The Big Idea: Does Convenience Make Our Lives Harder?

TThe convenience of modern life is nothing short of astonishing. As I write this, my phone is wirelessly transmitting some of the greatest hits of the 18th century (Bach, if you must know) to my portable speaker. I could use that same device to get a car to pick me up in moments, have food delivered to my house, or start chatting with someone on a dating app. To people from even the recent past, this technology would be, to quote Arthur C. Clarke’s third lawindistinguishable from magic.

The fact that we as a culture seek out and celebrate such shortcuts is understandable. They take a lot of the boredom out of life, make it easier to have fun and save us time and energy. That said, most people can sense that convenience has a dark side.

Before we get into that, it’s important to understand why convenience is so tempting in the first place. We often resist doing the very things we need to do to make progress; whether that’s our taxes, the report due next week, or a workout. Behind every well-intentioned plan lies this dreaded feeling of inertia. Why is this resistance – and our related desire for convenience – such an integral part of our nature?

This is where insights from evolutionary psychology (particularly the idea of ​​’evolutionary mismatch’) can help. Evolutionary mismatch is the idea that we evolved for a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, and that while our circumstances have changed dramatically, our brains and bodies have not. It says that our instincts are often terribly incompatible with our environment.

When you look at the problem through this lens, some degree of built-in lethargy and desire for shortcuts makes perfect sense. For hunter-gatherers, food, and therefore energy, was scarce and inconsistently available. Early humans were also vulnerable to things like harsh weather and predators. Survival meant not using our energy in blatant or irresponsible ways.

Resistance was a necessary counterbalance to the intense bouts of activity that punctuated the lives of hunter-gatherers: searching for food in the pouring rain, or running to escape a dangerous animal. It’s the reason we still wonder, “Should I really do this? Shouldn’t I save my energy?” The people who tended to stay sheltered during a snowstorm, when the chance of food was low, were more likely to survive and pass on their genes to the next generation. And since those guys are our ancestors, we inherited that attitude.

Since then, of course, innovation has radically changed things. We have adapted technology and our environment at least in part to serve our natural instinct to conserve energy. The question is: what do we lose if we follow our tendency to prioritize comfort and convenience? Few people would dispute that washing machines, trains and telephones, for example, have given us the freedom to live more fulfilling and creative lives. As I said at the beginning, more advanced technologies undoubtedly also have their advantages and possibilities. But there is evidence that today’s hyper-convenience can also make our lives more difficult, not less.

Take, for example, the rise in depression and anxiety that some have linked to smartphones and social media. The same goes for the explosion of metabolic problems in recent decades that can be directly attributed to sedentary lifestyles and reliance on convenient, high-calorie but nutrient-poor foods. The level of loneliness has become so problematic that Britain has had a ‘Minister for Loneliness’ since 2018. Such solitude would simply not be possible without the technologies, from communications to home entertainment, that enable people to live such lives. primarily separate lives.

In my work as a psychotherapist, I’ve seen how leaning too hard on a coping mechanism can reinforce the problem it was intended to alleviate. The sense of security you get from staying home can make it more anxiety-provoking to go out later. The relief of avoiding an awkward conversation with your partner makes that conversation even more difficult later. Using a dating app to avoid the awkwardness of flirting will only make your social skills weaker over time. Constantly taking the easy path reduces your ability to deal with inevitable difficulties. And from an evolutionary perspective, some level of discomfort is as crucial to our survival as rest and relaxation. Our ancestors survived not purely by being lazy, but through a combination of playing it safe and taking sensible risks: for example, enduring the pain and difficulty of leaving a familiar home to reap the benefits of a place closer to food sources and better protected against the elements.

Modern hyper-convenience is a kind of deal with the devil. It’s tempting because it appeals to our instincts, but it secretly exhausts us. It has made it easier to get by, but in many ways harder to truly succeed. Human flourishing and happiness are not just about livelihoods, but also depend on growth, dynamic problem solving, and solidarity through hardship.

Much of my work with my younger clients has not focused on deep psychological conflict or the impact of trauma, but on approaching the basic tasks of life, such as making friends, dealing with work stress, or going to new places. What they repeatedly tell me is that the discomfort of such tasks feels overwhelming, and their worlds become smaller as a result.

Ideally, today’s conveniences should serve as support systems that help us achieve worthwhile goals, whether it’s exercising for better health, building a career, raising a family, creating a work of art, or educating and guiding others. Achieving these goals always involves some discomfort, but it is this difficulty itself that shapes and develops our character.

In the technological world we have shaped, sometimes we have to make a conscious effort to act against our instincts. As a culture, we must remember – and remind our young people – that while ease feels good in the moment, our ability to adapt and overcome challenges is also part of our evolutionary heritage, and central to life’s adventure .

Dr. Alex Curmi is a psychiatrist, psychotherapist in training and presenter of The thinking mind podcast.

Read more

Good reasons for bad feelings: Insights from the Frontier of Evolutionary Psychiatry by Randolph M Nesse (Penguin, £10.99)

To behave: Human Biology at Our Best and Worst by Robert Sapolsky (Vintage, £12.99)

The fearful generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt (Allen Lane, £25)