What is DIY? What does DIY mean?
DIY stands for “Do It Yourself”, and means literally what this phrase stands for: it is the way to build, repair, modify or upgrade something without looking for the help of professionals. In terms of our website, a DIY essay means that written without the assistance of our essay writing service.
Researches define DIY behavior as those making individuals use raw or half-raw parts or materials to reconstruct, produce and transform things they own including those they get from the nature. There are various potential reasons causing a do-it-yourself behavior, and these reasons have previously been separated into two categories:
- Market motivators (economic benefits, unavailability of products, no product quality, customization needs)
- Identity motivators (empowerment, looking for communities, unique interests support, craftsmanship).
The definition of “do it yourself” started being connected to consumers since at least the year 1912. First of all, it meant different kinds of activities having things in common with home improvement and other maintenance procedures. The saying “do it yourself” itself appeared in widespread speech (in classic English) in early 1950s, as a link to the necessity of a trend. It meant people providing home improvement and other little craftsmanship, building and construction concepts and pro primarily in the domain of home improvement and maintenance activities.
Later on, the abbreviation got a much wider meaning in terms of various bunches of skills. DIY meaning includes different rock music genres like indie, punk or alternative styles of international scale. Indie media webs, pirate radio stations and many other things may be referred to DIY field.
Here, the do-it-yourself concept has many things in common with the Arts and Crafts initiative, as it presents some kind of alternative for the modern society of consumption, and denies counting on other people to provide a person with what he or she needs. This idea also prevailed in the field of private finances: DIY-people preferred to make investments and other important financial decisions on their own, without looking for the service of professional financial advisors.
Some DIY Meaning History
Archaeologists from Italy once found the ruin of a structure that belonged to Greek people of the 6th century BC having detailed guides about how to assemble it. Like an ancient building of IKEA, you know. So, DIY meaning was known in ancient times, though the term itself was not yet introduced.
In the Northern America, a branch of DIY magazines appeared in early 20th century with magazines like Popular Mechanics (1902) and Mechanix Illustrated (1928) meaning a solution helping readers to stay posted about contemporary tools, material, techniques and skills. Multiple readers of those magazines lived in rural areas, the main part of the material touched the topic of their farm or small farm lives.
Nowadays, a DIY meaning became a bit different: it can have the meaning of a sub-culture, a hobby and a troubleshooting method.
What Does DIY Mean in Fact?
The "do-it-yourself" definitions can also have the meaning of:
- Zines, books, alternative comics released on a self-publishing basis.
- Music groups or musicians who release their tracks funding record labels on their own.
- Different homemade things based on the 3R’s principle (Recycle, Reuse, Reduce). A very widespread definition in different ecology-protection initiatives that try to convince people reuse and recycle old things instead of producing more and more wastes.
- Crafts meaning: handmade jewelry, crochet, sewing, knitting, DIY gifts and souvenirs, ceramics and so on.
- Invitation, business card, and other paper design meaning.
- Indie or punk merchandise items related to music while using the wastes or recycled materials.
- Game development provided by independent small game studios and game modding performed by a group of friends.
- DIY in scientific meaning: scientists use open-source hardware supplies to assemble the scientific stuff and equipment in order to provide certain “civil researches” or to show that science can be cheap.
More DIY Meaning of Subculture
In a meaning of a subculture, DIY movement started to show up in the 1970s when the punk initiative got its popularity. Music bands started to record their tracks, to release albums, to book their tours and to produce merchandize without using services of serious and famous music production labels or agencies. Scene decorations, musical instruments and all the equipment was owned by a group, not provided by producers. Some groups even found ways how to make a DIY projector and to use it in shows. In some words, musicians tried to reach their fans directly, on a DIY basis.
Since then, DIY meaning began to cover more and more fields of human activities. It became a kind of a hobby for one group of people, and a kind of a social protest for others: DIY meaning deeply entered the anti-consumerism ideology and became one of its instruments to struggle against the society of consumption.
How DIY Helps in Self-Development
For students, the do-it-yourself stuff can become a good support in studying and self-development. One can find certain topics to research them on his or her own and then use the results for essay writing, coursework or dissertation texts. Programming and IT students might try to develop independent software solutions for certain goals in order to test their knowledges, to use skills in practice and to find new possibilities for professional activity.
Other people might go in for the DIY as a hobby, too. It is always interesting to get new practical experience or to study certain topics in order to make your outlook wider. Modern world also demands professionals to be inventors and innovators, and the do-it-yourself definition has a lot in common with them: you learn how to solve troubles and to optimize things yourself, without relying on the expert. That’s great.
What does DIY mean, then? In fact, DIY means self-development.
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