How lazy do you want to be?

Research and new innovative developments is what makes us better human beings. Many agree to this but I sometimes feel that all these developments apart from the problems it solves, is making us only lazier by the day. Take for example, in old days or even a couple of generations back, people washed clothes by hand, grinded what they needed for cooking by hand, lot of activities involved manual labor. With the physical exercise that they got, their average life expectancy was 80+ years. But nowadays, we have machines to do all these chores and we seldom get our exercise so we have to end up in a gym to get our exercise done and to stay healthy. Nowadays, doctors and researchers say that we have to try to walk or bike to work to stay healthy and to keep the environment free of pollution. They also say that gardening or doing household work or climbing stairs instead of using elevators would get our cardio workout done. Though, having invented machines like elevators and cars to simplify our lives, we are only backtracking to old ways in the name of becoming healthy.

Cell phones are another good example of innovative technology. While cell phones have made it easier for us to communicate to others from wherever (apart from the problems that is has like the calls not going through because of weak signals or the person on the other end will never know if you are at work working or at the library working on your research paper like you had said or whether you are sight-seeing at Shenandoah), it also has made us lazy. Many (up to 66%) use their cell phone mainly for texting or playing games that are downloaded in it rather for talking. Incidents of texting while driving or walking and getting into accidents are many in number that is heard on the news on a daily basis. Spending so much time on the tiny lit screen has proved detrimental to kids and teens being near sighted. Should anyone be surprised when a research is run to see why kids these days are nearsighted after the fact that you gift wrap a cell phone for their use?

When I was hearing the news on the way to work, I heard a report that a group of researchers are creating an innovative idea on stopping the ringing cell phone that is in the pocket without having to take it out. The method to stop ringing is to smack the cell phone in a particular way on a particular place where the cell phone is. Also, you can smack another way to send a message back to the caller that they are busy and that they have to call back later. Imagine this situation for a bit – You have the cell phone in your pant pocket (or hip clip) and you are in a meeting. The phone rings (technically you would have turned it off or set on vibrate before the meeting) and in the midst of the meeting with your Manager or Director, you are performing smack dance, smacking your self on the leg (or waist). Is that not funny? Are they going to reinvent Morse code for communicating silently over the cell phone?

How much lazier do you want to get? Is it that difficult to lead a simple life rather than having to use all the gadgets and machines? Why do we need new innovations when we only try to get back to old ways in some time in the name of getting healthy?