Is technology making us lazy?

[Fantastisk]

I know that there are many researches about it but I just wanted to know your opinions. Technology is our everything (cellphones,computers,programmes,, etc.) anyways it's making us lazy and insensitive? If there was a 'dependence test' , how could be its questions ??

[Polednice]

I almost always disagree with the premises of questions such as these, but more important than anything else is to get the language right. Whatever is happening, technology is not making us lazy; if anything, we are exploiting technology to be lazy. We mustn't anthropomorphise technology and view it as some external force beyond our control which is having a detrimental effect we are powerless to resist. Instead, if we are lazier because of access to technology, it is of our own volition.

 

Now, do I think that we are lazier than we used to be? I have no idea. My guess, however, would be that we are more physically inactive in terms of burned calories, but not lazy. The term is quite broad and needs some defining before more can be said.

[Phi for All]

I also dislike this type of premise. They seem to argue that we'd be better off walking ten miles to work instead of driving, juggling our stuff while pushing open heavy doors instead of using the automatic sensors, and only listening to music when we're near people with instruments who know how to play them well.

 

I agree with Polednice. Technology is a tool that can be wielded by the industrious and the lazy alike. Tools are not good or evil.

[KatzAndMice]

Yes. Very.

[dimreepr]

From my observation of humanity without a positive input, we do tend towards laziness. For me it has nothing to do with tools and technology it’s more fundamentally a problem of nurture and environment. IMO the most important lesson a parent can impart to its children, apart from the basics i.e. safety and socially correct behaviour, is a good work ethic. With a good work ethic technology becomes an aid to enrich life. Without a good work ethic technology enables laziness.

 

 

[Joatmon]

I must admit that I like an automatic gearbox on my car!

Edited June 14, 2012 by Joatmon

[John Cuthber]

As far as I can tell, we are lazy so we invent technology to do stuff for us.

Laziness makes us technologists.

Edited June 14, 2012 by John Cuthber

[Phi for All]

Intelligence plays a big part as well, now that I think about it. Why should we lug a bunch of stuff up the stairs when we can invent a pulley system to more easily hoist it up? We'd be stupid to keep doing things just with muscle power, so why is smart considered lazy?

 

There are some drawbacks. Being smart enough to gather things to move to another room in a single trip instead of making a bunch of trips with just one thing each trip means we don't get as much exercise. And sometimes relying on technology can mean our manual skills suffer, like with calculators or power tools.

 

To me, lazy is simply about not working. If you're using technology to play when you've got work to do, you're being lazy. Using technology to work is rather about working smart instead of working hard. That's not lazy, imo.

[dimreepr]

As far as I can tell, we are lazy so we invent technology to do stuff for us.

Laziness makes us technologists.

 

 

I would tend to agree, generally, accept technology takes a lot of graft to establish. Someone is working hard.

 

 

[Tobias Andersson]

Technology resembles a neverending mountain, where the base foundation will always be easy for the majority so that it shall inspire and challenge people to reach for new hights.

[jonnyquest]

yes! technology is making us lazy....AND dumb.

 

example- last year i was driving in the mountains to get a christmas tree. i was following my GPS to the farm we were heading to and like an idiot, just followed the purple line on the screen, and against my own judgement decided that the GPS knew what it was doing....well i ended driving up the mountain on a tiny dirt road and it just keep getting steeper and steeper. good thing i have 4wd and can drive in reverse pretty good or it could have ended up a lot worse! moral of the story, don't always follow the line on the GPS! if it LOOKS wrong, it probably is wrong!

[KatzAndMice]

Intelligence plays a big part as well, now that I think about it. Why should we lug a bunch of stuff up the stairs when we can invent a pulley system to more easily hoist it up? We'd be stupid to keep doing things just with muscle power, so why is smart considered lazy?

 

There are some drawbacks. Being smart enough to gather things to move to another room in a single trip instead of making a bunch of trips with just one thing each trip means we don't get as much exercise. And sometimes relying on technology can mean our manual skills suffer, like with calculators or power tools.

 

To me, lazy is simply about not working. If you're using technology to play when you've got work to do, you're being lazy. Using technology to work is rather about working smart instead of working hard. That's not lazy, imo.

 

They say you reap what you sow, in both a consumer and scientific society its easy to say technology(intelligence) prevails but how much metal have you mined? how many wheels did you design, make and analyse? What raw resources have you taken and turned into something technologically useful?

 

I can only speak on my own behalf but technology is definitely making us lazy... Physically anyway, which i presume was the basis of the thread....

 

 

 

[Phi for All]

I think there's a disconnect going on here. I think some people are talking about technology and laziness like "I'd rather surf the web than go outside and mow the lawn", while other people are talking about using technology so we don't have to work as hard. I don't think the latter is lazy, I think it's being smart.

 

Why is using a computer as opposed to pen and paper considered lazy?Why is it lazy to invent a machine that will plow ten rows in a tenth of the time it would take me to plow one by hand? There's a difference too between getting technology to do my work for me and making me as productive as 100 people. Am I being indolent while a machine does my work or am I doing other work today while technology does what I was busy with yesterday?

 

I play one online game with some pals once every couple of weeks, and I have an online game I play with family members (which I'm getting fed up with as it's one of those constant maintenance crap games that just eat up time better spent elsewhere). I still work and walk and bike and socialize, and read more than I write. Am I lazy because I use a computer, and write lists and listen to music and text friends and family and get driving directions and time my cooking and keep a calendar on my cell phone? I wouldn't have nearly the time to do any of that without technology. How can I be lazy when I'm constantly doing SOMETHING?!

[KatzAndMice]

I play one online game with some pals once every couple of weeks, and I have an online game I play with family members (which I'm getting fed up with as it's one of those constant maintenance crap games that just eat up time better spent elsewhere). I still work and walk and bike and socialize, and read more than I write. Am I lazy because I use a computer, and write lists and listen to music and text friends and family and get driving directions and time my cooking and keep a calendar on my cell phone? I wouldn't have nearly the time to do any of that without technology. How can I be lazy when I'm constantly doing SOMETHING?!

 

Lazier than you would be without the technology other people have made for you...YES.

 

I'm not singling you out, its just a fact without technology you, me and everyone in western society (presuming you are ovcourse) would have no choice but to not be lazy, with technology its almost subconsciously obvious what's best / easiest for us.

 

you can only compare relatively, relatively you might be an active person in our society but you can only compare to history and historically speaking technology has made humanity more lazy than it ever has been.

 

The fact that i can sit at home on a PC and build a website or program that can generate enough income for me to go to a store and buy food i had no hand in growing or picking and possibly even enough to buy a house i had no hand in building or gathering resources to build suggests something...

 

Alot of people buy microwave meals or fast food when its healthier and more cost effective to make your own, it just requires a little more work...this is a simple example...

Im not simply suggesting COMPUTERS make us lazy, just technology in general...any sort of computational machine will make our mental abilities lazy

 

Your examples somewhat prove my point; You dont Write you read, you dont make music you listen, atleast you cook.

Like i said its not a dig at you just a fact of technological evolution, im as bad as anyone with my dependence on technology.

its not the plain fact your doing "SOMETHING", more a case of doing something creative or useful i suppose, theres nothing wrong with getting your back massaged all day everyday, thats something, but it could be something less lazy. fast food isnt the only culprit for obesity

 

 

 

 

Edited June 22, 2012 by KatzAndMice

[KatzAndMice]

I also dislike this type of premise. They seem to argue that we'd be better off walking ten miles to work instead of driving, juggling our stuff while pushing open heavy doors instead of using the automatic sensors, and only listening to music when we're near people with instruments who know how to play them well.

 

I agree with Polednice. Technology is a tool that can be wielded by the industrious and the lazy alike. Tools are not good or evil.

 

What about people who drive to a shop that is 5 a minute walk away from their home? not to save time because all they do when they get back is watch TV or play games....no one is suggesting you walk 10 miles to work, there are practicalities but you cant deny that when in certain circumstances humans are prone to subconsciously taking the lazy choice.....

 

Ovcourse there are a great number of advantages that NO ONE is denying

 

as i said im not suggesting anything, you dont need to walk to work or the shop for that matter, its just a fact that technology enables us to be lazy

[Phi for All]

Lazier than you would be without the technology other people have made for you...YES.

 

I'm not singling you out, its just a fact without technology you, me and everyone in western society (presuming you are ovcourse) would have no choice but to not be lazy, with technology its almost subconsciously obvious what's best / easiest for us.

I think you and I have different definitions of lazy. I've shared mine, and I still don;t think working smart instead of working hard is lazy. It's just smart. I think lazy is not working at all, or pushing work you could do yourself onto others.

 

you can only compare relatively, relatively you might be an active person in our society but you can only compare to history and historically speaking technology has made humanity more lazy than it ever has been.

I don't see how you can possibly think that when we have accomplished more in the age of technology than in all the history prior to it. How is that lazy?

 

The fact that i can sit at home on a PC and build a website or program that can generate enough income for me to go to a store and buy food i had no hand in growing or picking and possibly even enough to buy a house i had no hand in building or gathering resources to build suggests something...

Yes, it suggests that we have a specialized society where I can earn money to buy what I can't produce. It doesn't suggest that this society is lazy. We're more productive than we've ever been. How is that lazy?

 

Alot of people buy microwave meals or fast food when its healthier and more cost effective to make your own, it just requires a little more work...this is a simple example...

A lot of those "a lot of people" are working hard twelve-hour days and have no time for using methods that take more time. How is that lazy?

 

Im not simply suggesting COMPUTERS make us lazy, just technology in general...any sort of computational machine will make our mental abilities lazy

I can partially agree with this example, but only for people who can't work WITHOUT using computational machines, and there are still plenty of those types of people who can do both. They use the machines because they take less time, allowing them to produce more work. How is that lazy?

 

Your examples somewhat prove my point; You dont Write you read, you dont make music you listen, atleast you cook.

Like i said its not a dig at you just a fact of technological evolution, im as bad as anyone with my dependence on technology.

its not the plain fact your doing "SOMETHING", more a case of doing something creative or useful i suppose, theres nothing wrong with getting your back massaged all day everyday, thats something, but it could be something less lazy. fast food isnt the only culprit for obesity

Perhaps I'm more interested in learning than teaching, that could explain why I don't write as much as I read. I've also been trained to listen more than I speak; in business it's more important to find out what clients want than to tell them what you think they need.

 

I'm not a particularly good musician. I choose instead to listen to music made by those who are better at it. And I use technology to listen to that music rather than travel to where live musicians are for reasons like cost, time and varied availability. How is that lazy?

 

I don't think our use of technology is lazy. A "dependence" on technology may be different. If you would sit around and do nothing if you didn't have your technology, I would call that lazy.

 

 

What about people who drive to a shop that is 5 a minute walk away from their home? not to save time because all they do when they get back is watch TV or play games....no one is suggesting you walk 10 miles to work, there are practicalities but you cant deny that when in certain circumstances humans are prone to subconsciously taking the lazy choice.....

 

Ovcourse there are a great number of advantages that NO ONE is denying

 

as i said im not suggesting anything, you dont need to walk to work or the shop for that matter, its just a fact that technology enables us to be lazy

If you're generally a lazy person, I don't think you need technology specifically to enable you to be lazy. Lazy people can be lazy without it. I see them leaning on low-tech shovels all the time.

 

I guess it all comes down to what you think is important. In a day, I can use technology and perform roughly fifty activities, from learning what is known about Haikouichthys as one of our earliest vertebrate ancestors, to walking for half an hour on my elliptical in my cool basement while it's 95 F outside, to washing/drying/folding the week's clothes of a family of three. Without technology, I'd be lucky to get ten things done from my list. And I definitely wouldn't get to discuss technology and laziness with people all over the world.

[KatzAndMice]

I think you and I have different definitions of lazy. I've shared mine, and I still don;t think working smart instead of working hard is lazy. It's just smart. I think lazy is not working at all, or pushing work you could do yourself onto others.

 

 

I guess it all comes down to what you think is important. In a day, I can use technology and perform roughly fifty activities, from learning what is known about Haikouichthys as one of our earliest vertebrate ancestors, to walking for half an hour on my elliptical in my cool basement while it's 95 F outside, to washing/drying/folding the week's clothes of a family of three. Without technology, I'd be lucky to get ten things done from my list. And I definitely wouldn't get to discuss technology and laziness with people all over the world.

 

yeh thats all true; our definitions are different and its true you can use technology to enhance efficiency, i just believe it enables more and more people to be lazy

 

where at one time people who are lazy now wouldnt be able to be back then

Edited June 26, 2012 by KatzAndMice