How does convenience affect society?

kind of a broad question.
that said, i would say yes and no.

yes in that i think we have more time to be dissatisfied. before, life maintenance was so time consuming we didnt really have the time to think.
now, life maintenance is just a pesky side task, and society, in general, spends all day thinking themselves into depression, denying reality or distracting themselves with vices.

no in that, given the bible and shakespeare – it seems like society and people have had the same problems since day one – i’m not sure the ipad or whatever can change negative thinking, stealing or insincerity.

overall, i would say convenience is a good thing – it’s not everything, and it needs to be supplemented – but it’s progress!

Well, for instance it may be convenient to ask Fluther for help with school assignments. That would cause Fluther to be perceived as a valuable resource, but would reflect negatively on the value of traditional study. One could also question the morality of presenting the ideas of others as one’s own. This, of course also touches on the question of authenticity: would that degree thus obtained really represent the full academic achievement that it purports?

One of the negative impacts that convenience has had is the fact that people expect convenience everywhere and take it for granted. Every commercial for internet that you see tells up how fast it is. How much longer it takes the other service to download. We are more impatient and you can see in public all the time people pacing up and down frothing at the mouth at having to wait, however brief that wait may be. We have turned our brains off and run on autopilot. We don’t even think. How many times have you seen some idiot blocking traffic at a store waiting for a spot right in front? Like it matters. You’re going to be walking around in the store, mall, wherever. Just pakr and get out. But people don’t think it all the way through. They just want the convenience of coming out and seeing the car.

Convenience items encourage a disconnect from all things that make up our lives and society. It allows us to skim through our activities never taking time to immerse ourselves into the act of preparation and then enjoyment of the process from start to finish. It fosters impatience and unreal expectations.

@Cruiser hurry up, would ya?~

Like most things convenience seems to go both ways, it has its pros and its cons. The pro is that it obviously makes things easier for us, and some of those things are highly important. For example medical care, when people were wounded in war in earlier days there was no anesthetic or pain killers, in more recent days there are many different ways to ease pain and make medical procedures more bearable. Another example would be cars and other vehicles. Cars have made it much easier to get places, but also consider emergency vehicles. Police and ambulances are able to respond almost immediately when there is an emergency, where as before it could take unthinkable amounts of time.

On the con end of it however, cars also produce mass amounts of pollution. Almost everyone has a car, and many would not give it up easily. In a time for greener actions many of us are still driving everywhere, when really we do not need a car for every one of our needs. A ride to the local store could be replaced with walking or a bike ride, but many would not want to give up the luxury of convenience. Inventions were made to make things more convenient and easier, but it also created a higher tendency to be lazy. Laziness is a big problem I think, I am lazy myself and always look for an easier way. However, I do not think that is the right way. A lot of conveniences can have heavy effects on the environment, and our own mentality to do things that are necessary to help the environment. We need to start having more compromises, and trade in our conveniences from time to time.

Fact from fiction, truth from diction. Convenience is neither a plus or negative. It all comes down to the perception of the person who is experience it. Things that is efficient is convenient. Being able to get something done with quickness and ease is convenient. When things are too convenient it is easy to lose the value of how precious or important something is because you don’t have to think about it or think about it that hard.

@Trillian Sheesh…take a fast acting chill pill!! I’m going as fast as I can!! The microwave is taking way too long to cook my instant oatmeal as I drink my instant coffee as I read my tweets as I text on my cell phone. Just be patient already!

convenice is what it is and that is convenice we as a soceity in the full scense of the word control how lazy we become or not become to it. Self discipline is what we need with convenice is what we need. The object is not to let a convenice turn you into a lazy worm.