Technology is a great thing.
We are now able to do so much more than we used to in the past. We can converse with others who are on the other side of the country or the world! We can see our friends via a video screen while teleconferencing. There was a recent news report on how that very device saved a woman’s life the other day. So yes, it’s a wonderful thing.
Improvements in technology helps us to stay in touch with our family when we’re traveling, or if we get in trouble on the road, communication has made vast strides with Emails, IMs and Text Messaging (although I don’t like the fact that this is not necessarily good for the younger generation, what with spelling and grammar issues).
Televisions have become bigger, flatter and with so much more programming perk its mind boggling.
There is a bad part to all this though, some people, experts even, feel that all these improvements have made us lazy. We lose ourselves because we are so inundated with the easy way of doing something that we cannot function without them.
I beg to differ on this though. As much as some people like to think this, technology and all the improvements that have been made to make our lives better is not the reason why so many of us are becoming lazy and/or out of shape.
Technology is not to be blame.
Those devices that make our lives so much more efficient are not to blame, we are. After all, the devices themselves don’t hop into our hands and convince us to use them, we use them because we want to and that’s ok.
The problem is how we use them.
When we use them, everything around us tends to be forgotten. We zone out reality and tune in to the screen in front of us. And it doesn’t matter what size that screen is anymore, because even a cellular phone has all the attractions of a television and a computer.
We sit for hours in front of the device we are using, mesmerized by what we’re doing. We forget that we have reports to write, or dinner to cook or the kids to pick up and we’re late picking them up. Someone didn’t go to the grocery because they got caught up playing the video game or using the handheld device.
There’s such a good movie playing in the DVD player that someone can’t pull themselves away from it to go outside and play with the kids, or to do the laundry. We fill up on popcorn, chips, and anything salty and sweet, this makes our time even more addictive.
Now if these are what most of us do, no wonder we’re becoming lazy and fat!
So it’s not the fault of technology or the improvements we make in our lives when we use these equipments or devices that we no longer show an interest in being physically active. It’s our fault, yours and mine. We all do it at some point or another, and now our children are as addicted as we are.
Tell me something, if you leave home and forget to take your cell phone with you, and you’re almost at your destination, do you go back for it? Would you be able to function at all for the day without it?
Would it compare to the same feeling if you leave your watch at home? You probably wouldn’t return to get the watch but you will return to get the cell phone, right?
I guess it’s a matter of how convenient all these devices are. Let’s face it; I do a check when my husband, kids or I are leaving home. Especially if we’re going in different directions. Keys, check; books, check; money, check; cell phone, check; head….LOL! I even say that too and it usually gets a laugh!
Technology has made our lives better and we can’t seem to live without all the improvements and that’s the truth.
But we must remember not to get so inundated that we forget to move our bodies. We have to get up and stretch, take a break, read a book, talk to your kids, neighbor or your other half.
Let’s remember that we do need human contact and we do need to be healthy.