How many times have you heard the word “lazy” when it comes to describing the younger generation? Kids have such a bad reputation when it comes to being lazy these days especially, with all of the technologies available to take the hassle out of everyday chores. For the most part, it is well deserved. However, the older generation calling the younger generation lazy is like a doughnut calling a French fry fattening.
Adults, especially parents, are who we look up to for advice, work ethic, morals, etc. We look up to them for everything. They help shape us into the people we are destined to become. This includes discipline when we are acting childish and lazy. I find this to be ironic though, when our own role models are just as lazy.
With our mail changing from home delivery to community mailboxes, there is a new trend emerging. A countless number of home owners simply get into their vehicles and drive to get their mail when it is only half a block away or less! The elderly of course is a different story due to mobility issues and such, but I’m talking about our thirty to sixty year olds. Drivers on their way home from work will pull over on the wrong side of the road so that their driver door is next to the curb, step out, get their mail, get back in their vehicle and drive back into the proper lane to go home. It is too much for them to pull over on the correct side of the road and cross the street to get their mail. It is too much for them to walk down the street from their home to get the mail. This is not only lazy, but it’s starting to become downright dangerous. Most of the time, these lazy mail-getters not only peel out quickly from their convenient parking, they do not signal! How is one to know where they are going, especially if they are on the wrong side of the street?
We may think Yorkton is a small place because our traffic levels are low, but it’s not small. We don’t have high traffic to the point of congestion, but we do have consistent traffic. Also, the rules of the road exist for a reason. We all share the road, no one person should be above the rules.
This local issue raises an interesting topic though. Laziness affects all ages. Are our brains just wired to be lazy? A Canadian study at the Simon Fraser University conducted last year suggests that we are. This study utilized the most basic human movement: walking. Volunteer subjects were placed into leg braces that made walking at their normal pace more difficult. Within minutes, each person had adjusted their pace to “walk normally.” The sensory receptors in the leg brace, in addition with the information from a breathing apparatus showed that only the transition between walking paces was the highest energy usage. This suggests that we adjust our behaviour to use the least amount of energy possible to complete the task. In this case, the nervous system fine tuned muscle movements to keep energy usage low.
In an evolutionary world, this makes sense. Our bodies have evolved to use energy efficiently with basic actions so that if we ever found ourselves in danger, we would have an abundant amount of energy left to utilize for fleeing or fighting, whatever the situation called for. In our modern world though, humans have pretty much taken themselves out of the food chain. We no longer need to evolve to adapt to predatory tactics. It is time to re-wire our brains to utilize our energy stores, so we can get out of our power-saving funk. This may help kick start some common sense as well. The world could use more of that.
Keeping the above in mind, can we consciously modify our subconscious behaviours to adapt to our modern world? Can we be aware of, and rectify our local issue of laziness? Let’s be the examples we originally set out to be. Awareness of yourself is just as important, if not more than, awareness of others. Lazy doesn’t look good on you.
