Why are we less formal in 21st century America?

I know that it's a whole post world war two thing, but I just wanted to get more in depth with it.

In my country club everybody is formal,
When I was at the Ritz last week for a dinner party, everybody was formal there.

But I'm referring to the mass
Especially the youth mass

The mainstream american youth.
They are not formal at all, they are rather pedestrian and ill-bred.

I know that there was always informal people, but even middle class families in the past were more formal than now.
They wore formal clothes, they had a formal way of speaking,

One needs only to look at photos in pre world war 2 America to see that nobody wore T shirts and Sports shoes all the time.

Why has America become this way?
Almost every country if you think about it.

Because new generations are slowly starting to find a world where we don't really care what other people do as long as it doesn't hurt to be more appealing. Just look at the LGBT community, and what an enormous amount of progress it's made over more recent years. People want new ways to express themselves, to be more individual, and there's nothing wrong with that. Why does it matter if someone is dressed formally? It's their clothes, their choice, we don't get to tell people what we can and can't wear, it's not up to us to make decisions for other people.

In the end, formal speaking and/or dressing doesn't at all imply that someone is a good person. I've often found that the more formal someone is, the more often they're harsh, restrictive, judgmental people who think anyone that isn't like them or agrees with them is somehow below them. Then I look at the place where I take guitar classes: The folks who walk around there wear baggy, ripped clothes. Most of the guys have hair covering their shoulders and the women have it dyed in colours like pink or green. I'm sure that plenty people who've seen them walking on the streets have judged them as dangerous or lowlife people, yet as it turns out, they're actually for very patient, kind, accepting and open minded. Anyone of any shape or size is welcome there, I've seen an extremely formally dressed man in his 60s get lessons from a man in his 20s with a three sizes too large heavy metal shirt and dark blue hair, and neither of them seemed to judge the other at all. Don't use someone's level of formal appearance as a way to judge whether someone is good or bad.

In early America workers and farmers dressed for work. Dressing for Church or weddings was about it. When traveling it was special so they dressed for it so they didn't look low class. Professionals in cities wore suits and service workers like nurses and housekeepers wore uniforms to show what they were.

Now we don't dress even for Christmas at home people might put on a red sweatshirt but with jeans. Maybe because we don't care or judge as much by clothing especially on the west coast. I don't even own dress clothing if invited to a wedding I would need to go shopping.

Bc ever since the start of pop culture, rock and roll. It changed everything and went global. The 50s created the teenager. It was a huge revolution, kids didn't want restrictions. Pop culture actually changed America for the better, to include Europe and Germany. Teens around the world wanted to be like American teenagers. But their are many styles in the USA,. Watch Teenagers, a documentary about the revolution of pop culture that changed America and the world. It's not only about the way we dress but it's a statement about freedom and believe in what you want. It's history and it's important, don't forget what people fought for and always move forward.

I agree with you. I recently saw some footage of the Great 1938 Hurricane where people were helping people in the aftermath of that horrible storm. The men were wearing SUITS!

I believe technology is responsible for the lax in social formalities.
And that technology I'm speaking of begins with the convenience of new inventions in the household, created five decades ago to the present iPhone 6 of today. So much technology has replaced human interaction and with that, people have become more and more detached from what civilization was like prior to the past 50 years.

Technology is going to be the downfall of society, in my opinion.
It has already diluted our world in so many ways.

I could go on and on about this subject but wish not to rant.