New technology makes it easy to access information. Anytime we need an answer to something it is just a click away. We can have anything we need in a matter of seconds. We can shop online for everything from food to clothing and have it sent right to our homes. We can attend virtual events with friends and family. There are countless online games. While technology is good at allowing us access to things quickly many wonders is technology making us lazy.
Technology makes people lazy. It does so by allowing users to outsource their cognitive and physical processes to machines that can do them many times without fatigue. People normally choose to permit this, because the cost of outsourcing one’s faculties is rarely immediate and noticeable.
It seems the faster we are to get information with the click of a button the less active we have become. These are some ways that technology is making us lazy and useless.
Getting Information
The internet made it easy to get any information that is needed with a few clicks of a button or a couple of taps on a screen. While this can be helpful at times people forgot how to conduct research. No one knows what a card catalog is let alone how to use it. People no longer have to look in books and encyclopedias and dictionaries are no longer used.
While it is good that we can find this information, we are lazy. If we cannot click a button we will have no idea what to do. We are too lazy to leave out homes to go to a library and take the time to find the information we need. Most people would lose interest if something was not at their fingertips and they would not continue the search.
Education
It is easier than ever to get an education. We do not even have to get dressed or get out of bed to go to school. There are educational programs of every level that can be taken on the internet. While this does allow more people to have access to their education this is making us lazy. We are not using the services of our libraries and we are not learning the soft skills that will need to go with these degrees.
We may be getting the education but we are not networking, learning how to be on time and responsible, and learning how to relate to others professionally. Online learning reduces some of the tasks that people would do not in the classroom. If we are not able to get dressed to go to class it is a wonder if we will be able to leave our rooms to go to work.
Shopping
We have become so lazy due to technology that we do not even leave our homes to purchase the things that we need. We do not have to go to the grocery store. We can stay home at our computers and have the goods delivered right to our home. We can go to our local store and shop online. We then pay with our cards and the items come right to our door. We do not have to worry about getting up and out.
The same is for other goods that we need. We can purchase personal care items and have them brought right to our homes. We shop for holidays and spend hours browsing goods online. We do not have to be bothered with the chore of going to the store and interacting with others. We can stay home and shop. This is making us very lazy. There is nothing that we cannot purchase online so there is no need to go out.
Food
We are so lazy that we would rather pay a high price for an Uber Eats driver to bring us food than to go out and get it ourselves. We order fast food and food for restaurants and people will bring it to our door. It does not matter that it is going to cost a lot more than if we get up and cook our own food. While we are busy and cooking can be a chore at the time we are getting lazier. We do not need to do basic chores around the home when we have food that can be brought to use that is just a click away.
Ride Sharing
For the rare occasion that we do need to leave out homes, there is another solution so we do not have to drive. There are plenty of ride-sharing services. If you do not have a car you no longer have to learn how to read a bus schedule or find ways to get there. All you need to do is click on Uber, Lyft, or other services and there will be a driver there in no time. All you need to do is tell them the time that you need to be picked up and they will be there waiting for you.
Even if you do have a car technology has made traveling easier. You no longer have to learn a sense of direction or even how to read a map. You just put your destination in your smartphone and drive. Your phone will tell you where and went to turn. We are too lazy to look up this information alone. While there are some great safety features on cars to help keep us safe this shows us how lazy we are. If we cannot rely on ourselves to look the next lane over before turning we are too lazy to be on the road.
Entertainment
We do not have to leave our homes to have fun. We can access many movies and special services on our streaming service. This takes out the need to go to the movies. There are virtual events. Everything from painting to meeting up for a drink is now done online. Virtual reality allows us to have adventures. We are so lazy that we do not want to go out for fun. All we need to do is go on the internet for entertainment.
Smart Homes
Appliances around the home are smarter than the people that live there thanks to the internet and internet-enabled devices. We do not have to get up to turn our lights on or off. We do not have to get up to adjust the temperature in the room. There are apps that will take care of that for us. The internet allows us to see things without any effort. Due to smart refrigerators, we do not even need to open them to see if we are out of something.
All we need to do is knock on it. This is the ultimate way to be lazy. Home assistants handle everything for us. They will turn on music, make phone calls, and even remind us to take our medicine. This is a thoughtless process for us and is making us lazy and forgetful.
Communication including Social Media
Social media can be a good thing to help us stay in touch with friends and family that we may not live by. We can share pictures, instant message each other, and stay in contact thanks to the internet. The only problem with this is that it is contributing to our laziness. We can look at Facebook for pictures and there is no need to have them developed. We do not have to go to the store and have photos developed and put them in the mail for others to see.
All we need to do is click some buttons online and they are shared instantly. We can message friends and family thanks to the internet. This is good in a way but we do not even use a full sentence. Words such as u, wtf, and idk are not acceptable. We are too lazy to even spell out a full word or phrase thanks to internet texting. We are even forgetting that we cannot use these words at work or school.
Teachers are seeing paper with u in it all the time and students do not know that this is wrong. While it is nice to keep in touch no one sits down and writes a letter any longer. We rely on social media to keep in contact with people. We do not even have to speak to others. All we need to do is text and not even with good spelling or grammar.
In real life, we do not know how to speak to each other. If we cannot text each other we do not know what to do. This is an example of how the internet has made us more social but has made us less social at the same time. We cannot relate to each other in real life anymore.
Conclusion
These are just some of the ways that technology is making us lazy. Not only are we becoming lazy we are becoming dumb. Technology is handling everything for us. We no longer have to think about what we do. Everything is just a few clicks away. While technology can be a good thing at times we still need to learn how to think on our own and how to find out important information.