Changing Lifestyle And Its Effect On The Human Mind

In today’s era of the 21^st century, most of us have witnessed at least 2 decades where technology has taken over many things and humans have progressed incredibly. Our elders, mostly grandparents or parents, often wonder to see this incredible progress. You may find them narrating their stories as to how they would communicate over long distances for years (without phone), how they used to buy plenty in a single penny way back, how they studied using the slate and chalk, their happiness in playing with self-made mud toys, and many more things. Today, the world has achieved so much that everything is available on the tip of the finger, right from the communication means, money, banking, games, education, shopping, and several more things. Our lifestyle has increased immensely. But when we look back at this advanced journey, have we ever analyzed the pros and cons of the immense progress? There are several pros and cons of the modern lifestyle which reflects on our health. Let’s have a look at it.

Advantages of Modern Lifestyle

Here, we list some prominent benefits of the modern lifestyle.

1. Nothing is Impossible: Today, it has become pretty easy to access any information at any time and from anywhere. We can see LIVE Telecast sitting miles away. Smart gadgets have made the availability of everything, such as video callings, documentation, banking, shopping, and many more things, at fingertips. It has reduced the extra efforts that we would spend otherwise.

2. Time-Saving: Travelling from one part of the world to any other corner of the world has become a matter of minutes or just some hours. The use of mobile apps to carry out various crucial activities, such as booking the tickets, paying money, buying anything, and many more activities, has minimized time consumption and efforts and, thus, influenced today’s generation remarkably.

3. Enhanced Creativity: With technological advancements, creativity has increased incredibly, particularly for kids. The bland aspects of education have a touch of creativity and technology today. Kids can now study and learn in a better way. Online and mobile education has made it interesting and creative for many.

4. Energy Saving: Giving an exam online, booking tickets online not only saves time but it also saves energy which is otherwise invested in traveling and waiting for hours in the queue. Thus, the energy-saving advantage of the changing lifestyle is another benefit of modern times.

Adverse Effects of the Changing Lifestyle on the Human Mind:

Find below some disadvantages of changing lifestyles on the human mind.

1. Dependency: The dependency of humans on gadgets, the internet, and electricity has increased greatly. Since everything has become available at fingertips, today’s generation has become dependent on various gadgets, internet, and electricity incredibly. When any one of these fails, the other option becomes procrastination of the work until these things are available again. People do not want to take any extra efforts, so they suffer if the restoration of these things takes time. This dependency contributes to the development of sluggishness in our behavior for doing any activity.

2. More with Machines, Less with Humans: Direct contact with humans has reduced, and, today, people connect preferring ways that do not involve face to face communication. For instance, through chat rooms, texts, forums, and websites. Spending more time sitting alone in front of the computer than being out in the community limits social interactions. Machines can never replace humans. Being more with machines reduces the human touch and emotional aspect of life. Hence, today’s generation finds its difficulty to be vocal in non-hurtful ways. 

3. Deprived Emotional Connect: Reducing human touch from life causes isolation and reduces human interaction. Human warmth and affection are lost in technical communications. Feelings, which are felt during laughing and crying, are not felt when communicating on social media. Hence, people mask their weaknesses and show everything is alright so much so that, later, they become more vulnerable to stress. We find couples fighting that they don’t owe time for each other but are busy using phones and tabs. This weakens the bond and leads to dissatisfaction in relationships.

4. Lacking Etiquettes: Earlier, we would greet elders by smiling, touching the feet, shaking the hands, or saying Namaste. However, we may find people removing headphones or keeping their phones aside when they are using these gadgets and elderly individuals approach them. In conferences, meetings, or theaters, people cannot resist using their cellphones and, many times, fail to follow such basic etiquettes.

5. Sedentary Lifestyle: Since the availability and reliability have increased, mobility and activity have decreased greatly. The sedentary lifestyle is increasing, and so is the risk of obesity rising. Obesity is found to be associated with almost 70%-80% of major diseases, such as hypertension, diabetes, PCOS, and many more.

6. Behavioral Changes: As we saw already, the changing modern lifestyle hampers human interactions and causes difficulty in expressions of emotions. Subconsciously, the individual starts feeling frustrated without knowing the cause of it, as his conscious mind is engaged in routine material work. We want to be with our loved ones, but we can’t be with them and, gradually, tension starts building in and out of the human mind. We start feeling irritable, lonely, and loathsome towards our own life and, many times, end up landing in mental or physical illnesses.

Thus, this article addressed the effects of changing modern lifestyle and helps you prevent its silent yet adverse effects on the mind. So, improve your lifestyle and enjoy a healthy life ahead!