What does it mean to be active in a sedentary society? Paradoxes on lifestyle and leisure of Spanish youth

Abstract

Sedentarism has become one of the major concerns of our times. Most people spend a large part of their daytime sitting down, most movement taking place by mechanical means, rather than by walking. Younger generations do little more sport today than their counterparts did a decade ago. In other words, sedentary habits have become common in our society, especially among the young. To understand this phenomenon we should ask what is sedentarism for young people. Are they aware that their lives are sedentary?What cultural mechanisms have contributed to this? What are the consequences of a sedentary lifestyle for our health and well-being? These are the questions we have asked in this study. We have been working on this topic for some time; in this paper we present the results from a qualitative study among the Spanish young adults. These results provide important clues to better understand how sedentarism has become normalized among the new generations of citizens.