Title: The 1990s Lifestyles and Social Trends: Overview | Encyclopedia.com
Headings: The 1990s Lifestyles and Social Trends: Overview
The 1990s Lifestyles and Social Trends: Overview
The 1990s Lifestyles and Social Trends: Overview

Content: Americans built bigger and more elaborate homes and drove more expensive automobiles, then worked longer hours to pay for them. Americans spent more, borrowed more, and went more deeply into debt. They drank more coffee, smoked more cigars, and turned gambling into a national pastime. Children struggled to deal with the pressures of the adult world to which they were increasingly exposed, and many were forced to adjust to new step-families. Meanwhile, a disturbing number of adolescent and teenage boys went on deadly shooting rampages that left dozens dead or wounded and a troubled nation asking why. Even as Americans decried the rise in gun violence, guns nevertheless found their way into more households during the 1990s than ever before. Men endured a crisis of masculinity. Gays and lesbians came closer to entering the American mainstream, yet they often faced violent assaults and an antigay backlash. Mass shootings, many of them involving children or teenagers, dominated American headlines during the decade. There was a growing sense among many Americans that no one was safe from unpredictable gun violence.