Two speakers trace how Asian families shifted from multigenerational homes to nuclear households as industrialization and Western influence took hold. Living alone now offers privacy and autonomy but strips away communal support. Individualistic societies prioritize personal freedom while collectivist ones demand conformity to group norms.
Yeah, oh, that's, that's really beautiful insight to have. I think that's a very non-Western tradition. Exactly.
Like, that's so many countries and cultures just prioritize, like, you are part of a group, you are not by yourself. Does India have the same thing?
I would say, I would say in my own experiences, I definitely feel like you do so much more for the society and for your culture and for the, the overall group. Uh, there's much more of a rely— I think now it is changing. I think now as people are moving towards having the nuclear families of just more people. Yeah. Before it used to be like, it was very common to just like move in with your family. Like you, if you are married, you, your spouse would just come live with the rest of your family and you would live in these really large group setting in group homes. But as industrialization happened and as people like go into modern life, people are mimicking what they see in the West where it's like, okay, no, you know what? This is my parents' home. It's my grandparents' home. This is our home. Yeah. And I think that disconnect— I think there's pluses and minuses. Yeah, you're right. I was gonna say, yeah, because when you live in a group home, you kind of lose access to privacy. You're kind of like, one person is delegated as a decision maker, and there's a lot of clashes that may or may not happen. Yeah, it might have been out of necessity back then. Yeah, but now when everybody has the affordability, everybody has the opportunity to live by themselves, that's what they prioritize.
There's also a societal pressure when you're so community-minded. You are pressured to obey and follow what the community dictates, as opposed to when you are, um, when you have an individualistic point of view, you are more free to decide for yourself and not really depend on, you know, the rest of the society.
Exactly, exactly. And I think the same can be said in a lot of different Asian cultures. I think as it progresses, people are valuing their individual identities, Zach, rather than for the group. Yeah.
