Drawing upon ethnographic data, this article discusses the adoption of technologies into everyday life in People's Poland, in the wider theoretical context of the consumer revolution or a shift in consumption patterns towards fashion. There were two mechanisms of the consumer revolution in People's Poland: collective usefulness and modern hedonism. For the mechanism of collective usefulness, the main factors in the shift in consumption patterns were the state-controlled propaganda of 'progress' and the domestication of technology. Household appliances were adopted as necessities that helped people fulfil their needs, in line with the idea of 'progress' propagated by the authorities of People's Poland in the postwar period. In the process of the domestication of technology, customarily female activities were changing into flexible practices of using household appliances driven by fashion. In the case of modern hedonism, the main factor in the shift towards fashion was the 'advertising' of a Western standard of living in American films shown on television in the 1960s. The course of the consumer revolution was diversified by gender, social class and generation.

The domestication of technology in People's Republic of Poland was the key factor in the shift towards consumer society. Drawing upon ethnographic data, this article discusses the meanings of the social practices of domestication of technologies in the second half of the twentieth century in Poland. The practices of domestication of technologies were organized around the meanings of progress and comfort. The discourse of progress was legitimized and propagated by the socialist state. The narratives of comfort were rooted in everyday experience of the interlocutors. The meanings of the practices of domestication of technology differed among historical generations.

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The article contains an attempt to discuss the “socialisation” of elderly people today. In the 20th century there were considerable changes within the family, the relationships between old parents and adult children underwent gradual transformation — links formerly based on collaboration, dependence and togetherness were replaced by relationships of the type of “staying in contact” and symbolic exchanges. In Poland, especially in the countryside these changes occurred over a longer period than in the west due to the later introduction of retirement and the traditions of extended families. In the 20th century however there occurred at the same time changes in the feelings of communality — instead of relationships based on physical contact and geographical closeness, there developed symbolic groups and communities, often based on indirect means of communication. An effect of the loosening of the ties between the generations in a family and changes in the form of communality is loneliness which is declared by a considerable number of old people in Poland who in their youth had been socialized in communities characterized by physical closeness and joint participation in everyday activities. On the basis of ethnographic studies in Warsaw the article presents four case studies which serve as examples of the lifestyles of four elderly women in families with stronger and looser relationships and in other types of groups/communities: in a daycare centre and non-governmental organization.