Bill Riddell

The Easy Life

Life is meant to be easy. We have this grand illusion that modern technology and society has made life simpler, however to most of us it has merely made things more complicated and miserable.

Only a decade ago most of us would have thought it ridicules to check our mail more than once a day. Yet now we are checking our (e)mail on blackberry’s and our computers constantly – like and addict awaiting his next fix, we keep checking to see if something is there.

10 years ago most people did not carry their phone around with them – if they were away from there home or office they were virtually un-contactable.?? Nowadays some people are shocked if they are not able to immediately talk to you. Even scarier young children are running around with them as well.

At the dawn of the last century news was once only accessible via the newspapers. You would read the news in the morning and that was generally it, some would buy an evening newspaper as well, but it was rare. Radio then began brief hourly news updates, TV introduced the nightly news, then morning shows chipped in as well. Ted Turner and the internet totally changed the game. Now it is constantly available, we can watch CNN 24/7, check the headlines at anytime using the office internet and get email alerts on breaking stories about the latest pop stars fashion faux-pa at the opening of a cereal packet and much more.

The cult of celebrity and the rise of the supermodel in recent decades has made us more image conscious than ever before. Timeless style has been replaced by slavish emulation of the latest fads and trends. Many fall victim to depression, eating disorders and more while trying to emulate their ideal from movie screens and glossy pages. And there is the rising tide of credit card debts and bankruptcies in order to keep up with the Jones’.

Fast food restaurants and pre-packaged meals save time but shorten our lives. Chemicals, additives and sugars destroy our bodies.

We now expect more of ourselves – its not enough to complete one task, we must attempt to complete several at once. Multi-tasking, the art of doing several things all in an average to poor standard at once. It’s not enough to be a good mother, you should be a yoga fit yummy mummy with a booming business ran from the spare room as well as a thriving social life plus the perfect loving husband. Us guys don’t get let off to easily either.

Kids have it probably worse than ever. It seems the genuine fun is being sucked out of childhood, each generations freedom seems to be curtailed more and more. Stranger danger would have us believe there are pedophiles and other nasties lurking around every corner. Media fueled paranoia means many kids aren’t even allowed to play in their front yard let alone wander the streets with a friend, creating adventures and having fun. The tree house or fort dad used to help us make is now ordered from a catalog and installed by a professional. Dad is even too busy to push us in the swing.

Those longer hours he spends at work don’t really produce more result. He’s just putting in face time, which means the boss and his boss don’t feel so bad about working there absurd hours for a few thousand extra. The shareholders and board members are predicting strong growth this quarter and if it doesn’t happen heads will roll.

Is it any wonder divorce rates keep soaring. Everyone is so stressed these days that the slightest disagreement escalates into urban warfare. That’s no place for kids to grow up. They see their parents at each other throats, physically and verbally, then the depression, break downs, substance abuse and painful legal battles.

How did it all become so complex and perverted? Does it really have to be that brutal and harrowing?

But we should not just blame technology and ourselves. No, this is a societal epidemic. We are pressured from childhood till retirement to push harder and harder – to give our all. Buy this, look like that, don’t settle for the rest.

There is no perfect solution, I wish I had it. Just lots of slow steady progress to push the tide back. We can all do our part by overturning these conflicts in our lives.

Choose a healthier diet and let your kids have some real adventure. Focus on a single task?? till you complete it well, then move on to the next and go home earlier to push that swing. Cultivate your own style and be happy in your body. Pause that argument with your partner, take a breath then talk the problem through rationally. Cut back on the media and let that phone ring every now and then.