Having a specific "lifestyle" implies a conscious or unconscious choice between that group of characteristics and some other group of characteristics.
Lifestyles provide targeting for advertisers and marketers as they endeavor to match aspirations with products.
In sociology, a lifestyle may come pre-packaged with a matching appropriate worldview.
The word "lifestyle" apparently first appeared in 1939. (Previous generations may not have needed the concept.)
Alvin Toffler predicted an explosion of lifestyles ("subcults") as diversity increases in post-industrial societies.
See also: