Essay on Modern Lifestyle and Health Hazards

Essay on Modern Lifestyle and Health Hazards

Within a technologically advanced society, certain gains and losses occur. While our new commodities and gadgets increase our overall productivity, we do lose a “human element” with our surrounding and those close to us.
With social media consuming a large part of our daily lives, we become distant from people despite knowing more about their lives. Most individuals within our environment, whether at work or home, stream their daily actions onto a virtual wall for us to explore and simultaneously decrease our need to seek thus said person out in real life.
Additionally, technology is taking over the menial tasks of everyday life. From simple house chores like sweeping or washing the dishes, to more complex endeavors like building cars, serving food and shortly, driving our cars.
One could argue that these advancements allow us to explore our humanity at greater length. After all, the purpose of technology is to simplify our lives, freeing up time for us to do what we want. Despite having more time due to these technological crutches, we end up spending our available time either watching content online or on television, playing games or stalking people on social media.
While the consensus seems the exchange of loss and gains as ‘beneficial,’ it is still important to analyze what we lose in the transaction and what other potential hazards we might face.
How Technology Impacts Sleep Cycles
For instance, before the days of technology people were more in sync with the natural day-night cycles. At the setting of the sun, our eyes registered the change, and our brains started producing melatonin. Melatonin helps us fall asleep. At sunrise, the pineal gland (responsible for producing melatonin) would stop producing the hormone, and we would wake up.
However, with the introduction of ‘blue light’ which introduce through computer screens, smartphones and so forth, the production of melatonin is halted. It means despite the fact that the sun has set, our brains find it harder to identify the ‘time of day.’ As a result, our sleep cycles get interrupted through artificial means.
With fewer hours of sleep, our bodies begin to suffer as a consequence. Our minds become less agile; our health can decline if we deprive of sleep for prolonged periods of time, our immune system weakens and so forth.
In this case, technology has a direct impact on our health. However, because the harm is gradual, most people accept their gradual decline as ‘normal.’
Degradation of Human Empathy
People living today consume more information per week than people living a hundred years ago destroyed in their lifetime. We have the ability to know what’s happening in every corner of the planet.
Within one week we can hear about ten new atrocities that occurred in the world. As we are more hyper-exposed to tragic events, we become desensitized. It’s hard to care about a particular event when there is a smorgasbord of calamity to choose from it.
Over time, the desensitization to tragedy may impact our ability to empathize. We reduce human casualties to mere numbers or digits on a virtual page. Our activism is limited to clicking the ‘share button’ and perhaps expressing our opinions on something we can never change.
Overwhelmed by atrocity, we feel insignificant in our impact on our surroundings. It could also be a reason why depression has steadily increased over the years. We are becoming spectators to live as opposed to living it.
Obviously, depression is a terrible thing to track. However, numerous studies do suggest that depression is on the rise and it can only make one wonder whether technology has something to do with it. It isn’t far-fetched to see how social media can convey insight feelings of envy, fear, and depression.
We use technology as a surrogate to human relationships, and in turn, we begin to feel more “alone.” All of this has an impact on the human psyche.
Balancing the Gains and the Losses
As we progress with our quest to become a more technologically advanced society, we will be forced to give up on certain human characteristics. Whether this is a ‘right or wrong thing’ is still up for debate. Technology has made our lives safer, more efficient and allows humanity to be interconnected in a way never before seen.
Simultaneously, we see direct an impact on our health, emotional stability and our abilities to empathize. The Modern Lifestyle is a marvel of our ages. However, we should attempt to find a balance between our humanity and the technological toys we surround ourselves with it. If the ultimate goal of life is to attain true happiness, perhaps we can reach it further if we separate ourselves slightly from our addiction to new commodities.
About Author:
Jennifer S. is an academic essay writer on a freelance basis. She has been working for Custom Writings since 2010. She is fond of writing academic papers for money helping students all over the world.