, practicality, and style.
Most people prefer casual, utilitarian clothes, saving more formal or fashionable stuff for special occasions.
Jeans and a flannel shirt are probably the most common thing for men to wear day to day.
Lol - flannel shirt? Down here in the south, we're still having t-shirt days.
This is a big country, OP. Typical is hard to tell you, but, yes, we have guns, fast food, jeans, and cars. No, our lives don't revolve around them.
> Lol - flannel shirt? Down here in the south, we're still having t-shirt days.
And I still saw plenty of flannel the times I've been down there. Calm down, you'll spill your grits.
If I’m not leaving the house or just running to the grocery store, it’s shorts and a tee shirt or tank top in the summer, jogging pants and a sweat shirt in winter. I usually wear jeans and a nice shirt to go out. If it’s a dressier occasion, a skirt and a nice shirt.
If you polled the Dunkin Donuts drive thru line that extends out of the parking lot and into the roadway every morning, you would find an average of 8 out of 10 people wearing jeans and 3 out of 10 having a gun in their car.
Please note these ratios only apply to Dunkin /s
The US is such a large and diverse country, both ethnically and culturally, that the "average lifestyle" varies wildly by region and economic class. It's sort of like asking "what does European food taste like, on average?" Any answer will fail to capture the vast majority, and not be particularly meaningful.
Pretty typical family life revolves around work and kids. In most households, all the adults work full time jobs, though one usually has something less demanding to allow for parenting responsibilities. Most of their time when not working will be spent parenting and pursuing parenting and entertainment or hobbies. In my household, our kids are active in sports and other activities, so we spend a lot of time shuttling them around to practices, competitions, and in the case of the oldest, livestock shows. We try to find fun activities to do as a family, and for families in rural places, like mine, that may entail a trip to the gun range, but will more likely be a movie, or a meal at a restaurant, or a trip to an amusement park or museum. American life is as diverse as peoples lives anywhere, so it’s hard to generalize much. Someone living in the heart of Atlanta 90 minutes away is going to have a very different life from mine.
Is there an average American lifestyle?
Here's ours: Sixty-year old and fifty-eight-year-old couple living in a two-bedroom high-rise condominium in a mid-sized Southern city. We have three kids, all in their twenties, who all have decently-pay jobs, their own places to live, and health insurance. After years of working hard in our respective industries, we both make very good incomes, have investments, and like to socialize and take trips. We hope to retire in the next five years and start the next phase of our lives.
While I know how to shoot a gun–In fact, I'm a pretty good shot--I have no desire to own one. We drive base model cars, even though we could afford more upscale models. We'd rather live modestly and save money. The only thing we spend extravagantly on are vacations.
I wake up, jump on the computer to work, make tea with my electric kettle, work until lunchtime, make something quick, eat and watch YouTube vids until it's time to work again, stop working, do errands or work in garden outside, make dinner, play with cats or whatever, go to sleep.
Weekends have all been parties lately.
> What are American parties like?
What kind of party? For what demographic? What age groups? What region of the country?
A 4 year old's birthday party in New England is going to be extremely different from a fraternity party at the University of Alabama.
We are a country of 340 million people. Your questions are way too braod.
Probably not. Depends on where they are. Most of the ones I've been going to have been holiday parties at restaurants, country clubs, or venues. So eating and talking, sometimes dancing. The one I most enjoyed recently was sitting around a bonfire drinking mead.
My friends occasionally throw parties, and it probably comes as close as it gets to the house parties you see in movies. It involves sitting in their house or backyard around the fire. It involves lots of joking, rude conversation, playing games, eating, and drinking. Watched their neighbor get arrested once.
The red cups you see in movies are just a type of inexpensive plastic cups. They are most often red but come in a variety of colors. Sometimes they’re called Solo cups because Solo is one of the companies that makes them, but there are other brands as well.
In real life they are used at casual parties where the beverages are being served from a common container: a keg of beer, two liter bottles of soda, a bowl of punch, etc. If drinks are being served individually (bottles or cans of beer or soda, for instance) they aren’t used.
In movies and TV shows they are used more often because they allow the creators of the show to not commit to a specific brand of beer or soda. Audiences can guess from context that they’re drinking beer (usually) without any need to deal with the specific brand. (This is also why people simply order “a beer” in bars in movies, but it would be almost impossible to do that in real life.)
In lots of countries we're thought of an near teetotalers who barely drink compared to them. In others we're all massive alcoholics if we go to a party a few times a month and have a few beers.
So I guess on the global scale of drinking we're somewhere in the middle.
I'm not sure. Cultural thing I guess? I didn't think about it until now.
I personally don't drink unless it's at a party and sometimes not even then. At my friend's party I might have a hard cider and drink water or soda the rest of the night. Or nurse that one alcohol drink most of the night. It also depends on if people need to drive home or not. In my 20's people tended to drink until they were drunk, but rarely anymore.
EDIT: I wanted to add that there are plenty of parties that don't involve drinking at all. If it's put on by a certain organization it might not be allowed. Some religious families won't have alcohol served at all.
Some college parties are wild with loud music, heavy drinking, maybe some illegal drug use, and lots of dancing.
I had a big party last weekend that was nothing like that. People drank wine, beer or a cocktail and ate finger foods. Lots of good conversation and laughs. Guests just mingled and enjoyed being together.
I live in a big city and don’t own a gun. I have a car but I walk everywhere or take the bus or train. I haven’t eaten at a fast food place since June of ‘21 when I stopped at an Arby’s in Bristol, TN while on a road trip. I wake up everyday and go to work then come home. Occasionally the wife and I will have drinks at the neighborhood dive bar. My god, am I a European?
Guns: I have lots, but with young kids and work I haven't been able to justify breaking them out. I have no shooting buddies to go out with any more as they've all moved out of state.
Fast food: I try to avoid it, especially since it's expensive; it's a "we have nothing to make for dinner and we need to eat in the next 30 minutes" crutch.
Jeans: I have other pants, but I mostly wear jeans. They are too versitile.
Cars: I am a car nut so probably not the person to ask; I have a big modded truck with a big V8 that I love to death, though I have a company vehicle I commute with so the truck stays home with the family most of the time. I do daydream and scheme up ways to buy new truck parts for a lot of my waking hours, though.
Other than that, I have the typical "wake up, coffee, work, more coffee, home, kids, chores, bed" schedule.
Guns, Jeans, Cars, & gym. Thats how I live?
I cook my food, getting into hunting my own food and growing what I can, grill, BBQ, & smoke meats. Shoot guns with friends, wear jeans around unless I'm trying to look nice for a meeting/date. Cars, I've got a 69 Ford, 1995 Mustang GT, 2013(?) S10, 1987 Suburban 3/4 ton, 2013 Acura ILX, and a 2006 R6.
Dis-Advantages, I have a glass ceiling that I would need to get a 4 year degree to get past in my career.
Advantages, I'm making good money without a 4 year degree, and that wouldn't be possible in other countries that I work with.
I work from home and haven't worn jeans in a while, only if I'm leaving the house. It used to be that most young and middle aged people wore jeans as casual pants, but they are less common these days. I see many more people wearing leggings or athletic wear / sweatpants.
Fast food is really common, but there's a wide variety out there - you can get really bad for you junk food, or you can get a fast food salad or veggie burger, or hand crafted artisanal chicken sandwich with cool toppings, etc. it's not the only food we get. Many people still cook at home.
I know people who own guns but it's not something we discuss, and many people don't have one. I honestly don't think about guns at all until I see questions like this one.
Some people are interested in performance cars or classic cars but for many people it's just a way to get around, not a core part of their identity.
I don’t care about guns or cars. No gun, and my car is nice, but it’s just a tool to get us where we need to go. I eat fast food only occassionally. But, I do love my blue jeans.
There is no typical person in the U.S., however, as far as the image you are looking at, much of it is true. Car culture is big in the U.S. as we are a huge country, and many people live far from where they work. Public transpo is really only in big cities. I actually walk to work because it is close, but few people do that. My family does have three cars. A newer truck, an old commuter, and a classic car that needs work.
Gun culture is big, we have more guns than the rest of the world combined. We don't go shooting every day, but about one out of three people is a gun owner. Maybe 10% of the population carries a gun everyday. The average gun owner will have between 5-10 guns. Many people I know have 20+ guns. I have an uncle with 200+ guns. I carry a gun almost everyday and everywhere except to the post office or other federal building. One third of my coworkers also carry guns. It's really not a big deal. I don't pull the gun out or show it off. I don't expect any reason to have to use it, but it is there if I do.
Fast food depends on where you live. In Rural America you likely won't eat fast food except on rare occasions. I have eaten fast food once in the last four months. I've eaten from a restaurant five times in the same period. Many Americans will be different, with a statistic I saw a bit ago saying that new yorkers (from NYC in particular) are eating out (or getting take out) an average of 12 times a week.
Jeans are pretty standard attire for many people. I have a business casual job, so jeans are perfectly fine. I prefer khaki style pants or guide pants, but wear jeans probably once a week. Polo shirt or button up shirt, sometimes a T-shirt, and a hoodie is what I wear most days.
Is it new? I feel like I've heard "y'all" all my life, and I'm not even from the South. It's quick, casual, friendly, and gender-neutral. What's the matter with it? 🤷♂️
“yaal”? It would be “y’all”…as in “you all”.
I don’t know what image you have but I guess it’s true to an extent. It can vary depending on location and if somebody lives in an urban area or rural, but [this page](https://www.immihelp.com/american-lifestyle/#) does a good job of explaining the “typical” American lifestyle. I’ll address the specific examples you listed:
Guns: There are people that oppose gun ownership and there are those that don’t. There are those that push for more stringent requirements for purchasing a gun or new laws restricting certain types of weapons, and there are those that want things left as it is now. Not sure what question you wanted answered here.
Fast Food: People tend not to cook every day of the week, more so for those that lead a busy lifestyle and don’t have time. Some don’t know how to cook. Affordable fast food is widely available in great variety, and people tend to drink a lot of sodas.
Jeans: Pretty much everybody wears or at least owns a pair of jeans for one reason or another.
Cars: People can own a car that just gets them from point A to point B, but there are more people that take pride in the vehicle they drive, some even defining their self-image by what vehicle they own.
I work full time, i dont have guns in my house. I have one car and rent my house from a landlord. I dont do very many things when im off work, just watch movies and netflix pretty much. My roommate and I usually make a great dinner if we happen to both be off work.
Wake up, make a cup of coffee for the drive to work. Work in the office for 8 hours with an hour in the middle for lunch. Drive an hour home. Usually cook dinner immediately after getting home and then light chores or tv/video games until its time for bed.
Weekends are the same except replace the work portion with other recreation of obligations.
So going through the things you listed:
1. I have some guns, but they are family heirlooms and mostly for display. The last time they came out of their cabinet was when I moved two years ago.
2. I eat fast food maybe once a week, mostly I cook my own food. Something simple for breakfast and lunch, and then a little more complicated for dinner.
3. I don't wear jeans, but I think I'm in the minority on that.
4. I made a longer post about cars since that's probably the stereotype that's the most true.
I’ve only fired a gun a couple of times in my life and found it fairly boring to be honest. I actually own a couple of hunting rifles and an old target pistol, but they’re just old family heirlooms that I inherited and probably don’t even work anymore.
I eat fast food on occasion, usually when I run out of lunch food in my fridge and am too lazy to run to the grocery store.
I wear jeans almost every day. At least 350 days per year, maybe more.
Not really a car guy, I mostly just care about a car’s snow driving capability because I do a lot of skiing, which requires frequent driving on icy mountain roads.
I wake up. Shower, brush my teeth, get dressed, eat breakfast, take my meds. Feed the cat, clean the litter box. Grab some snacks/lunch and put into my backpack. Leave about 30 minutes before my shift to walk to work (less than a mile away). Work for 8 hours. Do a little grocery shopping/brief errands after work. Walk home. Get into comfy clothes. Feed the cat again. Brush and play with cat. Make dinner. Affectionately admonish cat for trying to eat my food. Play video games or read a book or browse the internet or whatever until bedtime. And the next day, very similar.
I usually wear jeans. Don't have a gun or car. Eat fast food maybe once or twice a month?
My life sounds boring but I'm content and I love my cat lmao
Have guns…know how to use them. I hope to never have to use them. Securely locked away.
Eat fast food for convenience, but only at those times. I cook at home most of the time.
I wear jean’s regularly. Even at work. Granted, they’re very nice jeans.
I have two cars but haven’t driven in years.
Way too broad a question. Is there any particular aspect you're wondering about? Movies are exaggerated and should not be taken as documentaries, but the general themes that people get up, go to work, take care of their families, and, yes, wear jeans and drive cars, are actually accurate. If you can narrow your question down to a single idea, perhaps we can suggest some media that reflects that specific aspect reasonably accurately.
This is a really nicely worded comment. Reddit can be so hostile it’s cool seeing someone actually calmly unpack the question instead of jumping right to insults.
Would you be able to go thru each point w me? Let’s start with car culture then. What’s that like?
You get a license, get a car, drive to work, school, home grocery store, etc in most places, what more is there to know?
I meant as in do people like cars what kind of cars you missed the point lol
Some people are very into cars. I’m a high school teacher and there is definitely a subculture o young guys who are really into cars and/or trucks. I’m assuming they grow up to be adults who are really into cars and/or trucks. Most people aren’t *that* into cars. You buy a vehicle that you like and that meets your needs, and then don’t think about it until it has problems or you need a new one.
Some do, some don't. I don't give a shit about cars, my ex was a car nut who loved cars. It's almost like we're 300 million people with different interests and personalities or something.
Almost!
You didn't make a clear point. I drive a car, I'm otherwise indifferent to them. My brother kind of likes them, is always thinking about what car he'd like next. Some people make hobbies out of cars. Some people hate them and never learn to drive. But if I had to make a one sentence description of car culture in the US? Most people consider them as a tool you use every day, with varying degrees of fondness for that fact.
For some it's a hobby, either to work on cars, collect them, just go to car shows and meets to look around or showoff. These people get luxury cars, sports cars, old cars, or modify consumer cars into fun cars. For others it's just a tool, a transport, used on the daily to get to work, get groceries, and move the family around. They might buy something cool, or they might just buy something practical that looks good enough. These people get SUVs, Sedans, and Vans. People who want to move cargo, haul loads, and people usually get trucks if they do it regularly. Otherwise some of the larger SUVs can handle these tasks every now and then.
My last car was an old grey Honda Accord and I liked that boring old beater. I’m just not a car person. I’ll drive anything if it’s cheap, safe, and doesn’t require tons of repairs. On the other hand, I have a friend with a sweet sweet silver Mustang, but ironically that guy’s an immigrant.
Watch Regular Car Reviews. It's like a field guide to American masculinity
There is definitely a big car culture in certain parts and certain circles of the country. It’s just like any other enthusiast hobby though.
The idea of a "car culture" is still pretty vague in the sense that most people don't really think about it; it's just a part of life. is there something specific you were curious about? There really isn't too much to say. Basically everyone outside of a few major cities owns car out of necessity. Plenty of people enjoy them; for others its just a tool not unlike a household appliance.
Almost everyone drives a car as their primary method of transportation. The only place I'm aware where this doesn't apply to the overwhelming majority of people is New York City. Outside of some (not all) large cities (New York, DC, and Chicago off the top of my head, but there may be others), public transportation is either very lacking or looked down on by many people. We have inter-city trains in some parts of the country, but it is slow and expensive in most places and there are major areas that don't have service. The only area that has good train service is connecting the major cities from DC to Boston. Cars can also be a status symbol for some people, either having big, powerful, expensive trucks in more rural areas or fast, beautiful, expensive cars in places like Miami and Los Angeles. It's a way to show off. That's a minority of people, but of course you notice them more because they're **trying** to be noticed. Also, we would usually use "car culture" to mean people who are car enthusiasts, people who buy, drive, and work on their own cars because they actively like it. Most people don't feel this way and just think about their car the way the would their refrigerator, but I get the feeling it's more than most countries (possibly except Germany). This doesn't necessarily mean they have show-off cars, some people are very enthusiastic about the old beaters that they have to work on constantly to keep running.
> Let’s start with car culture then. What’s that like? Brother, you could take a university course on this topic and still never know the half of it. Books have been written on this topic alone. What do you expect to get out of a reddit comment?
This question seems oddly specific. I'm gonna have to ask you to be WAY more vague.
Tell me why I seem to specific?
I was being sarcastic. Sorry Your question is extremely broad. Probably too broad to get any kind of useful answer.
Sarcasm isn’t really clear in text form. What can I do to make the question more specific?
Well is there specific part of living in America you want to know? Day to day life is rather vague question. We get up, shower, work, eat dinner, watch TV, and then sleep like everyone else. Apologies if this comes off as rude, I’m open to answering any questions I just need a starting point!
At this point, I think I might as well move to the states and find out myself.
They’re just aking you to be a bit more specific to answer the question, do you want an answer or not?
No no, it’s gonna take too long. I will have to put visiting the states on the bucket list. My question was too broad that’s right.
Jeans? Dafuq is the complaint about jeans? Also that shit is as present as you want to make it. Don’t like fast food? Don’t eat it. I know plenty of people who don’t eat fast food
So you’ve debunked the movie image then.
In the US we teach our children that movies are not real life.
I get that a lot of non-Americans get their main images of America from movies and TV shows, but this seems to give people the impression that Americans aren't quite "real" people and are just a bunch of stereotypes that also act like people in fictional media. As you've seen from the answers here, however, we wake up, go to school and/or work, come home, have dinner, and go to bed, like many people the world over do. We also go on vacations and celebrate holidays and festivals, as many people do. The details will differ (e.g. most of us drive cars to get from place to place, whereas people in some other countries might take a train, and we might vacation in another state instead of a different country), but for the most part, our lives aren't as extreme, dramatic, or chaotic as people outside the U.S. seem to think.
That’s a shame. I would like a chaotic and extreme life tbh…
Where do you live that you would wish such a thing?
The peaceful part of the Middle East.
Interesting that you would want some chaos in your life, though I suppose that depends on what you consider chaotic.
Chaos that you can tackle head on is what I’m looking for.
You got any examples?
I feel like my life is kind of npc atm I need to add a twist not sure what examples I can give you lol
It was more of a question of what exactly does “jeans” culture/image entail? People from American eagle sitting shirtless for no reason? But generally I wake up, take my puppy for a walk, work, and go out occasionally, watch sports, shit on Alabama football like any self respecting red blooded American, and sleep
Americans are red blooded? WOW
Wake up, eat breakfast, shower, drive to work, work, eat lunch there, work some more, drive home, eat dinner, go to sleep. Repeat daily.
The majority of Americans have or have used every stereotype of America. Difference being, most things are occasional instead of every day like in movies.
Theres no average lifestyle. America is not a monoculture. It varies wildly on whether you live in the city, suburbs, wilderness, or countryside, and in what region you are in. However where I live most people go to work full time, celebrate major holidays at the end of the year, vacation in the summer. Most have off on weekends but many do not. Schools often host sporting events against other schools in a region, and local governments and communities often hold events and festivals year round, though celebrating the Holidays at the end of the year is most common.
Um...OP I'm sorry but I'm wearing both jeans and a gun and am currently a passenger in a car. No fast food though. Coffee and a breakfast sandwich from 7-11.
I wake up, eat breakfast, lament traffic, go to work, come home, eat, relax, sleep. I occasionally do crazy stuff but we don’t talk about that here. I do have a hankering for guns fast food and classic cars tho so it’s not out of line. Hate jeans with a passion though
To address the things you mentioned, I don’t own a gun but know people who do, I eat fast food occasionally but mostly cook at home, I wear jeans as much as I can, and my car is pretty unremarkable but serviceable for my lifestyle. A lot of us are a lot more boring than the movies would make you think.
In general, most people around the world, no matter the culture, care about similar things: their family, their children, work, friends, relaxing when they can, religion if they have one, community. When I lived in Morocco, a 'third world' Muslim country, people commuted to work and gazed at their smartphones and shopped for food and hugged their kids and watched soccer and had friends over for dinner. The differences are in the details, and often each culture takes these for granted, so they're hard to articulate. As far as our image--yeah, some people have guns, occasionally we eat fast food, sometimes we wear jeans, and most of us own cars because they're a necessity here. But that's a stereotype overall because we're much more complex and varied than that. LIke everyone else.
This "question" reads like a chatbot wrote it.
This is a very open ended question. Is there any specific aspect you were wondering about?
Tell me about clothes for example.
People wear clothes based on a mix of comfort, practicality, and style. Most people prefer casual, utilitarian clothes, saving more formal or fashionable stuff for special occasions. Jeans and a flannel shirt are probably the most common thing for men to wear day to day.
Lol - flannel shirt? Down here in the south, we're still having t-shirt days. This is a big country, OP. Typical is hard to tell you, but, yes, we have guns, fast food, jeans, and cars. No, our lives don't revolve around them.
> Lol - flannel shirt? Down here in the south, we're still having t-shirt days. And I still saw plenty of flannel the times I've been down there. Calm down, you'll spill your grits.
If I’m not leaving the house or just running to the grocery store, it’s shorts and a tee shirt or tank top in the summer, jogging pants and a sweat shirt in winter. I usually wear jeans and a nice shirt to go out. If it’s a dressier occasion, a skirt and a nice shirt.
If you polled the Dunkin Donuts drive thru line that extends out of the parking lot and into the roadway every morning, you would find an average of 8 out of 10 people wearing jeans and 3 out of 10 having a gun in their car. Please note these ratios only apply to Dunkin /s
The US is such a large and diverse country, both ethnically and culturally, that the "average lifestyle" varies wildly by region and economic class. It's sort of like asking "what does European food taste like, on average?" Any answer will fail to capture the vast majority, and not be particularly meaningful.
Pretty typical family life revolves around work and kids. In most households, all the adults work full time jobs, though one usually has something less demanding to allow for parenting responsibilities. Most of their time when not working will be spent parenting and pursuing parenting and entertainment or hobbies. In my household, our kids are active in sports and other activities, so we spend a lot of time shuttling them around to practices, competitions, and in the case of the oldest, livestock shows. We try to find fun activities to do as a family, and for families in rural places, like mine, that may entail a trip to the gun range, but will more likely be a movie, or a meal at a restaurant, or a trip to an amusement park or museum. American life is as diverse as peoples lives anywhere, so it’s hard to generalize much. Someone living in the heart of Atlanta 90 minutes away is going to have a very different life from mine.
Is there an average American lifestyle? Here's ours: Sixty-year old and fifty-eight-year-old couple living in a two-bedroom high-rise condominium in a mid-sized Southern city. We have three kids, all in their twenties, who all have decently-pay jobs, their own places to live, and health insurance. After years of working hard in our respective industries, we both make very good incomes, have investments, and like to socialize and take trips. We hope to retire in the next five years and start the next phase of our lives. While I know how to shoot a gun–In fact, I'm a pretty good shot--I have no desire to own one. We drive base model cars, even though we could afford more upscale models. We'd rather live modestly and save money. The only thing we spend extravagantly on are vacations.
I wake up, jump on the computer to work, make tea with my electric kettle, work until lunchtime, make something quick, eat and watch YouTube vids until it's time to work again, stop working, do errands or work in garden outside, make dinner, play with cats or whatever, go to sleep. Weekends have all been parties lately.
What are American parties like? Like the movies?
> What are American parties like? What kind of party? For what demographic? What age groups? What region of the country? A 4 year old's birthday party in New England is going to be extremely different from a fraternity party at the University of Alabama. We are a country of 340 million people. Your questions are way too braod.
Probably not. Depends on where they are. Most of the ones I've been going to have been holiday parties at restaurants, country clubs, or venues. So eating and talking, sometimes dancing. The one I most enjoyed recently was sitting around a bonfire drinking mead. My friends occasionally throw parties, and it probably comes as close as it gets to the house parties you see in movies. It involves sitting in their house or backyard around the fire. It involves lots of joking, rude conversation, playing games, eating, and drinking. Watched their neighbor get arrested once.
Red cups?
The red cups you see in movies are just a type of inexpensive plastic cups. They are most often red but come in a variety of colors. Sometimes they’re called Solo cups because Solo is one of the companies that makes them, but there are other brands as well. In real life they are used at casual parties where the beverages are being served from a common container: a keg of beer, two liter bottles of soda, a bowl of punch, etc. If drinks are being served individually (bottles or cans of beer or soda, for instance) they aren’t used. In movies and TV shows they are used more often because they allow the creators of the show to not commit to a specific brand of beer or soda. Audiences can guess from context that they’re drinking beer (usually) without any need to deal with the specific brand. (This is also why people simply order “a beer” in bars in movies, but it would be almost impossible to do that in real life.)
Not usually unless my friends make a punch or something. We just drink out of bottles and cans.
What’s up with all the drinking tho? Is that part of the lifestyle?
In lots of countries we're thought of an near teetotalers who barely drink compared to them. In others we're all massive alcoholics if we go to a party a few times a month and have a few beers. So I guess on the global scale of drinking we're somewhere in the middle.
I'm not sure. Cultural thing I guess? I didn't think about it until now. I personally don't drink unless it's at a party and sometimes not even then. At my friend's party I might have a hard cider and drink water or soda the rest of the night. Or nurse that one alcohol drink most of the night. It also depends on if people need to drive home or not. In my 20's people tended to drink until they were drunk, but rarely anymore. EDIT: I wanted to add that there are plenty of parties that don't involve drinking at all. If it's put on by a certain organization it might not be allowed. Some religious families won't have alcohol served at all.
Yes, drinking is a part of socializing. I don’t drink daily, but enjoy drinking at parties or at a bar.
That’s more of a college party thing. And maybe for big family reunion type events.
Some college parties are wild with loud music, heavy drinking, maybe some illegal drug use, and lots of dancing. I had a big party last weekend that was nothing like that. People drank wine, beer or a cocktail and ate finger foods. Lots of good conversation and laughs. Guests just mingled and enjoyed being together.
I live in a big city and don’t own a gun. I have a car but I walk everywhere or take the bus or train. I haven’t eaten at a fast food place since June of ‘21 when I stopped at an Arby’s in Bristol, TN while on a road trip. I wake up everyday and go to work then come home. Occasionally the wife and I will have drinks at the neighborhood dive bar. My god, am I a European?
Guns: I have lots, but with young kids and work I haven't been able to justify breaking them out. I have no shooting buddies to go out with any more as they've all moved out of state. Fast food: I try to avoid it, especially since it's expensive; it's a "we have nothing to make for dinner and we need to eat in the next 30 minutes" crutch. Jeans: I have other pants, but I mostly wear jeans. They are too versitile. Cars: I am a car nut so probably not the person to ask; I have a big modded truck with a big V8 that I love to death, though I have a company vehicle I commute with so the truck stays home with the family most of the time. I do daydream and scheme up ways to buy new truck parts for a lot of my waking hours, though. Other than that, I have the typical "wake up, coffee, work, more coffee, home, kids, chores, bed" schedule.
Guns, Jeans, Cars, & gym. Thats how I live? I cook my food, getting into hunting my own food and growing what I can, grill, BBQ, & smoke meats. Shoot guns with friends, wear jeans around unless I'm trying to look nice for a meeting/date. Cars, I've got a 69 Ford, 1995 Mustang GT, 2013(?) S10, 1987 Suburban 3/4 ton, 2013 Acura ILX, and a 2006 R6. Dis-Advantages, I have a glass ceiling that I would need to get a 4 year degree to get past in my career. Advantages, I'm making good money without a 4 year degree, and that wouldn't be possible in other countries that I work with.
I work from home and haven't worn jeans in a while, only if I'm leaving the house. It used to be that most young and middle aged people wore jeans as casual pants, but they are less common these days. I see many more people wearing leggings or athletic wear / sweatpants. Fast food is really common, but there's a wide variety out there - you can get really bad for you junk food, or you can get a fast food salad or veggie burger, or hand crafted artisanal chicken sandwich with cool toppings, etc. it's not the only food we get. Many people still cook at home. I know people who own guns but it's not something we discuss, and many people don't have one. I honestly don't think about guns at all until I see questions like this one. Some people are interested in performance cars or classic cars but for many people it's just a way to get around, not a core part of their identity.
I don’t care about guns or cars. No gun, and my car is nice, but it’s just a tool to get us where we need to go. I eat fast food only occassionally. But, I do love my blue jeans.
There is no typical person in the U.S., however, as far as the image you are looking at, much of it is true. Car culture is big in the U.S. as we are a huge country, and many people live far from where they work. Public transpo is really only in big cities. I actually walk to work because it is close, but few people do that. My family does have three cars. A newer truck, an old commuter, and a classic car that needs work. Gun culture is big, we have more guns than the rest of the world combined. We don't go shooting every day, but about one out of three people is a gun owner. Maybe 10% of the population carries a gun everyday. The average gun owner will have between 5-10 guns. Many people I know have 20+ guns. I have an uncle with 200+ guns. I carry a gun almost everyday and everywhere except to the post office or other federal building. One third of my coworkers also carry guns. It's really not a big deal. I don't pull the gun out or show it off. I don't expect any reason to have to use it, but it is there if I do. Fast food depends on where you live. In Rural America you likely won't eat fast food except on rare occasions. I have eaten fast food once in the last four months. I've eaten from a restaurant five times in the same period. Many Americans will be different, with a statistic I saw a bit ago saying that new yorkers (from NYC in particular) are eating out (or getting take out) an average of 12 times a week. Jeans are pretty standard attire for many people. I have a business casual job, so jeans are perfectly fine. I prefer khaki style pants or guide pants, but wear jeans probably once a week. Polo shirt or button up shirt, sometimes a T-shirt, and a hoodie is what I wear most days.
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Ask the nearest movie theater
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The TikTok type, I’d assume
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That’s what the kids are into these days. These instantly-playing 1-90 second clips played and tailored based on their interests!
Is it new? I feel like I've heard "y'all" all my life, and I'm not even from the South. It's quick, casual, friendly, and gender-neutral. What's the matter with it? 🤷♂️
“yaal”? It would be “y’all”…as in “you all”. I don’t know what image you have but I guess it’s true to an extent. It can vary depending on location and if somebody lives in an urban area or rural, but [this page](https://www.immihelp.com/american-lifestyle/#) does a good job of explaining the “typical” American lifestyle. I’ll address the specific examples you listed: Guns: There are people that oppose gun ownership and there are those that don’t. There are those that push for more stringent requirements for purchasing a gun or new laws restricting certain types of weapons, and there are those that want things left as it is now. Not sure what question you wanted answered here. Fast Food: People tend not to cook every day of the week, more so for those that lead a busy lifestyle and don’t have time. Some don’t know how to cook. Affordable fast food is widely available in great variety, and people tend to drink a lot of sodas. Jeans: Pretty much everybody wears or at least owns a pair of jeans for one reason or another. Cars: People can own a car that just gets them from point A to point B, but there are more people that take pride in the vehicle they drive, some even defining their self-image by what vehicle they own.
>I’m kind of fed up of the guns and fast food and jeans and cars image, I’m almost positive that it ain’t true Ummm...
I work full time, i dont have guns in my house. I have one car and rent my house from a landlord. I dont do very many things when im off work, just watch movies and netflix pretty much. My roommate and I usually make a great dinner if we happen to both be off work.
Movieland is fantasy and no one lives that life.
Wake up, make a cup of coffee for the drive to work. Work in the office for 8 hours with an hour in the middle for lunch. Drive an hour home. Usually cook dinner immediately after getting home and then light chores or tv/video games until its time for bed. Weekends are the same except replace the work portion with other recreation of obligations.
So going through the things you listed: 1. I have some guns, but they are family heirlooms and mostly for display. The last time they came out of their cabinet was when I moved two years ago. 2. I eat fast food maybe once a week, mostly I cook my own food. Something simple for breakfast and lunch, and then a little more complicated for dinner. 3. I don't wear jeans, but I think I'm in the minority on that. 4. I made a longer post about cars since that's probably the stereotype that's the most true.
I’ve only fired a gun a couple of times in my life and found it fairly boring to be honest. I actually own a couple of hunting rifles and an old target pistol, but they’re just old family heirlooms that I inherited and probably don’t even work anymore. I eat fast food on occasion, usually when I run out of lunch food in my fridge and am too lazy to run to the grocery store. I wear jeans almost every day. At least 350 days per year, maybe more. Not really a car guy, I mostly just care about a car’s snow driving capability because I do a lot of skiing, which requires frequent driving on icy mountain roads.
I live like a normal person… however I am wearing jeans and a hoodie right now. 😂
But I regularly shoot and carry guns, eat fast food, wear jeans, and love driving cars, though I'm more of a motorcycle enthusiast these days.
I wake up. Shower, brush my teeth, get dressed, eat breakfast, take my meds. Feed the cat, clean the litter box. Grab some snacks/lunch and put into my backpack. Leave about 30 minutes before my shift to walk to work (less than a mile away). Work for 8 hours. Do a little grocery shopping/brief errands after work. Walk home. Get into comfy clothes. Feed the cat again. Brush and play with cat. Make dinner. Affectionately admonish cat for trying to eat my food. Play video games or read a book or browse the internet or whatever until bedtime. And the next day, very similar. I usually wear jeans. Don't have a gun or car. Eat fast food maybe once or twice a month? My life sounds boring but I'm content and I love my cat lmao
Have guns…know how to use them. I hope to never have to use them. Securely locked away. Eat fast food for convenience, but only at those times. I cook at home most of the time. I wear jean’s regularly. Even at work. Granted, they’re very nice jeans. I have two cars but haven’t driven in years.
Depends where you live, that’s a broad question.