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The culture of convenience

The era of computer has made a lot of conveniences: food, clothes, school, toys, cars, houses, and computers became a part of our lives. It seems that without it, daily needs will take a lot of time to accomplish. In business, the need to become computer literate is a necessity. Look around you, people would carry a cellphone as a computer that already formed part of their lives. Another is the Internet, a worldwide network of information that allows one to get news and events and reach all corners of the world in seconds. I remember how different the situation is during the glasnost between U.S. and Russia, when an incident of defection happened in the ’70s and a pilot sought asylum from the U.S., bringing with him a MIG-21 fighter jet. This was how they found out that the extent of technological advancement of Russia was 15 to 20 years behind U.S. in terms of electronics. Probably during that time the U.S. already had computers!

This computer mentality has also affected our outlook in life. It made us lazy, generally speaking. We have robots to take up our daily chores, softwares to choose our solutions on a lot of our daily routines, CCTV cameras and alarm system that take care of the security of your assets as well as monitor the operation of your business.

Before all these material wonders, during the ’50s, our grandparents and parents did manual labor on an eight or 12-hours daily schedule. They didn’t even have enough tools and equipment to handle a specific work. Their businesses and daily affairs seemed to be dependent on pure hard work, perseverance, and patience. In spite of their full and jampacked schedule, they were still able to perform some civic responsibilities like giving assistance to the less fortunate comrades through the chamber of commerce. Those with more in life would share their blessings through the cultural school and would also lead some social works to the community.

In comparison to the present time, the 2nd and 3rd generation are enjoying the fruits of their forefathers’ toil and sacrifices to the extent of suffering from omission, restraint, inhibition, isolation, and beleaguerement. The industry and indefatigability of our forefathers produced tremendous and immense material wealth that were handed down and continued further by the next generation. These affluences and prosperity occupied the attention and time that so many conveniences were borne that affected individualism and segregation to an extent of competition instead of collaborating in creating a unified entity. The most popular among these conveniences is money, which was thought of by every human being as the solution to all the problems existing in this world. Money can solve lots of problems and give tremendous opportunities but it also give an equivalent if not more complex kind of problems as well.

It is my belief that material success without responsibility is a hollow achievement for it doesn’t conform to religious teaching of living life conscientiously in the eyes of God. Whatever one gains from this earth, he/she should put back the equivalent of its cares and responsibilities.