How much has progress improved your life? In most cases, the improvements are very noticeable, like computers and phones. Other improvements might be our Global Positioning System (GPS) – how many of you remember paper maps – the ones you’d go to gas stations to buy. You’d unfold them, find your destination, then figure out what roads would get you there. Lots of notes were needed for longer trips. GPS has replaced paper maps and has become much more accurate than in the early days of GPS systems. Now you simply type your desired destinations, and within seconds, you have route options. I use GPS every day I work, and couldn’t do my job without it. Besides, now we don’t have to refold those paper maps. A task that was never easy to do.
How about electric bikes? I personally don’t consider electric bikes to be an improvement. Back in the good old days, as kids, our best way to get around from place to place was to get on our bikes and pedal. Today’s electric bikes have drastically reduced the need to pedal. Because of this, kids on electric bikes are getting far less exercise. Today’s electric bikes might be considered dangerous for many riders because they go too fast, and a lot of bike riders don’t realize how going faster creates more danger. Proof of that is a 15-year-old Florida boy who lost his life on an electric bike. That death has prompted residents to call for restrictions. It’s too bad a young boy had to lose his life to help people realize there might need to be restrictions on electric bikes.
Sometimes I’m not really sure our phones are always an improvement in our lives. We’ve become dependent on them – if you don’t think so, think about when you forget your phone at home, reach in your pocket to get it, and realize you don’t have it with you – I’ll bet you felt lost. I’ve seen evidence that shows our phones have taken away much of the time we might actually talk to other humans. Take a look around you in a restaurant – you’re likely to see people holding their phones in front of them, swiping through screens, and not talking to others seated at the same table. In many ways, our present-day phones have changed how we communicate – not necessarily an improvement, yet what would we do without them?
The vehicles we drive have seen major improvements over the years. They are much safer to operate and much more comfortable, but as you know, if you’ve gone to buy a car lately, those improvements came at a considerable cost.
I can’t think of anything that I need in my daily life that hasn’t improved from when I was young, but there have been times I’d love to go back in time when things seemed much simpler.
Have A Good Week!
