Many tools exist in the modern age which save people time like never before. Groceries and takeout can be delivered straight to a person’s house, music can be streamed straight onto a smartphone, a bus pass can be bought fully digitally; the list goes on.
These aspects of life may seem convenient, and that’s because they are. But cutting out the “middleman” of travelling even just a short distance to get something or to complete a simple task doesn’t just save time — it diminishes a bit of the human experience.
Kurt Vonnegut put it perfectly in an Oct. 2007 interview with CBS, speaking about his book “A Man Without a Country,” which was released in 2005.
In the interview, he talks about a chapter in the book where he has a conversation with his wife about buying an envelope. She argues that Vonnegut should just buy a pack of 100, and not have to go out to buy just one thing so often.
“She says, why don’t you go online and buy a hundred envelopes and put them in the closet? So, I pretend not to hear her, and go out to get an envelope because I’m going to have a hell of a good time in the process of buying one envelope,” Vonnegut said.
Vonnegut goes on to talk about the people he meets along the way, a fire truck passing him which he gives a thumbs-up of approval and him asking someone with a dog what kind of dog they have.
What’s the point of bringing this up? It shows how a simple task can turn into something fun and enriching. Like it or not, we are social creatures, and we cannot just sit in a box all day long only to never leave all for the sake of efficiency and saving time.
For instance, going to the convenience store is a mundane task. Is it exciting on its own? Likely not, unless it’s a 2 a.m. trip to Smithfield News which involves buying ludicrous amounts of snacks and a soda or two.
But even without the added excitement of going on any type of late-night trip, things are happening all around a person that it’s almost impossible not to notice. Glance at a tree on a way up the street, respond when someone asks “what’s up” as they walk past, squish a spotted lanternfly crawling on the side of a building – these all likely won’t change much about someone’s day, but little things like this can make a person feel alive.
As little as these things matter in the long run, doing away with the small happenings of daily life can not only make days boring, but is also not good for one’s wellbeing. People need to be around other people and need to get sunlight – this is not a novel concept.
Yet, it seems there are more bits of technology or apps released to try to diminish the human experience, bit by bit. It’s understandable to get food delivered to a building via DoorDash if time is seriously lacking, or if mobility problems get in the way. But for everyone else, why not just go outside for a moment? Don’t let technology prevent you from having an excuse to go out.
Yet again, Vonnegut put this perfectly.
“The computers will do us out of that,” he said. “What the computer people don’t realize, or they don’t care, is we’re dancing animals. You know, we love to move around. And we’re not supposed to dance at all anymore.”
Dance away anyway, because that’s what we really are supposed to do. Those who suggest this time should instead be spent working efficiently ought to live a little.
