The 20th century can be considered the age of critical changes in society. Humanity entered this period with patriarchal values and stereotypical judgments that had been relevant for the bigger part of history. These included gender and racial discrimination, male dominance, and the lack of tolerance. However, WWI and WWII became two shocks that promoted the fundamental changes in mentalities. The deaths of millions of people demonstrated the increased importance of human life, regardless of individuals’ culture, religion, gender, and skin color. People of different nationalities fought together to survive, which demonstrates the outdated and unfair nature of racism and discrimination. These events impacted people’s consciousness and preconditioned the rise of civil movements, which, in their turn, cultivated tolerance and equality.
The global recession of the 1930s, the Great Depression, and the 2008 financial crisis became other factors that preconditioned the drastic changes in society. They demonstrated the increased importance of employment, stable income, and family support. In general, the family remained the social institution that played a critical role in the evolution of society. The traditional values such as love, devotion, respect, and support preserved their high importance in the 20th and 21st centuries and impacted people’s behaviors by providing support in turbulent times. For example, the critical role of the family as the facilitator of positive change can be evidenced by the increased topicality of equality today. Trying to acquire the legal right to engage in relations with people they love, individuals struggled for tolerance and recognition of minorities rights. It resulted in the formation of a unique environment we can observe today.
Finally, in recent decades people have witnessed the blistering rise of technologies that have become an integral part of the modern world. They enter all spheres of human activity and change traditional approaches to boost effectiveness and achieve better outcomes. For this reason, contemporary society can be described as a digitalized one as the majority of processes are performed by using computers, including business operations. However, the family remains an important social institution that might impact the further evolution of the world as it affects people’s mentalities and choices.