The easy life is killing us..

When I say 'US' I mean our brains, us. I could rant about how modern day society is bad for our souls but that's a whole other thread. The issue I am hoping to engage some discussion with is this..

The convenience and ease of our current lifestyle is beginning to mush up our brains. Even as I am typing this on my phone I am using predictive text.. because I'm lazy. I'm lazy in this regard because of the ease of which predictive text/spell check offers... Why concentrate on spelling like when at school when a computer can do it for me? Now I have a harder time spelling then I used to when writing on paper.. That's just one example of convenience 'de-evolving' the human mind.

Convenience foods.. microwaveables, boil in the bag, cook from frozen.. ready-to-eat meals.. you get the idea.. lazy young people are encouraged to buy these smart, 'nutritious' and easy meals which render them absolutely useless at cooking. I honest to god know more males my age compared to females that can cook. I guess this is maybe because males have larger appetites than females and are more inclined to want a little bit more to nom than a pathetic little pasta pot.

The internet.. now don't get it twisted I love the internet both for entertainment, education and socialization but it also has downsides(deserves a whole thread in itself really).. Kids no longer go outside or read or play sports... they play online gaming or browse Facebook. Not all kids.. but a majority.

What is all this ease and convenience doing to us? Its turning our brains and bodies to mush. Especially our children as they are brought straight into this world of technological ease, more so than we were, the generation before us and so on.

Where does that leave us? On a downward ever steeper spiral of moral neglect, laziness and stupidity.

Can anyone think of any more examples of ease or convenience being a big detriment to a form of our well being? I would have gone on more but I'm afraid the op is already a wall of text.

Dont know about others, but I enjoy an easy life. I think thats pretty much all we can really hope for in this life, I enjoy taking it easy, im not lazy by any stretch, I do a lot of work and am fairly active, but one thing I make sure off is that I have a very easy life.

Its awesome.

Originally posted by Murad
Dont know about others, but I enjoy an easy life. I think thats pretty much all we can really hope for in this life, I enjoy taking it easy, im not lazy by any stretch, I do a lot of work and am fairly active, but one thing I make sure off is that I have a very easy life.

Its awesome.

Yeah being relaxed is good and healthy but there is a fine line between relaxed and lazy.

We live in the age of one stop shopping, where instead of spending hours driving around for what you need...Walmart has it....and people love that.


I would say that the trend of increased convenience will continue on far into the future and it will help us evolve in conjunction with technology.

Implants, bionics etc will vastly increase convenience, i see it as our next evolutionary step. Assuming you subscribe to the theory of evolution

While I do agree that kids become fat from staying inside too much and unhealthy diet from lazy parents, I don't think predictive typing on computers hurts anything. There was spell check before that, and a dictionary before that. This changes nothing. I still reread my typing when I believe it matters and double check it. These methods are just faster, but all give the same result. If anything now people realize that all along they were spelling simple words wrong...

reply to post by TechUnique


I dunno how it is for you mate, but I use the conveniences of modern life to make my life easier, do I want to spend hours trying to get in a busy city center, trudge through a shopping malls, buying one thing here, one thing there, 2 things over there, maybe do some more driving, stuck in traffic, buy something else there.

Nah screw that, think ill use the internet instead, next day delivery sounds to me!, now time to relax and do the things i want to do, not the things I dont want to do.

Originally posted by Poopooplatter
While I do agree that kids become fat from staying inside too much and unhealthy diet from lazy parents, I don't think predictive typing on computers hurts anything. There was spell check before that, and a dictionary before that. This changes nothing. I still reread my typing when I believe it matters and double check it. These methods are just faster, but all give the same result. If anything now people realize that all along they were spelling simple words wrong...

When using only a dictionary you are psychologically more inclined to remember a word for longer because it takes longer to find the spelling.

This is honestly the truth, think about it. You can use this 'formula' in many different ways.

Originally posted by Murad
reply to post by TechUnique

 

I dunno how it is for you mate, but I use the conveniences of modern life to make my life easier, do I want to spend hours trying to get in a busy city center, trudge through a shopping malls, buying one thing here, one thing there, 2 things over there, maybe do some more driving, stuck in traffic, buy something else there.

Nah screw that, think ill use the internet instead, next day delivery sounds to me!, now time to relax and do the things i want to do, not the things I dont want to do.

Yes, convenience can better the quality of our life but push it too far and it borders on laziness. Remember there is a fine line between relaxation and laziness. One being productive and endearing, the other being counterproductive and a detriment to the quality of life.

reply to post by TechUnique

What is all this ease and convenience doing to us? Its turning our brains and bodies to mush. Especially our children as they are brought straight into this world of technological ease, more so than we were, the generation before us and so on.

Maybe I'm out of touch on this subject but it seems that it's more the feeling of useless and being constrained by society as a whole that's the root cause of the malaise. People stay distracted in whatever ways they can if there's nothing great to aspire to that someone else isn't already doing or doesn't have a patent on or isn't against the law.

But the outlandish stats on the number of people taking anti depressants is a big clue that many mushy brains are engineered.

Originally posted by TechUnique

Originally posted by Poopooplatter
While I do agree that kids become fat from staying inside too much and unhealthy diet from lazy parents, I don't think predictive typing on computers hurts anything. There was spell check before that, and a dictionary before that. This changes nothing. I still reread my typing when I believe it matters and double check it. These methods are just faster, but all give the same result. If anything now people realize that all along they were spelling simple words wrong...

When using only a dictionary you are psychologically more inclined to remember a word for longer because it takes longer to find the spelling.

This is honestly the truth, think about it. You can use this 'formula' in many different ways.

What about the easy words that were wrong all along, that you never looked up because you didn't know better?

Originally posted by frazzle
reply to post by TechUnique

 

What is all this ease and convenience doing to us? Its turning our brains and bodies to mush. Especially our children as they are brought straight into this world of technological ease, more so than we were, the generation before us and so on.

Maybe I'm out of touch on this subject but it seems that it's more the feeling of useless and being constrained by society as a whole that's the root cause of the malaise. People stay distracted in whatever ways they can if there's nothing great to aspire to that someone else isn't already doing or doesn't have a patent on or isn't against the law.

But the outlandish stats on the number of people taking anti depressants is a big clue that many mushy brains are engineered.

edit on 5-8-2012 by frazzle because: (no reason given)

Totally agree! Antidepressants are a huuuuuuge part of the problem.

Originally posted by Poopooplatter

Originally posted by TechUnique

Originally posted by Poopooplatter
While I do agree that kids become fat from staying inside too much and unhealthy diet from lazy parents, I don't think predictive typing on computers hurts anything. There was spell check before that, and a dictionary before that. This changes nothing. I still reread my typing when I believe it matters and double check it. These methods are just faster, but all give the same result. If anything now people realize that all along they were spelling simple words wrong...

When using only a dictionary you are psychologically more inclined to remember a word for longer because it takes longer to find the spelling.

This is honestly the truth, think about it. You can use this 'formula' in many different ways.

What about the easy words that were wrong all along, that you never looked up because you didn't know better?

That's one benefit apart from the benefit of convenience.. everything has a polarity or ratio. Its deciding in which way something swings more so.

We seem to be losing common sense and basic problem solving skills as a result. Even our memories are negatively effected, because we don't have to remember things as much. Take phone numbers and addresses for example.

i see where your comeing from op but i try to veiw it like this
-the more efficient my life is the time i have for may true passions family, music, art and being active in my communitys

You mean if it was like the Venus project and clean advanced technology where people contributed a they wished from their talents and interests, and were creative, this is just not your cup of tea. You prefer hard physical manual labor and a constant reset , no advancements.

Even in advanced worlds some choose to rough it, and there are no controllers like here in good worlds, but freedom.

However, thats not my cup of tea. I like to be truly free and creative.

To me, we've all been there, done it, the past, and the survival thing has grown really tiresome.

Its time to take out the real technology, so we don't rely on fossil fuels, the real science, you know how a TR3B flies, its not on fuel.

And free this planet into abundance, not scarsity.

Because its not up to the controllers whether we spend forever in the past, or if we want to live our dreams, paint, sculpt, counsel, teach, garden, invent, explore, assist, whatever we can dream of.

So no, not tired of technology. But tired of scarsity and living in an artificial bubble and scientific lie.

I agree with the OP, and his message was not saying that an easy life is not enjoyable. He is right. But who knows what the future has in store for the human race. I just hope it's a simple plan.

I get a kick out of the whole, talking to a cell phone, that converts your voice into text, and then sends it to a "friend". If you talk to your phone, why not just talk to your friend?

I don't think it's an easier life at all.
It's a harder life in many respects.

I think both students and tutors got away with a lot more when essays were hand written.
Firstly one could adjust the "size" of the writing that nobody really wanted to write, and nobody really wanted to read.
With exact word-counts that's now much harder.
Little plagiarisms were squirreled away into academic or PhD libraries.
Now they're on-line, with all kinds of devices for constant scrutiny in case somebody doesn't like you.

The private is now public for a whole generation on social networks.

If anything one has to become sharper, better ... and in SA the competition is hardly from the North Atlantic countries (old hat) - it is now China and India.
People with a hunger to succeed and change their circumstances, and a great work ethic.
They speak our tongue while we haven't bothered to learn anything else.

Maybe other countries still have enough military and cultural clout, and social security for now not to notice it.
But there are new achievers on the planet, while some Westerners still think its OK to tell their kids to be socialist hippies.
Many Western youth are already very behind, and if all fails, destined to be just a new slum dwelling under-class: at worst little more than prostitutes and drug mules.
Now that's a bit pessimistic, and I'm obviously not saying all will end up that way, but it's frightening to even consider.
But without putting a great effort into their education and future - well, what can they do?

Now we talk to the rest of the world and we really have to consider our positions and ways of representing our countries.

I think one fast-food meal that's honestly earned by work or study is better than a ton of home-cooked, self-righteous and delusional plates of hot air that came from the same transport and exploitation routes minus the laughable smug.

Competition is tougher, personal information is easier to project, and morality is much more difficult to define in a global context where privilege is rare, and no Western sob story can even compare to the hell some of these people worked themselves up from.

This is not the "easy life".
Catch a wake up!


(No offense to anyone intended, just another view.)