The Curse of Modern Conveniences

[JeffN]

When I was lecturing in the mid to late 90's, I had a section in one of my talks about how we expend less energy. One slide was called, The "Curse of Modern Conveniences" and, using numbers from the CDC, showed the impact modern conveniences were having in contributing to us becoming a sedentary nation.

For nostalgia sake, here are 4 of the slides.



We called these modern conveniences, energy savers, not realizing that the energy (calories) we were saving was showing up on our bodies in the form of excess weight/fat.

This week, this article came out in the NY Times. It looks at the impact of convenience from a broader perspective.

The Tyranny of Convenience
Tim Wu
FEB. 16, 2018
SundayReview
NY Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/16/opin ... ience.html

This idea — convenience as liberation — could be intoxicating. Its headiest depictions are in the science fiction and futurist imaginings of the mid-20th century. From serious magazines like Popular Mechanics and from goofy entertainments like “The Jetsons” we learned that life in the future would be perfectly convenient. Food would be prepared with the push of a button. Moving sidewalks would do away with the annoyance of walking. Clothes would clean themselves or perhaps self-destruct after a day’s wearing. The end of the struggle for existence could at last be contemplated.

The dream of convenience is premised on the nightmare of physical work. But is physical work always a nightmare? Do we really want to be emancipated from all of it? Perhaps our humanity is sometimes expressed in inconvenient actions and time-consuming pursuits.

We have replaced physical labor with modern conveniences and then look towards formal exercise as a way to try and burn that energy saved.

Perhaps we need a return to a more physical life even in just our everyday activities.

It's benefit may be way more then just burning calories.

In Health
Jeff