Laziness

On the BBC last month, a scientific study suggested that people in the UK were becoming lazy.  Well, sure, but add North Americans to the list as well.  And a few European nationalities. Well, shit, just add the modernized world.

Why?  Let’s look at our information age.  We’re vertebrates requiring physical activity for well being, but all our improvements revolve around less physical activity and greater sedentary efficiency.   Computer, cell phone, television, food, cleaning, transportation, and, yes, even finances.  A modern human can work and exist on the couch.

When I worked as an insect geneticist, my existence was solitary.  My life revolved around a locked-down, isolated lab bench and computer database.  The concentration required in my job left me exhausted at the end of the day, as if I’d worked a labor job.  The demands meant less time to clean, little time to feed myself healthily, and isolated moments for physicality.  This was no labor job.

So, I was told to join the gym.  I walked in, looked at humans in cramped quarters working out efficiently, each listening to their own music, each staring at others or at themselves in mirrors, and I walked out.  An image flashed before me: hundreds of hamsters running on treadmills in front of mirrors.  I shivered.