Here’s an amusing picture circulated online showing the use of an old fashioned search engine…also known as looking up information at a library
It was information at our fingertips but not all the information and not so instant.
Though I guess we were less likely to self-diagnose our own health ailments and symptoms by key word searches back then! Plus, looking up more risque material would have involved more steps.
I came across this article not that long ago that I think is good to pause and share. I had bookmarked it before and only managed to read it in its entirety today (a day that’s a bit of a break for many–sort of).
The article is an excerpt by Jay Walljasper from the book Less is More–a compilation of essays on the simple living movement. I came across the article from http://www.motherearthnews.com.
It seems these days and for quite some time, many of us are in a revved up state most of the time as we rush around and multi-task in our work lives and day-to-day lives as we look forward to those little breaks of one or two weeks where we can chill and take vacation, go to the cottage, go on a retreat, do less, hang out and catch up with friends/family.
With the ongoing fast pace of things, we really do have to make a conscious, proactive effort to slow down. The article indicates that this fast pace is not necessarily due to technology but economics…and our monoculture of speed. It states that it is “ironic because speed has always been promoted as a way to help us achieve mastery over the world.”
As the German environmental thinker Wolfgang Sachs stated in his report: “In a fast-paced world we put a lot of energy into arrivals and departures and less into the experience itself. Raising kids, making friends, creating art all run counter to the demand for speed.”
There’s also a great quote in the article from (Environmental Activist) Jeremy Rifkin’s 1987 book Time Wars: “We have quickened the pace of life only to become less patient. We have become more organized but less spontaneous, less joyful. We are better prepared to act on the future but less able to enjoy the present and reflect on the past.”
The article also quotes Ezio Manzini (another contributor to the book) who points out: “Rather than accept that the world offers just one speed, we have the privilege of ‘designing’ our lives.”
So rather than a full rejection of speed, we can generate balance by embracing and integrating the aesthetics and importance of slowness. Designing our lives with this balance of speeds will serve to benefit us, society, nature and our ecological environment.
Check out the full article: Slow Is Beautiful: Why Learning How to Slow Down Is the Key to Simple Living.
Interested in recommendations from fast food industry workers (of Reddit) on what menu items to avoid…or to consume with caution? Are we too quick to grab our fast food without thinking about how it’s stored, prepared, processed, handled, and served?
Check out the info via this link:
Here’s another article about fast food; ironically, fast food chains provide not-so-healthy dining in hospital cafeterias:
I remember reading how Statistics Canada indicated that obesity rates are up for all ages (and particularly for teens aged 12 to 17) and yet during a visit to my local medical clinic, I would notice how abundant junk food snacks and fat, sugary, salt-laden processed food were via the vending machines. This was several years ago; I should check if anything has changed lately.
Instead of supporting and promoting our culture of convenience, we need to stop and think about what we are doing. In the long run, wouldn’t it be better if our choices and funds went toward building healthier bodies and lives rather than for saving time and boosting profit-driven enterprise?
What will we think of next? A vending machine has been created that takes 2.5 minutes to mix and knead pizza dough, squirt some tomato sauce on it, cover it with cheese and other toppings, and then heats it in an infrared oven.
This is ordering and getting pizza fast the robotic way with no contact with a human being!
Check out this link and video: Pizza-Making Vending Machine
Or how about one-touch pizza ordering via a fridge magnet?
This VIP Fridge Magnet (a pizza box-shaped magnet) is connected to a pizza place (only in Dubai at this point). It’s preset to order a pizza online and is connected to the Internet via the Bluetooth connection on a smartphone.
Here’s a whacky video about how it works:
What do you think of these developments? Is innovation for such conveniences a good thing?
Or maybe you’re starting to get hungry…
Is the internet indeed ruining our brains? Check out this interesting piece and infographic from Mashable. An insightful, kind of amusing (but sort of sad), and definitely poignant look at our electronic and online multi-tasking practices today.
I have to say that I do tend to have 3 or 4 tabs open these days…and yup, I’m guilty of instant googling to find info quickly rather than sifting through my memory cells.
Lately I’m doing that just to pin point the name of a movie!
Here’s the link: http://mashable.com/2012/04/10/brain-internet-infographic/
Less Time and Effort 