By David Smith
Why are people so lazy? Could it be from the rapid development of technology? It seems these days that people do things the easiest way possible. With all the modern day advances that we’ve had people spend more time on the couch and less time at work or play. Is technology making us lazy? Has technology made life too easy? Some may argue that technology is suppose to make life easier, but technology is crippling are way of life. Technological advances are making people lazy. The more technology people have the lazier they become. Technology makes it easy enough for us to go through life without even setting a foot outside. In today’s life you don’t need to go anywhere you can order everything over the phone or over the internet.
The simple definition of laziness is the disinclination to activity or exertion despite having the ability to do so (Wikipedia). In other words laziness can be attributed to the lack of work. The Preservation Institute writes:
Early in the nineteenth century, most Americans worked twelve hours a day, six days a week. The work week shrank gradually during the nineteenth century and more quickly during the twentieth. The traditional six-day week was shortened to five and a half days during the 1920s and to the five-day, forty-hour week during the 1930s.
If you’ll view the chart (page 6) you’ll see that even though the work hours stayed at basically forty per week, from 1945 thru 1995, the amount of work people wanted to do, or trend, steadily declined, proving that people are becoming lazier. In the 20th century technology was becoming more prevalent and developing rapidly. During the twentieth there were several advances, many of which could have contributed to people’s laziness. The next few paragraphs are just a few technological advancements that have contributed to people’s laziness.
Take cooking for example. Through the years there have been many advances in cooking and the time it takes to
Cited: Average Work Week in Manufacturing. Graph. Berkeley: preservenet.com, 2002. Census Bereau