How our homes have evolved

As we know, every human being needs food, clothing, and shelter, which are the basic necessities of life. This article is all about how shelter or our homes has evolved since the earliest man started living in the caves, and their importance in the future.

From a modest beginning of sheltering man from the vagaries of outside weather, our homes have evolved substantially over the last few centuries to attain a significant level of importance in our lives. In the agricultural age, man started acquiring land for farming activities and he would have his small house in the same land, so that he could rest and sleep the night after a hard day in the farms. As man became more affluent and wealthy, he acquired larger tracts of land and built houses according to his rich tastes and importance. In the industrial age, men started moving to cities and acquired and built houses with a neighborhood. Social calls and invitations became common as people started inviting each other to their homes. In ancient India, joint families became common because of large ancestral homes where the entire family stayed and bonded together. In the electronic age, our homes provided us entertainment and comfort through the widespread use of televisions, radios, refrigerator, and washing machines. As families became nuclear, our houses provided us the private space to relax and pursue our individual interests. Through the widespread use of home phones, we can talk to and be touch with family, friends, and distant relatives, right from the comfort of our homes.

In the modern information age (or Internet) age, our homes are at the center of our existence. From ordering our groceries, entertaining ourselves with the television and the computer, and pursuing individual interests like gardening, playing a guitar, and home decorations, our home is rightly where our heart (and all the action) is. With home schooling and virtual working (from home) on the constant rise, current homes provide a comfortable and safe environment to realize our potential. While women still dominate the home maker space, today’s man does not hesitate to stay at home to either be a stay-at-home dad or to convert his home space into an office. This is also a convenient trend among nuclear families, where parents do not have the support system for their children in their absence.

An increasing number of companies are willing to allow their employees to work from their homes, as this saves them the business cost of providing office space. With regards to home schooling, the current education system is increasingly unable to provide quality education to all students. With home schooling and distant education, students can learn from the comforts of their home at their own pace, and at the same time, not compromise on their academic future.

With advances in technology providing us smart, intelligent, and green homes, are future homes going to be self-sufficient in providing us much more than shelter, education, workplace, and entertainment? Going by the huge improvements, it sure looks likely.

Here’s looking forward to making our homes our own complete hangout for everything.