Has our quest for convenience made life more difficult?

I was born on the farm where I live today,77 years ago, on Oct 12, 1933. At that time we had a privy out behind the house, and in the winter we waded through knee deep snow to go out there, and sit on the icy seat. My mom carried water from the frozen creek behind the house, chopping the the ice first, to make a hole from which to dip the water. She carried the water to the house in 2 pails, while wading through knee-deep snow, and then heated the water in a copper kettle on the top of a wood fired cook-stove. She carried the wood from the woodshed, to keep the fire burning. Then she washed and wrung the clothes by hand, and hung them outside on a clothes line that stretched from a couple of trees, one snowbank to another, The clothes froze instantly, and were like wooden boards, as she hung them out, and it took them 3 or 4 days to thaw and dry. My mom never, even in her wildest dreams, envisioned modern appliances!

I think that a lot has to do with how much we rely on technology. Just because it is available, that doesn't mean that we should forget how to do things without it. For example, most of us own a calculator, even if it is the one on our cell phones. Just because we have that tool, it doesn't mean that we should stop doing math on paper or in our heads. I feel that a lot of the things we use for convenience are more trouble than they are worth. I do own a cell phone and a computer, but my cell phone is only for emergencies and my computer is more for work than pleasure. If we make ourselves remember and practice things without the aid of technology, then they are great tools to have, but not things that we find ourselves relying on all of the time. One thing I have learned is that if there are ways to save money, those ways are more convenient and better in the long-run. You say that there are little to no gardens in the area where you live, but have you ever though about planting a tomato plant indoors? They grow well there too, and they actually tend to produce longer. My kids hate the fact that I do not allow them to have cell phones all of the time. They each have one, but it is only for the times when they are away from home. I like that by giving them one, they are able to call me right away if they need to, and I can call them as well. As far as computers go, we currently only have one in the house, and it is only used by anyone other than me if it is absolutely necessary, and normally, that is more for typing a school paper than anything else. I want all of my family to understand that the new technologies are great, but they should not rely on them all of the time. I feel that it is greatly important to continue to know how to live without them.

i agree with you there. most times people are busier now than they ever have been before but i am in the city and i do have a garden, i hang my clothes out to dry, i visit thrift stores and the library. i probably have more time than most though.

I offer up another example. Back in the day, when a car won't start, we just had to ask a bit of help to push it, and get it started back again. Nowadays, if an electronic part becomes faulty, you wouldn't know what to do, and the car is rendered useless. These things we never think about as we buy the car and marvel about all the its thing-a-ma-jigs!

Oh gosh yes if I have to think about a phone number forget it, I just hope someday I do not have some sort of bad luck and need someone and not able to remember their number. For some reason these conveniences have really turned into inconveniences as, can you remember years ago being able to recite social security numbers as if they were lyrics.

What you say is true in many ways. The numbers in the cell phone is one very good example. I am of the same type. You would be surprised to know that I dont even know my husband's number without looking at the mobile. If it is lost, then I am lost to my husband. Or rather I am lost to him. Sometimes, life gets complicated pretty easily.

On the other hand, we don't have to sprout the seedling, tend it, water it, weed around it, keep birds and bugs away from it, and not just it, but everything else we need... then, after it is grown, we need to store it away so that it'll last until the next year's crop comes in...