Why Convenience is Killing Us
Back in the olden days if you were as cold as a penguin and you wanted to warm your tootsies you had to go Paul Bunyan on some trees and burn ‘em up in your fireplace. Now you just tell Siri to beep-boop the temp up a degree or two in your Nest App on your handheld supercomputer from the comfort of your auto-adjusting sleep number mattress and heated blanket. Back in the olden days if you wanted a sip-o-water you had to walk down to the river with a bucket and splish-sploosh it back up to your cottage or cave or whatever. Now you place your vacuum-sealed water flask under the motion sensor purified-water-filler-mabob that has saved 508,672 plastic bottles.
In the olden days if you wanted to get from one place to another you settled in for a long stroll or you hopped on your own Shadowfax, Secretariat or Seabiscuit and clip-clopped your way through the elements to get to your destination. Now you remote start your climate-controlled metal box and zip down the highway at over a mile-a-minute with your heating coils warming your tuchus in the winter and seat ventilation sucking the farts right off your butt in the summer.
The first ever vehicle with air conditioning was in 1939. This was considered in incredible luxury at the time. Even so, I can almost guarantee drivers are no happier now despite every vehicle produced likely comes with AC standard. Hedonic adaptation…Ever heard of it?
Wasting Our Life Away
“Yippee! Life is so much better now than in the olden days” you might say. But what do we do with all the extra time that these conveniences have afforded us? Netflix! That’s right, the modern era is so convenient that you can spend your additional time in your LAZBoy telling Alexa to cue up the next episode of House Hunters. In the olden days if you wanted to watch a show you had to wait until the traveling troupe of performers came to your town, saddle up ole Seabiscuit, buy a ticket and watch whatever show they decided to put on that night. What a drag! According to Nielsen, the modern era affords the average American over 4 hours of watching TV. This is down from over five hours pre-pandemic. What a life!
What else does our convenient modern life allow us to do? TIK-TOK! You can have the pleasure of viewing a highly-produced, fake version of millions of your peers’ lives at the touch of a virtual button! Certainly, your own life will seem great compared to the fake-perfect lives of these millions of influencers! It is certain to leave you feeling satisfied. The average Tik-Tok user spends 24 hours a month scrolling, up 4 hours from last year.
The average social media user spends 2 hours and 31 minutes a day on social media. Add that to the 4 hours that the average American spends watching TV and you’ve got 6.5 hours of screen time, not including email, other app usage, educational screen use, etc. That’s 27% of your total hours in a day or 40% of waking hours. This is why convenience is killing us. What we are conditioned to feel like we “need” is actually excess that kills us.
It’s All By Design
Does it really seem like today’s modern conveniences provide a better life for the average American? Unfortunately, this average American life is by design. The path of least resistance leads you here. The marketing machine leads you here. It’s all on purpose.
Some of the world’s greatest minds are gathered in silicon valley devoting their time to making the tech giants more profitable. How do they do that? They design products that are so addicting that they make the average American spend 40% of their waking hours on them while simultaneously they feel like they don’t have the time in the day to do the things they want. Or the time in the day to take care of their health or stay in touch with friends or spend time with their families.
And It Ain’t Free
The kicker is that these conveniences that we feel like we need are not free. Netflix, Prime, Hulu etc are recurring costs that drain money monthly. Your car is a spectacularly depreciating asset that costs you much more than just the gas you fill it with. There is a reason the standard mileage rate in 2023 is 65.5 cents per mile when you factor in depreciation, gas, repairs etc. With the average American driving 13,500 miles, their cars are costing them $8515 per year. The ones that suck the farts off your butt are likely costing you even more.
To have the privilege of living this life of incredible convenience you have to spend more than just money. You have to spend time! It’s close to a full-time job to read amazon reviews to determine between Nest and the other 50 wifi thermostats. It’ll take watching at least three youtube videos and two trips to the hardware store to install said thermostat. Plus the other 11 trucks vs. stumps videos that youtube will rope you into. I’ve spent a month of evenings reading reviews to determine what Chromebook to buy on Amazon. In reality I am too technologically illiterate to ever notice the minor differences between them.
Then you’ve got to go down to Mattress Firm to lay on hundreds of beds while being watched awkwardly by a salesperson and work out your financing for your sleep number. Don’t forget replacing your shitty Nalgene because it simply will not do when your friends have vacuum sealed Hydroflasks that will keep their mimosas ice cold for a month. Don’t even try to quantify how much time you’ll need to spend to sign into Netflix after you forgot your password and you accidentally put down your defunct AOL email, xxxgetrichordietryingxxx@aol.com as your recovery account.
“It’s like we decided as a society that we’re all going to do a little crack”
This is the nature of the American rat-race. You buy conveniences to save you time and make your life better. Unfortunately, you’re too tired from your job, family and other responsibilities to do anything with your saved time other than use these very low barrier-to-entry conveniences for 40% of your waking hours. This leads you to sleep and then back to work for the privilege of doing it all over again the next day. Add in the average American 27 minute one way commute and an 8 hour work day and we’re looking at only a few leftover hours in the day. What about making food? Eating? Working out? Spending time with friends and family? Taking a shit?
Realistically, screens have become so pervasive that the average American is using one while eating, spending time with friends and family, working out and you guessed it; taking a shit. As my friend who heroically is upgrading from a smart to dumb phone says in regards to screens, “It’s like we decided as a society that we’re all going to do a little crack.” You can barely park your car at paid parking without downloading an app to pay on your smartphone. You can’t devour unlimited soup, salad and breadsticks at Olive Garden in peace without being barraged by screens offering you trivia games.
The view from our table. Is this what we want life to be?
Good News: You don’t have to do crack
FI is a framework for determining what you value. It involves strategies that help you work towards spending time on those things. FI questions buying all the latest conveniences if the cost is working forever to pay for them until you die. It encourages us to actually take our time seriously beyond the classic “time is money” statement. When we look at where the average American spends their time, it is clear they need a re-frame. Your time is finite, what do you want to do with it?
Here are a few things you can try:
- Next time you get into a cheap car, recognize how incredible it would seem to a caveman
- No screens for the last 30 minutes before you sleep. If this is hard for you then you need to accept that you’re addicted to your phone.
- Write down a list of the things that you value in your life. Analyze the list and think about how much time you devote to those things during the day. Then check your phone usage stats to see if you’re spending more time scrolling than doing the things that you value.
- Recognize the next time that you have the urge to spend money on a “convenience” and think about if this is true: VALUE OF ADDED CONVENIENCE > VALUE OF TIME IT TOOK FOR YOU TO MAKE THE MONEY THAT THE ITEM COSTS + COST OF ITEM + VALUE OF THE TIME IT REQUIRES TO SET UP AND OPERATE THE ITEM + VALUE OF THE TIME IT REQUIRES TO RESEARCH WHAT ITEM TO BUY + VALUE OF TIME TO RETURN THE ITEM IF IT DOESN’T WORK + OPPORTUNITY COST OF SPENDING/INVESTING YOUR TIME AND MONEY IN OTHER WAYS
- The next time you are in a room with a group of people, try to be the only one not looking at your phone. The longer you observe everyone with their bent necks and staring eyes, the less you’ll want to be like them.
- Move your phone out of the room that you sleep in. Screen usage messes with your sleep and therefore your health. If you ever complain about feeling tired but you keep your phone within arms reach, it’s time to change.
Disclaimer: FI is easier to achieve for some than it is for others. There are a million challenges that people are up against. Poverty, substance abuse, disability, trauma, caring for sick or disabled family members, racism, sexism, consumer debt, and poor education. There are many people who are severely disadvantaged which can slow or even prohibit people from achieving FI. However, the tenets of FI can help everyone get to a better place in their lives.
