I mean that in all seriousness. Everything is going online. You don't even have to go to the bank to deposit a check any more. They have banking apps for your phone where you can do all sorts of banking- for some banks, this means depositing checks by taking pictures on your phone. You don't have to go to the bank to deposit a check. You can buy almost anything online, from clothes to appliances to groceries. The other night my room-mate and I ordered a pizza online. Every retail store has a website that allows you to order clothes from home. Newspapers can be read online, books can be read online, you can shop for cars online, you can take classes online, you can order take-out online- I could go on for a long time. My school's library is entirely online, so in my four years of education here I have not once set foot in the library to get articles and sources. In my defence, our school is a tiny satellite campus with no library of its own. Yet the idea is still there. You can take classes online and order your textbooks online instead of walking on to campus to the book store. If you miss a class, lots of professors post their lecture slides online. Class cancellations are posted online. I can play Xbox with my friends that live in other cities from the comfort of our own homes through Xbox Live. You can get dates online, video chat with someone in another continent, watch a TV show that you missed- I think you get the hang of it.
So is the Internet making people lazy? Well, it does eliminate many forms of physical activity. For instance, you no longer have to walk from your house to your car, and from your car to the bank. You can just stay at home and not go anywhere. You can stay in and play Xbox with your friends instead of going to the park. Instead of doing things you'd need to go places to do, you can do it from the comfort of your own home. You don't even need to wear clothes.
Don't get me wrong, the Internet didn't cause our lazy culture. The Internet just gives us more ways to be lazy. They label it "convenience." So, is that it? Is it just for convenience instead of laziness that we do everything online instead of going outside into the fresh air? I think the real question here is whether convenience is different than laziness or not. I can give you some ways in which convenience and laziness are the exact same thing. I booked an appointment online with the vet this morning. "Why, you hypocrite" you say? I did this because I was in class and knew I would forget to call when I got home- this was convenient and not lazy because I did physically walk to class and back. Just to show you the difference, an instance when convenience is laziness would be doing all of your Christmas shopping online instead of physically going to the mall to do it. Yes, there are ways that the Internet is more useful than doing things in person, I will admit that. But it just seems like we rely on the Internet to do everything we don't want to go out and do.
Try to find something that you can't do on the Internet that you used to actually have to go somewhere and do. Physical activity is the only thing I can think of, but who knows where that will go in the future? They might just invent some sort of virtual workout you can do while you lay on your couch and watch TV. That's the thing about the future- you just don't know. We have no idea what technology is going to become in the future, but we can be sure of one thing- the Internet will be there in all its glory.
I just have one final question- what do we do when the Internet crashes??????????
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