Land of the Free or The Spoiled?
Convenience culture comes with strings attached.
Do you know how many children under twelve have smartphones or Ipads? One report published 56% between ages 8 and 12 with 80% of principals “believing it had negative consequences for social development and academics”. Forget pulling out the dictionary from the bookshelf, likely dusty and yellowing due to lack of use. Now, we can ask Alexa for a definition, the answer to any math problem, or to create a weekly family menu for us. The negative consequences extend beyond social development and academics, they include efficiency in agency (see definition below). While this post is not about technology per se, these examples and your own tech habits demonstrate that convenience has enslaved us to laziness and diminished our agency in many areas of life.
Agency - “the capacity, condition, or state of acting or of exerting power”
How many of you remember having to get up to turn the channel on a TV? Do you still shop to get groceries and head to the bank to deposit a check? Many of my students will never know the benefit of being on a first name basis with a cashier or attendant at the local store and bank. Today’s apps are tomorrow’s API technology. Our processes for managing life are more convenient, but impersonal. Let’s stop trying to convince ourselves that face-to-face connection via cyberspace is just at satisfying as sitting two feet from a friend.
Is what we get for convenience worth more than what we lose? I, like many others, have determined that the ROI of hard work, sweat, and hours of focus far outweigh the indulgencies of a convenience-driven world (most of our conveniences are because of technological advances.) Our opponents constantly try to convince us that ease and comfort lead to fulfillment and joy. Why? Because a satiated soul is more helpful to their NWO vision than noncompliant, traditional values-oriented groups of men, women, and children who believe that agency-the action of procuring God’s blessings— is a part of our human wiring and resilience-the will to endure through and overcome struggle—is inherent to our humanity.
Whether a homestead or a simple apartment hydroponic system, reading a paperback or using a toaster oven (versus a microwave), many of us are untethering ourselves from the trappings of the idol of ease. Think about fast food and nutrition. Some conveniences are literally detrimental to our health. If Cheerios now contains bioengineered food products can you imagine the ingredient list for Bojangles mashed potatoes? Farm to table is more than a trend, it is an act of resistance. The imperfect skin of the heirloom tomato that took us weeks and months of soil cultivation and care, pruning and watering brings more satisfaction than the grocery store tomato that looks like it was created in a 3D printer.
We must be weaned from the pacifiers that soothe our frenetic lifestyles. In some cases, we must forcefully cut ourselves (and our kids) from the nets that steal the virtues of patience, endurance, steadfastness, and the value of self-sufficiency and hard work. If we continue to bow to convenience, soon Americans are going to be slaves of the Machine that delivers our dinners shortly after a voice command, denies our children the rigors of cursive practice, and issues our monthly digital allowance for net-zero products.