If you're in the mood for something particularly terrifying, then read the Atlantic's article on China's new "Social Credit" score,
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/02/chinas-dangerous-...
a single number determined by algorithms and incorporating every possible transaction or event in which a person can participate and that can be either captured by a device or recorded by facial analysis technology. "Good" behavior is rewarded and "bad" is punished There are real consequences to having a bad score, aside from employment and housing prospects, like the inability to travel, even within the country, so with everyone clear on what's "acceptable" and "unacceptable" eventually people will internalize these imposed norms and become the docile Eloi that H.G Wells envisioned. This system is already here and operative.
As the article points out, we in the West already have a credit score which circumscribes many of our activities but there is no reason that the Chinese system cannot be implemented here, if it hasn't been already in some guise. All in the name of convenience...
26
When I read an article and there are obvious inaccuracies, I wonder about the rest of the author's suppositions. iTunes did not replace Napster because it was easier; it replaced it because Napster was shut down due to legal implications. As for young people not voting because it is inconvenient to stand in lines. Where are the statistics on this supposition? The truth is that standing in line means inefficieny, and no one likes to waste time in a line. What positive social vaue is inculcated in a line? This article is bunk.
23
Domestic drudgery has typically fallen on women, and technological convenience has been a great liberator. Doing laundry, for instance, was a week long project, as an old nursery rhyme makes clear, and it was backbreaking monotony. But of course a man wouldn't know this
34
A wonderful essay. An inconvenient truth.
The evolutionary endpoint of unconstrained convenience is extinction.
Consider all the post-Apple babies who never knew the analog world, whose developing brains were imprinted by digital devices.
Once we took a bite of the Apple, it was only a matter of time before the iPhone finished us off. (Genesis 3:4–5)
We are all socially, psychologically and physiologically altered by our digital devices. The insidious increase of functional and physical integration of human and device in the case of the iPhone makes its threat especially pernicious.
Apple, and convenience, generally, are not just "forbidden fruit." They are also the serpent, tempting us all to take that bite.
To borrow from McLuhan, the logo is the message.
16
"The tyranny of inconvenience" Ah, written by a man who, I'm guessing, spends very little time doing housework or raising kids. In addition to working at least one, if not two or more, jobs. Most women I know are exposed to "the risk of frustration and failure" and their "teachable moments" on a daily basis.
21
None really. When my children were young there were times I had to get up at night and thus I felt tired the next day. However, I am lucky. I always had support so that I could do the work I loved. I feel that our conveniences have given women the freedom to work, to run for office, and not so long ago fight for our voting rights. Our conveniences have given the medical field greater research opportunities. Many of those medical research opportunities have liberated women from female issues such as having children when we choose to or choose not to at all. Our conveniences enables abused women to go on line to seek help. The bottom line is what you decide to do with your conveniences. Are you going to sit in front of the TV all day or are you going to use all this wonderful new equipment as, for example, a bicycle with snow tires enabling you to bike to work?
12
A very perceptive essay, but the author perhaps downplays the most destructive aspect of convenience. The greatest danger of convenience is in education. You have to do serious thinking on your own to train your mind. You have to memorize the simple times tables to think faster later on. You have to remember spelling rules and practice them in longhand writing (cursive preferred) so that your mind has time enough to register what is correct spelling (even if everyone makes mistakes now and then). It used to take three or four minutes to look up a word in a foreign-language dictionary, now you can find it in 30 seconds with a smart phone. But the four minutes gave you time for your brain to remember the word better, and eventually you could just use the word without having took things up. Not having learned the vocab, when you have to look up ten words at 30 seconds each, it will set you back 5 minutes, which is enough time loss to make just about any communication impossible.
In learning, inconvenience is a necessary step in learning. It may slow you down in the beginning, but it is indispensable for success in the long run.
38
"Convenience is all destination and no journey."
With any technology, it's value is determined by what it's used for.
Television offered the possibility of getting a first rate college education right from your living room. Instead we got the Home Shopping Network. The printing press. The Xerox machine. What did those get us? A handful of great works and an endless stream of nonsense.
The Atomic Bomb.
It does occur to me that what the author protests, and his protestations are correct and valid, may not be the undoing of man, but, rather, his evolution - as distasteful and abhorrent as both the author and I seem to find it.
After watching Blade Runner 2049, I realized that it was about everything that's really important to me. It was about what it means to be human. What makes us who we are. And in that light it made me very sad. Sad because all those things seemed to be so less important in the world today. Particularly in the United States.
While I admire the Walden approach to our current state of convenience, I lament that there will be very few who decide to take that path. Myself included.
For what it's worth, I am a bit of a Luddite. I'm older, so I can afford to be. I just got rid of may land line, and I still use a Motorola Razr flip phone. A device which, perhaps like my view of convenience, now resides in a museum.
It will be interesting to see if we ever get a new non-convenience counter-culture, or if convenience will ultimately triumph in the end.
4
Individuality is an illusion - we are social animals who strive to be accepted by the herd. Choices are an illusion - they paralyze us with more fear of making the wrong choice, so we go along with the most popular. We live in a world of existential threats, man-made, with leaders who value their own "individuality" of career success and power among their tribe over the common good; too cowardly to do the right thing even when the answers stare them in the face. They are the models the rest of us have to follow. At the end of the day, we are left in the despair of "what can I, as one person, do?" and so we do nothing. When those around us, even our immediate family and friends, don't seem to care, are too busy with their own little insular worlds, why should we? It takes extraordinary character and courage to go up against the status quo or the imposed habits of our tribe. The cost of failure in an increasingly unforgiving world is too high. We are, after all, risk-averse creatures. So, we live with a tyranny of fear created by our media, politicians and corporations that any day now we can lose -- our jobs, our way of life, even our lives. But, no worries, I have an app for the best laundry service and all is good.
5
My dog is a major inconvenience. He is also a source of endless joy and contentment. I yearn for more such inconveniences in my life.
22
It seems very odd to have left out the 600-pound gorilla in the room, "convenience" food. Or would that have made the article supererogatory, since there are a million articles detailing how people get addicted to what is quick, easy, and convenient in our culture, and the myriad moral and physical results?
8
I’ve been trying to solve a puzzle for some time, and your article has finally clarified my resistance to this technological age. While I do use some things that are more convenient (online bill pay for one), I feel no need for a cell phone, facebook page or other gadgets. So I’ve been mentally resistant and even hostile to the next wave of technology, which will not only make everything even more convenient, but also, I fear, serve to further enslave us to the creators of those technologies. Recently, one such idea emerged from a technocrat and is being promoted to our governor, that some freeway lanes be reserved for driverless cars, and maybe even that all cars with real people as drivers should be banned from the freeway. Even the fact that self-driving cars are being developed as something that will save us from our bad-driving selves should be a red alert, in my opinion. Yeah, call me a Luddite or a dinosaur, but robots and their cars are probably just the beginning.
5
Living with multiple chronic life-threatening incurable medical maladies with an unknown use-by mortality date is very inconvenient.
5
Judging from the comments of the proponents of inconvenience in this discussion it becomes apparent that they are of another generation. The millennials of today do not even understand what a mailbox is as was recently asked to me (true!) by a 10 year old. They only know the convenience of Amazon and immediate gratification of texting instead of sending letters. Our road to the robotic path of convenience has already been paved.
6
I understand what the author is saying and agree to some degree. Balance is they key. I do resent or maybe I fell guilty about the posts of people who write about how very righteous they are hanging their laundry out, no central heat etc. A bit self congratulating and one upmanship. They all do have a computer and probably wifi.
7
Convenience's evil twin is the substantial demise of personal service except for those at the high end of the income distribution. So, how do you like the depopulation of retain sales assistants and the further shrinkage of the cohort of cashiers, or help lines that mostly provide a mix of frustration and sales pitches?
6
"The paradoxical truth I’m driving at is that today’s technologies of individualization are technologies of mass individualization."
No. They are those of mass anesthetization.
Let's not pat ourselves on the back for "reflecting", when the very problem is that we have, by these "shiny, bright, nifty toys", undermined the very capacity of our populace to reflect, analyse and evaluate life events.
6
Sadly, a majority of the U.S. population "lives" on Facebook, merely connecting and commenting with "friends" and relatives instead of actually living active, rewarding lives. Do you really need to know what a schoolmate from 1988 is doing now, aside from the fact you shared a graduation event? Americans, never known for worldly knowledge or international travel, are paradoxically even more inward-facing given their access to 24/7 electronic social media. Many Americans, a majority of which are obese and undereducated, live safely cocooned in cookie-cutter suburbia supplied by WalMart and fast food franchises. Instead of traveling or even taking a walk outside, we remain glued to updates and the latest pop culture event blasted across all forms of online communication. We have traded culture and vast amounts of social interaction for scrolling alone and Kardashian nonsense. I am 100% anti-Facebook (and 99% anti-cell phone) for these reasons.
8
A few years into my legal career, another young married woman and I confessed over coffee how surprisingly satisfying it was to take care of our homes -- cleaning, decorating, cooking.
Neither of us would ever have confessed this to our supervising partners; it would have been the kiss of death to any dreams of partnership. But years later when I retired I found myself able to focus on cleaning again ... & horrified by the evidence that I should have done it years earlier ... and there I found the subtle joy of physical life all over again: The satisfaction of taking care of myself and my family, even when it consumed A LOT of time.
We live in the country. Our internet is mediocre but a vital link to newspapers and far-flung friends. Other than that, we live a throw-back life: We watch what the sub-basic satellite package offers as t.v., and entertain ourselves by colorful denunciations when, as so often, an evening's offerings are indeed a vast wasteland. About half of our heat comes from our woods -- we cut, haul, stack, set fires, maintain them ... I clean the surfaces of our house;, I clean our clothes; if the awful synthetic fibers allow, I mend. We cook a lot from the garden, which in our latitude is seriously limiting. I haven't bought a thing from Amazon in years.
It all takes a daunting amount of time and, although our retirement assets make its frugalities almost mandatory, I can't help noticing that it also makes me feel thoroughly alive.
12
I totally agree that....with all that society 'gains' with various technological offerings, we also often 'lose' something, and it's up to each of us to Recognize this, and then try and Mitigate the 'loss' piece of the equation by perhaps only using the particular convenience now and then, or else replacing whatever technology or app you've chosen to use, with another task that's more 'analog'....that puts you more in touch with other humans...with tangible tasks and activities.
I've realized over the years, many of the down-sides of technology: whereas before, if I wanted new curtains, I could go to maybe three local shops and, eventually, one of the curtains I saw would HAVE to work for me! Great!...I could cross it off my to-do list! But now? Now I must peruse endless websites to find 'just the right' curtain.
Groceries can now be delivered to our doors. No more 'pesky' interactions with other humans reaching for the same piece of produce. No more 'needless' interactions with the guy at the deli counter, or our neighbor's daughter working the checkout register.
Want to meet someone to date or potentially marry? That too can now be curated ad nauseum, as you pore over endless perfect profiles and photos to find the 'perfect mate'. Before you had your choice of the plumber down the block, the widow who works at the local flower shop, or your neighbor's co-worker that he introduced you to at his annual summer BBQ bash. And, there was something nicer about that.
5
I find it interesting that men found a way to wash dishes and wash clothes, necessary tasks, then jumped ahead to automate their own entertainment, still leaving putting away dishes and folding and ironing clothes to the women while they couch surf 540 channels. Now we can cram more leisure into that free time but how much better are we, as people, for it?
3
A pretty good essay if not the best I've read, ever. That's why sports playing and camping by us dudes are the pursuits they are.
The reason for distance running is not always an excuse for
not playing American football, well actually it was for me, but that's beside the point.
Obviously, challenging myself has beaucoup benefit, like life instead of death, the body has evolved and needs to walk, run, swim, as if that's a profound secret.
Make sure our children refrain from t.v. vegetating, duh.
Philosophers and religionists needs aren't all for mere brain exercising, though the inconveniences of physical or total body
work are manifestly important for survival.
2
Convenience is a euphemism for “lazy.” It plays into the worst of our human nature, our never-ending drive to make ourselves feel good, even to the point of addiction. We flock to convenience devices like unthinking moths to the flame. Who needs an Echo?
The soaring promise of technology was to make our lives easier. But, in too many ways it hasn’t. It forces us to be more productive in our jobs, to work faster and under more stress. There is no small irony in the fact that technology has spawned a reactionary industry of “mindfulness” designed to deal with the stress of modern life that is created by technology specifically designed to make our lives easier, more efficient and convenient.
The cult of convenience is driven by neoliberal capitalism which has no conscience except profit. Capitalism has conditioned us to believe that our primary purpose in life is to consume. Corporations manipulate our addiction to consumption by preying on our basest weaknesses whether it is salt-sugar ratios in convenience foods or “likes” on Twitter. These products don’t have to make any sense; they just have to make us feel good in some way, even if it is nothing more than appealing to our vanity. In a moment of candor, Steve Jobs confessed Apple’s cold strategy: “people don't know what they want until you show it to them.”
We’ve already bred a robotic generation, raised on algorithms, that doesn’t know the difference between the process and the destination. Imagine their children.
4
Try washing bed linen by hand, and you will understand why you never hear of mass female resistance to the washing machine.
Anyone who has despaired of answering the question "what do you want to watch tonight" in the age of Netflix will know that TV, 50 years ago, required much less effort and was, in many ways, much more convenient.
If you are ever faced with real hardship, be it of the economic kind or, say, sickness, death of a child, or whatever other hardship billions of people face every day, you will be thankful that you do not have to hunt your food on top of it. You may even be very glad for frozen pizza.
If your life is so easy that you have to manufacture inconvenience, please just say thanks for how incredibly lucky you are and figure out something worthy to do with that luck.
10
It is all too easy to list the downsides of what the author calls “convenience” in a mere few paragraphs. It would be far more difficult to outline all of the socioeconomic benefits modern technology has provided for individuals and to humanity as a whole. Try living as an average person in 1825 would, then come back and lecture us all again about the tyranny of “convenience”. If you really believe too much “convenience” is a major social problem, perhaps some introspection is in order.
5
It is hardly the fault of a convenience when people fill their newly aquired time not with reading, learning, contemplating, etc. but with watching television, facebook, etc. Nor is it the fault of a convenience when people have little choice but to use the time saved on a second or third job.
...Andrew
6
I wonder how much certain conveniences contribute to Anthropogenic Global Heating.
I recommend to the author and to readers with whom this article resonates Michael Pollen’s introduction to his book Cooked.
2
Are you talking about convenience or efficiency? The efficiency brought about by technological innovation is the basis of modern civilization. Even the abolition of slavery may never have gained traction without the innovations of the industrial revolution that often simultaneously brought convenience and efficiency and consistently reduced the need for human labor.
Women would not have been able to enter the work force and be mothers were it not for the "convenience" of washing machines, vacuum cleaners, and all the other breakthroughs that provided time saving that could be transferred to work outside the home.
A trade-off is not a tryanny. The tryanny lies in our brains, when we choose activities that release dopamine instead of the more emotionally nutritious serotonin. Humanity is in need of a new religion or form of psychotherapy that teaches the difference and encourages the pursuit of the latter.
Loving human interaction produces serotonin. Typing this comment does not, but if the Times picks it I will get a brief spurt of dopamine. Yippie!
13
If Tim Wu lived many millennia ago he would be chiseling an article for the Daily Boulder observing that hunters don't know how to gather, and gatherers can't hunt. Moreover, the hunters are using those newfangled spears and missing the fulfillment their grandfathers felt at personally wrestling a wild boar to the ground and bashing his head in with a rock. "Convenience" is just another word for using tools to make tasks easier. It didn't being in the 19th century. It began when Homo Erectus used a stick to knock down an apple rather than climbing the tree the old-fashioned way. If we feel accomplishment by avoiding a tool and doing something from scratch, that's fine. But that doesn't mean that others who take advantage of the convenience are lazy or leading meaningless lives. They may well be spending the time saved on what is meaningful to them.
6
Maslow's Hierarchy of needs offers this opportunity.
Once we meet our physiological needs, stuff like eating and breathing, we take aim at security - resources to sustain our physiological needs as effectively as possible. Once that base is covered, we clear our heads and look around and see if we have a network to support us, a tribe, a place where you matter, others willing to have your back that you can help too. Then our attention shifts to strengthening our contribution to our tribe through self fulfilling behaviors and capacity building. Once we feel complete in our sense of accomplishment, we have the esteem, the character to really take ourselves on, develop our character so we can shape our behaviors based on our desired outcomes, and develop our skills in all the domains of development - emotional, physical, mental and social. That's the inner opportunity, what Maslow suggests influences our disposition, our inner drives, no matter our agenda.
And there is another piece to recognize and understand - the situation that person finds themselves in.
Where is the situation that offers our agency the opportunity to build community?
Maslow's third hierarchy of needs. What stops us from creating a fun resiliency building practice, that's volunteer driven, builds critical thinking skills and generates a sense of belonging? Like colleges do?
1
Professor Wu,
I respect your perception of this part of our problem. It's a good start - challenging us to make a better world and improve and enjoy ourselves at the same time.
However, I'm concerned that it's futile. Not because we might not want to reverse convenience, but given the complexity of our world, it may be too late.
I think the odds are against us.
1
There's a difference between convenience and laziness. Our society is now constructed to force "convenience " on us as a means of survival in some cases. But who doesn't long for a more leisurely pace to life? A life where there's time to hang clothes on the line (actually forbidden now in some communities!), to go "visiting" on a Sunday ( my kids aren't even sure what that means), to write a letter or receive actual mail (we barely even bother anymore with Christmas cards).
2
To answer the NYT question to share an activity I do that could be perceived as inconvenient, I will share that I bake lots of bread, some of it complicated, from scratch. It is surely more convenient to buy bread, and there is very good bread that can be bought, but I prefer to bake my own. Why? Control and customization. Tactile sensation. Good smells. Feeling of accomplishment. Convergence of art and science. And maybe most of all, taste and memories. Both my grandmothers were great bakers, and when I bake, I remember them.
7
Convenience is one of the drivers of obesity. We use escalators instead of stairs, automatic doors instead of push/pull ones.
Obesity counselors suggest making as many daily choices as possible to do things the hard way, because it makes a difference--not as much as running a marathon, but measurable.
2
The question I often find myself asking is this: do I own the technology or the technology own me? I tend to avoid the latter as much as possible.
2
I beg to differ. I have found many convenience to be liberating. I'm 76 and retired. Right now I'm using my laptop to read the news on multiple websites. And I'm typing on a querty keyboard. I can go pretty fast because I don't have to exert force on a typewriter.
Because of convenience I have the opportunity to sing church and community choirs. I find struggle in sight reading and then performing music with nuance. Just this week I organized a group choral singers to go into homes, retirement communities and workplaces to perform "Singing Valentines". So many heartfelt tears were shed. We sang for a 6th grade girl who was surprised, but then came forward to sing with us, as did some of her friend.
I was able to coordinate this better because I used an excel spreadsheet for singing "appointments". I was better able to communicate with singers through email, keeping them up to date and providing directions.
I could go on in depth about how I am free to be part of a book group, hike, play with my dog, take yoga classes, spend time with friends and family, coordinate a program at the library to help children to read and of course sing. Convenience has given me to opportunity to do meaningful work in my community and have enriched relationships. I have never been happier.
8
Is cooking inconvenient? I love to cook, so it's hard to say it's inconvenient.
I use maps. By using maps, I glean more information about the surrounding area than I can from GPS, and the routes I select are usually quicker.
What about calculator? At sixty I sum up and compute percentages faster in my head than most people do using a computing device. *Not* using a calculator is more convenient for me.
I started dabbling in art on the computer, but quickly discovered much greater joy in doing art the old fashioned way, with brushes and paints and patience. Again, it's hard to say it's inconvenient because it is so much more satisfying, and a big part of the satisfaction comes from the 'inconvenience' of preparation: the sizing, gessoing, setting light sources/finding the perfect spot/time of day to paint, etc.
Convenience isn't a bad thing in itself. Professor Wu's example of washing machines, for example, overlooks the harsh fact that *before* the washing machine, washing clothes was a significant portion of a housewife's work week, and that the 'convenience' of washing machines ultimately engendered the unshackling of women from the confines of the home. It can be argued that the advent of the washing machine and refrigerator did more to nurture feminism than any suffragette or movement.
Like all things, one must weigh the relative merit of a thing over its demerits.
And sometimes, the inconvenience of a thing is it's own merit.
8
I had the now-I-recognize-it good fortune to be living in a rural area when cell phones came out. There were no towers, and so no cell phones. I still don't have one, and seem to do fine without. I started out with film photography and have stayed with it, to the laughs of other photographers. Now I'm cutting edge. My trucks been most of the way to the moon, but it's paid for, it starts every time, and I can (and do) fix it. I'm the family cook and baker, and we eat better at lower cost than we would with frozen foods. The guiding princinciple for us is: "Would XYZ truly improve the quality of our lives?" The answer--increasingly so--is "Nah."
5
The "freedom" made possible by that convenience has not actually been to the full benefit of those freed by convenience. Instead, it has enabled them to be exploited more fully for the profit of others.
The classic case is the convenience of electronic life on line that follows people home so they can work all evening, and be available to the employer constantly.
However, the ability to make meals quickly has allowed demands of both husband and wife to work longer hours. Without convenience, a family unit could not have put in so many working hours because it could not provide for its own basic needs.
Who profits from those longer hours and work following workers home? Pay has not gone up. Employer profits have skyrocketed. It is stock prices that have gone through the roof, not consumer life items which is a market that has stalled.
In fact, consumer items come cheap from China and even less costly places, so those basic needs can be provided with even less sharing of the profits of the ever-expanding production of the ever-expanding work.
1950's SciFi thought of convenience as enabling masses to self fulfillment. Instead, it has enabled them to serve their masters more completely than ever. It has become a way to get by on less, less time for oneself, and a smaller share of what one produces.
Some convenience.
10
Historically, mechanical labor saving devices began by replacing work done by slaves and domestic servants (the latter, in the 1870s, made up more than half of the entire work force in Britain). These devices played a large part in ending or diminishing these two long-established social institutions.
Later such conveniences were extended more widely to workers. In the period immediately following WWII, sociologists routinely predicted that automated factories and mechanized homes would shrink the work week; people would use the time to explore, study, learn, etc. Instead, the marketing of more devices for convenience and entertainment coincided with the vast expansion of consumer credit. This has led, in the US particularly, to the necessity for two earner families, if they are to keep up with the flood of modern convenience. Another result of the convenience market is the vast expanse of toxic pollution, the bulk of which is packaging, disposable items, etc.
4
Young, competent people are increasingly forgoing the raising of children because of inconvenience which is the saddest. Sure, children take up your time, money, patience, and a huge chunk of your life but there are such unique and deep life lessons gained by having a relationship with children from infancy to adulthood that is irreplaceable by having pets or even, friends. By undergoing the "inconvenience" of having children, one gains life's deepest joys.
4
Well said, and not only that, but you continue a line unbroken from the beginning of time. Imagine the difficulties your ancient ancestors endured over the millennia to continue the line; in this age of easy living, do you really want to be the one that breaks the line solely out of selfishness? Great way to honor them.
1
One of my great travel joys was spontaneously stopping over in Paris for two nights back in 1984. I meandered around the Left Bank, found a tiny hotel on rue de l'Universite, then spent those two days like a true flaneuse (see? there's even a name for it now), wandering the streets -- with just a paper street and Metro map, exploring and discovering the city at will. No one on the planet knew where I was -- and I revelled in the atmosphere of getting lost for its own sake.
NOT being lost is surely a convenience in modern life with modern responsibilities, but now it's impossible to be or get lost, and we are the poorer for it.
6
Er, if you don't want your share of convenience, please mail or text it to me. I love it, can't get enough of it. I spend hours, which is inconvenient, trying to discover and enact new ways of enjoying convenience. I really like one I recently found: lawn services. Oh, yeah: As an old guy in hot and super-humid Florida, I don't miss the near-heart attack experience of working in the yard. Likewise, I don't miss time-wasting trips to the spooky laundromat -- got a Maytag washer-dryer combo. Don't miss going out to see movies: Netflix, Amazon Prime, and buying it for my computer are far superior in every way. Buying on Amazon changed my life for the better for many reasons.
I remember the dismal, daily frustration of living like a near-pioneer: outside toilets; hot houses in the summer, cold in the winter; no TV; no interesting toys as a kid; no cellphones. No, thanks. Modernity, thou art a loyal and true friend.
Ain't going back:
been there, done that.
"If someone does not keep pace with her companions, perhaps it is because she hears a different drummer. Let her step to the music that she hears, however measured or far away."
-- Henry David Thoreau
(modernized, convenient version)
7
My supermarket offers a "click-it" convenience where you can order online, have someone at the store do your shopping for you and pick it up in a reserved parking area for a $5 fee. It is a convenience I will never use. No matter how busy one gets, I just can't imagine someone else selecting my fruit, vegetables, meat and fish.
6
The human bend toward convenience is nothing new: agriculture is a more convenient way of feeding oneself than gathering and the warmth provided by fire is, after all, a convenience. Domesticated pets, who get regular meals from their owners, are quite content to lounge around on their monogrammed beds instead of hunting prey. One might even argue that this tendency is in great part responsible for the invention of tools and the various machines and implements that made it possible to increase our life expectancy. Let’s not be too Puritan about this subject (the thought of living in XVIIth century New England, having to listen to those interminable sermons, sitting on a hard wooden bench in a cold church appeals less to me than reading the New York Times on my iPad in my comfortably heated house ... I can think more and better this way).
5
As an art teacher, one day (some time ago) some students were complaining about bringing an individual studio project to completion. I compared art making to making a pizza. I outlined the steps of "handcrafting" a pizza." One student said - hey, we just get it out of the freezer and pop it in the microwave.
1
I am one of many RNs for whom "struggle" and "work" are part of the daily grind. So-called work savers, ie. computerized documentation, can magnify already busy tasks, while taking time away from the REAL job of CARING. Some tasks are not commodities to be measured and ticked off on a digital chart. God forbid one misses a task or a time delay triggers a warning flag. What " looks bad" in the digital world may mean the nurse spent invaluable personal time with a client and their family - listening, hugging, supporting, comforting. Time saving conveniences have their place and are a godsend. They are not able to replace one-on-one human interaction in any workplace.
11
When the food industry starting foisting convenience on us, it came in the form of pre-packaged meals loaded with preservatives and all sorts of ingredients that are impossible to pronounce. With that "advancement" came a dramatic increases in diseases like cancer and arteriosclerosis. Tyranny at its finest.
10
Convenience has caused the obesity epidemic in this country, and the food merchants of convenience are busily exporting that scourge around the world. KFC in Africa, for example. Inconvenience is far more than a philosophical moral high ground. In the case of food, it is essential to good health.
6
The author misses a key point: all of these conveniences enabled women to enter the workforce. Historically, most of the thankless drudgery (washing clothes by hand, grinding coffee beans) was borne by women, while men left the home to work. People are free to make their own choices, but I will happily drink my Starbucks and use my front loader if it means that I can have a meaningful career and am not expected to be at home making artisanal food.
12
I'm baffled that the writer doesn't understand that convenience frees people to use their limited time in the way they best see fit and that they are capable of distinguishing between convenience devices and services that help and those that harm. If you enjoy elbowing others at the supermarket in order to pick out the freshest cauliflower, then by all means do it. But don't feel superior to people who order it from FreshDirect. There's no singular learning experience in shopping. Or in laundry. Or in many other mundane chores.
As has been pointed out, convenience services have made it possible for many women to have a life outside the home.
If you truly have a preference, that will trump convenience. If you choose Starbucks Instant when brewing takes only a few minutes more that means you are indifferent between instant coffee and fresh-brewed coffee, not that you have a preference.
I do shop at brick & mortar stores, but Amazon frequently has a better selection and lower prices, which is important to me. I can read customer reviews of the product. It has a generous return policy compared to brick and mortar stores. Why should I spend hours going from store to store, concerned about inventory & lines, when I can make an educated choice on Amazon & save money? It is more convenient, but it's not just about convenience.
Yet I'm the one climbing the stairs when everyone else is on the escalator or walking when others are riding. As I said, it's about intelligent choice.
34
"Why should I spend hours going from store to store, concerned about inventory & lines, when I can make an educated choice on Amazon & save money? It is more convenient, but it's not just about convenience."
Also consider the fuel use of your "going from store to store" in parallel with so many others in comparison to efficiently planned delivery routes.
...Andrew
For those of us who know a time when personal contact and physical effort were our primary teachers, the latest incarnation of "convenience" can seem stupefying. For all of the advantages of new technology, I don't see our 7 billion bodies as a whole, or our environments getting healthier, or our relationships and persistence getting stronger. And, we have handed over our futures to the few who manage the development of technology and its resulting social structures.
2
I think it’s this article perfectly names the current “problem without a name” that I was thinking of before Friedan’s book was referenced to make a different point. “The Tyranny of Convenience” - yes, exactly. We are so convinced of convenience that we don’t care what the consequnces are to ourselves or others. ThInk of how we export our pollution, on both ends of the product chain. We want the convenience, but we don’t want to see what it takes to create or what remains to be done with our products when we’re done with them, be that a paper cup, an old computer, or factory meat. We have been blinded. Even in the Jetsons, George gets trapped on the treadmill and needs Jane to get him off “this crazy thing.” How do we do that? There is so much money being made off new conveniences, it’s not like we can flip a switch. We have to turn the model on its head somehow. I don’t know how that can be done. Smarter consumerism isn’t really fixing it; it helps, maybe. I think of my family who would rather use paper plates even at Christmas to avoid doing the dishes. I know mine is not alone in that type of thinking. What can we do to make a long-term difference?
What strikes me most is the massive inconvenience of all these structures that deliver our supposed convenience -- without which it seems we can no longer live or do business.
We, the consumers are taking the brunt in daily, gut-churning, mind-numbing inconvenience. Online mazes of sign-ups, passwords, pin-codes, captcha's, finding cars or road signs in endless little boxes.
The daily tech nightmares and glitches. Software that doesn't work. New innovations and technologies launched and released before they are ready. Exploding success of tech companies whose product is so new that customer service can't yet be scaled. No phone numbers or human contact. Unresponsive "chat" help.
If companies agreed to take on a number of phone support staff, it would save their customer base millions of dollars annually in employee wasted time and inconvenience, boosting employment and bottom lines across the board.
Amazon got that. It's why they left all the other non-starters in the dust.
15
The seduction of convenience infiltrates my life more and more. Because I can remember the days before online shopping and smart phones, my response to this is mixed. (And I am not on Facebook.)
I am more concerned for children who are growing up with the expectation of instant results. How will this affect their capacity to deal with loss, disappointment, and obstacles that require patience, hard work, and determination? How will their interpersonal relationships and professional lives be affected? What can replace everyday life lessons in the benefits of getting on with it despite difficult circumstances, and in taking the long view?
1
"Consider the man of the early 1980s...."
There are a few things missing in this exteneded thought piece, IMO.
To wit, the stranglehold of a drastically reduced standard of living in the US, imposed from without, getting worse over the course of my baby boom generation's lifespan since the 60s.
Coupled with our confusion between the value of things and relationships-think "Bowling Alone"-Americans are rowing, in circles, faster and faster, pursuing what? Another purchase?
So the attraction of convenience is addictive, one more thing "accomplished" faster and easier. Makes sense, but consider this attraction/addiction as a symptom. It serves the dual purpose of helping us row faster and to stay disassociated from realities that have often become too much to consider. Pass the remote.
Every day I see at least one person in an idling car on a cell phone conveniently messaging or looking up directions. Convenient Uber and Lyft drivers wait for their passengers while idling since they are often not allowed to park on a busy street. UPS, FedEx, and other ubiquitous white vans drive from house to house idling to provide convenient delivery of packages, most of which are lightweight (such as my dogs' oral flea medication which I can't get other than online). The carbon footprint of a small package delivered at my door is truly distressing. With all these conveniences we often lose mindfulness of our actions, especially our contribution to the warming of the planet.
1
"The carbon footprint of a small package delivered at my door is truly distressing. "
Computation of that footprint needs to include the many other items delivered on that same trip, and must be compared to the trips you would otherwise drive along with all those other people that would be doing the same.
...Andrew
1
Superb article. Unmentioned is the risk brought about by the "great deskilling": the trap prepared for us through our loss of fundamental self-sufficiency. Who thinks there is no risk of social disruption today? Risk of financial collapse, climate threats to the food system, civic unrest due to political collapse, internal displacement due to sea level rise...
If ever we should fall victim to any of these, the pliers and the shovel will be worth a lot more than Facebook and Twitter - if we are practiced in their use.
5
As A. M. Rossocielo has observed, "There are no helicopter rides to the mountaintop moments in life". I can think of nothing more convenient to my spirit than an hour of splitting and stacking some freshly felled red oak to burn in my wood stove next year.
3
I teach, not convenient at all to engage people in critical discourse, but it still feels worthwhile. But it also feels increasingly unsafe. Next week, I'm attending an unpaid workshop on how to respond to a shooting. It's not the issue of the workshop being voluntary; it's the idea that I think I need to know how to protect my students from a shooter.
And I work at a local farm on the weekends because I wanted to learn and be part the America still in touch with our agricultural roots, who keep small farms alive. It's not that much fun in the heat of the summer when the greenhouses are up over 100 and the fields are dry and you have to water by dragging pipe across fields. I get paid just over min. wage, which makes my family ask why I have those advanced degrees.
5
Mr. Wu's thoughts are just the tip of the iceberg. Homo sapiens evolved to survive the numerous threats to our survival and propagation that were part of the natural world we evolved in. We were uniquely successful at this task, to the point that threats to individual survival were reduced (and the mean life span increased substantially). We then set out to destroy challenges to our desires, and, to free ourselves from inconveniences, which diverted time from our reward-seeking. We were free to pursue our desires, careless and free (from or for what, we know not). We stand in the ruins (we had to lay waste to nature to "win"), and it is dawning on some of us that we may have destroyed much of what we need succeed. Inconvenience will fade into the void of our lostness. We evolved to struggle, to overcome, to survive an inconvenient life. The ecosystem begins to collapse, as the most successful invasive, exotic species, homo sapiens, struggles to sustain an unsustainable population. We may not have evolved such that we can succeed at the task we face, to survive our enemies without destroying them, or to even understand what that means.
2
how much of "convenience" is actually unpaid labor? scanning and packing your own groceries at the "self-checkout" for the convenience of a quicker exit. there is more to this than just making it easier for individuals...how much is corporate and institutional ( read political ) interest served through our greater convenience?
3
Great thoughts from Tim Wu as usual.
But I think it would be worth exploring the lost opportunities for people to develop skills and have a sense of accomplishment and critical thinking.
Learning to drive a car with a clutch and manual transmission is more rewarding than clicking to hail an Uber; cooking a meal is a similar comparison to ordering take out. Reading and making up your own mind with critical thinking skills is replaced by watching Fox News and social media algorithms that confirm preconceptions.
So we lose these skills not just individually but as a society and are fundamentally changed and become more physically and mentally lazy.
At some point we might be vulnerable to exploitation by a demagogue or foreign powers with the skill and savvy to exploit this new dynamic.
31
Are we really going to mourn the death of the mundane task?
As a person who runs my own business (including its marketing and website support), is responsible for 90% of what's done to care for our child (including both physical and emotional needs), is the de facto IT manager at our home, cleans up after everyone else, is the default for caring for our pets, handles our finances, is responsible for interacting with contractors and cleaners, and manages my husband's freelance career, give me more convenience in heartbeat.
Don't agree? I've got three loads of laundry you can come fold and put away right now.
25
Where was this essay when I was 16? Seriously though, a great read that should be required at some point for everybody.
One thing that comes to mind - what new contraption will save people from the most inconvenient task of all, commuting to work?
2
It already exists for many jobs: the computer allows one to work from home.
1
Lest we forget, the world of convenience looks like the proverbial inverted pyramid. Once balanced, the slightest disturbance and it falls and becomes a major burden to restore the fragile, delicate balance. Imagine a situation where the internet fails, the grid goes down or the supply of gasoline runs dry... major "in-convenience", if not catastrophic? Imagine the hue and cry across the planet. Yet, there are probably billions of people that would barely notice... This inequality could easily be the force that topples the inverted pyramid.
2
This sounds like one of my favorite rants (although better written). I know people who rarely if ever experience inconvenience and it makes them spoiled and entitled. To them, even the most minor hassle becomes something to loudly complain about.
We choose a life that eschews most common conveniences:
No car. Our commutes and most of our errands are done on a bike or on foot. As a result, we are more connected to our city, are healthier and happier.
No clothes dryer (clothesline).
No garbage disposal (compost).
No dishwasher (hands).
No microwave.
No central heat or thermostat (a single gas space heater).
I could go on...The advantage and joy of living with inconvenience means that every day is an adventure.
3
Loved this very thought provoking column. It does bother my wife when she thinks about the environmental impact of buying a pack of pencils from Amazon. To offset this concern, we try to bundle our purchases. For me, convenience frees me up to pursue other hobbies and interests with the precious time I have on this earth.
3
Only those with privilege would complain about the necessities of modern society. Those who never spent hours on household tasks, carrying water, doing laundry by hand, preparing every meal from scratch can romanticize the past all they want. It is not mere convenience, Mr. Wu; the things you describe have allowed the poor a better standard of living than in previous centuries. They have allowed women to participate more in society. They have allowed single parents to care for their families while working outside the home. They allow the disabled to participate in society and to live with minimal supports. And seriously, when in history did every single person cook, clean, take care of children, build houses, and do it all themselves? Those who are wealthy, who are white, who are men have always had conveniences—in the form of women and servants. So exactly who is complaining here? Go ask the poor and especially women of third world country if they would rather have some of the conveniences you disparage.
108
While what you say regarding 'third world' societies may be appropo re: convenience and technological advances, that does not dispute the fact that for many others (i.e., in the advanced USA), these advances HAVE come with a price that has cost society as a whole.... interpersonal relationships as a whole...the sense of community as a whole...our individual connections with the planet..with nature...
15
As is obvious from the comments of all these inconvenience-lovers, they do have a choice to spurn many modern conveniences. After spending many decades in convenient North America (and loving it), I chose to retire in India where I can occasionally see women carrying chopped wood bundles on their heads to use as fuel for their mud stoves for cooking. They have smiles on their faces. Perhaps they have the solution to the question of who they are? For me, I have taken up cooking as a hobby in my urban apartment! I like rewarding myself with character when I feel like cooking and ordering in (on line) when I don't.
2
to sum it up as a bumper sticker (which I thought up years ago):
"Convenience is fattening."
I am a 67-yr old curmudgeon who heats her farmhouse by throwing chunks of firewood into an outdoor boiler twice a day. It's not necessarily cheaper than propane, but it uses a resource I have (woodlot full of dead ash trees), provides exercise, gets me outdoors in all weather, and I enjoy it!
4
Life is not as comfortable for the working class, Google or no. One man's convenience is another's graveyard shift.
3
"You need not churn your own butter or hunt your own meat "
Very inconvenient to stop and think about those tidy, convenient packages of meat in the grocery store; about the suffering and abuse the animals went through at our expense, and how commercial farming is the #1 cause of pollution in this country. Too overwhelming for many to make a simple change of reducing the amount of meat in one's diet which would have a huge positive impact on health and planet.
2
I'm not sure why so many commenters are conflating favoring convenience with laziness...my spouse and I are both working professionals with two young children, therefore we work our tails off and are constantly pressed for time. We value convenience BECAUSE we work so hard, not because we have an aversion to labor. Many, many people are motivated by convenience for the same reason, which the author "conveniently" ignores to fit his narrative.
2
Convenience is the low-hanging fruit of innovation. I'm thinking of things like indoor plumbing, convenient yes but the life changing impact on public health is unquestionable. I keep waiting for more impactful inventions and discoveries.
2
Convenience is an option millions of people reject everyday. Why do people jog, knit, bake cookies or do-it-yourself jobs around the house. One reason is to experience the satisfaction of achieving a goal or making something your self. Another reason is that they have the time to do so because of the time-saving 'conveniences' they are surrounded by.
The issue is what do you choose to do with your time, not that this wonderful, technological, unencumbered, convenient world enables you to make a choice!
3
A thought-provoking article, but I disagree that people stopped using Napster because iTunes was more convenient. Napster allowed people to steal music, denying the artist compensation for their art. It was morally and legally wrong. That’s why people stopped using it (at least when there was an equally convenient way to legally and morally accomplish the same task).
2
Great article. But surely the most important inconveniences that we have in our lives are other people, especially those we love. The sheer inconvenience of children and the way demands get made of us helps expose the fallacy that our convenience is an unalloyed good.
2
Is anyone asking how convenience is paid for?
Convenience is paid for through the sweat blood and tears of all those who actually make something, be it iPhones, washing machines, TV shows, your house or apartment, and not to forget your morning coffee and your lunch.
Sadly, there is an assumption amongst too many that money is readily available so that all we need to do is to swipe a payment card or tap an Apple wallet, and voila, a good service magically appears, for us to consume, digest and enjoy.
The era of easy money is coming to an end and so also may today’s torrent supply of convenient goods and services, come to a merciless halt.
Convenience ultimately is a question of resources and how those resources are made available to all of us, not only the moneyed few.
1
When you remove the sense of accomplishment from effort that is even minimally challenging, I think the mind becomes less and less interested in seeking out new challenges. It doesn't know the sensation of self satisfaction or pride anymore. Witness the shrinking numbers of students in challenging majors, the lack of physical fitness in all age groups, lack of involvment in creative hobbies. the substitution of video game sports for real sports etc.
We are becoming the robots, except we are dumber and less capable than the robots that serve us
1
As a writer and a senior citizen I have known both the pre-computer and Google search engine world and the convenience of these technologies. Without the drudgery of typing and spelling and grammar and endless searching for some perhaps arcane reference and the time spent in trudging to the library, etc., etc., what your article fails to acknowledge is the productivity gains from these technologies. I am sure that my output is at least 50% greater than it would have been without them. There is no trade-off that I can see.
JD
2
I strive for the middle path. I love having a washer, dryer, and dishwasher. And I also love walking to my local market to get the food that my wife and I turn into a delicious meal in our kitchen. I like riding my 20-year-old clunker bike into town to run errands, pickup groceries, or maybe just toddle around, getting a nice workout in the process. And I like fixing my own stuff whenever I can. Not only does it save us a bunch of money, it also delivers a deep level of satisfaction, and a greater appreciation for whatever bit of mechanical magic it is I happen to be working on.
Paraphrasing Kahlil Gibran in The Prophet: “The desire to be comfortable enters the house a guest, and then becomes a host and then a master. Verily the lust for comfort murders the passion of the soul, and then walks grinning in the funeral.“
Know when to show comfort the hand.
3
A few years ago, I read a book titled, "The Circumference of Home", about a San Francisco writer who realized that in spite of his efforts at recycling & conservation, had a huge environmental footprint from international jet travel (cancelling out the benefits of him driving a hybrid vehicle many times over. So he decided to stay within a reasonable distance of his home, & do what he could to cut back. It's an interesting read on self-imposed austerity in an age of waste.
My mother, who was a child during WWII, still talks about the mandatory rationing, & says that if rationing was imposed now, there would be rioting in the streets. The thought of people being mailed packets of seed & told to grow their own Victory gardens is anathema in our society now.
We live in an age where the affluence & convenience of some can literally ruin the planet for the rest of us. Do what you can on an individual to live within your means, & slow down. I worry that future generations will look back on this time (in a future glacier-free world), & consider this time with disgust.
1
Let's face it, convenience is the easy way, often the lazy way. You can buy your dinner, rather than cook it yourself; you can pay higher prices if you won't drive, or walk, further to get better prices; you can throw stuff away, rather than reuse it or recycle it; you can buy fresh veggies, rather than try to grow them yourself; you can fix that electrical outlet yourself, rather than pay a guy $70 to do it for you; you can throw away that blouse, with the missing button, rather than sew on a new one; you can turn on your own lights, rather than let a computer do it. I still know how to do, and am willing to do, all these things, because they are valuable skills, but I'm afraid the majority of Americans can't, or won't, do any of these things. I think that's really sad, and maybe dangerous to our citizens, who have not learned how to do the simplest things, thanks to their obsession, and willing time consumption, with technology. I do have a cell phone, and a computer, but I'll take the simpler, more fulfilling, life, thanks.
2
When I walk on a college campus it looks like a movie of the the walking dead.
Everyone is focused on their phone. They don't look at people, nature or any occurrences around them. Their mind and eyes are drowned in their machines.
78
" What happens to human experience when so many obstacles and impediments and requirements and preparations have been removed?"
What happens is we become infantilized. It's only a matter of time before someone comes up with technology that cuts our meat for us. We're becoming that helpless.
Every day I see grown men and women have mini-meltdowns when encountering the slightest of obstacles ... things as trivial as a page not loading quickly enough on their smart phone. I can only imagine what their children are learning from such behavior.
2
Take the long way home.
The most revolutionary act today is making all of our meals from scratch.
What defines us as human?
Spend more time in places where you cannot see anything made by humans. Research shows it calms us down.
2
If the Comments section to any New York Times story is an example of convenience, it doesn't seem to me that it is turning people into homogenized milk. Instead, it brings out real diversity of opinion that most of us never would have seen. The question is, do we have the will to read all the way through and engage with thoughts that may be different from around. Sure, there is often the majority and minority opinion, but any student of American history will tell you that minority points of you often become the majority, and vice versa.
1
This article is a pleasure to read; a mouth-watering feast of wordsmithed morsels.
Something inconvenient I'm building more into my life: painting
1
I just came in from hanging my clothes out. It is inconvenient. Windy and a little chilly, I could have just thrown them into the dryer attached to my little washing machine. But I put the "wash" in the bag, tie on my clothes pin holder, get into warm clothes and out I go. Into the sun, the fresh air, birds around, a deer watching in the distance. I put up the line and begin "stitching" the wash along it. Precise work. I feel right, alive, doing a natural thing. But it really is convenient! I have a line and pins! I don't have to drape the wash on various bushes and trees as I do camping or have seen traveling in the tropics.
I chop my own fire wood. Again, outside, happy to use my old body. The heft of the ax, placing the wood to take advantage of drying cracks, eyeing the target, the inhale, the swing, the connection (most of the time, :) simultaneous with the "UH" exhale, finishing it off with a wedge and sledge, the inspection of the grain. And that is one piece. It is convenient! I sawed the original 20 ft log with a chain saw (no more crosscut for me), I had the ax, the wedge, the sledge.
Facebook? Didn't work. Twitter? Too many interruptions. Instagram? Why?
Why have we traded the invasion of an "enemy" into our election system because we want to know the outcome before the election is over?
I do use a number of "convenient" electronic devices but I've learned a mantra to keep my use of them sane: "Convenient but unreliable."
2
This article outlines a thought that I have picked up on for some time. We exist in our modern society as if choosing items outlines an experience. The rage bubbling below the surface is our own selves yearning to break out.
1
Underlying the issue of convenience is the tacit belief that there is no (good) point to inconvenience in life- that there is no point to struggling with things. Here we find ourselves lost in our purposelessness. Traditionally, inconvenience was tied to the formation of character. Patience is a virtue, even in this day and age of the instant. Yet how can patience develop if never challenged? How can hospitality and graciousness ever develop if our zealous protection of personal time, space and wealth is never softened (inviting folks over for dinner is the very notion of inconvenient, with its frenetic pre-cleaning/post-cleaning buzz)?
The perception of what we find inconvenience, I suspect, says more about us than it does about the actual thing that's inconvenient. We should try to do more to listen to what the inconvenience is telling us about ourselves, and in so doing, learn to maybe even like where the inconvenience takes us.
1
Outstanding point-of-view, not only providing a series of thoughts to ponder, but questions to ask ourselves in the face of the dinn of the obvious.
1
When we give in to the convenience of conformity we are not only robbed of our individuality, but also our privacy and faculty of self determination. The current phenomenon of the cult of Trump is a prime example. The pablum of Fox fed pseudo truths and the spread of Kremlin propaganda is turning us into Putin;s victims along with the Russian people. Monopolies of tech are addicting us to the mechanisms of control that will ultimately be run by AI. Fear mongering steals our inner peace of mind which is required to actually think creatively. The tyranny is of control through convenience. Beware of what is easy, it may be a prison of convenience.
1
I debate the idea that part of convenience is better/more efficient(cy). That depends upon how one defines the term 'efficiency'. Generally, I believe most people define efficient as "now" and "by someone else's hand", or put another way, it is instant gratification achieved by the least work done.
That's not efficient. It is lazy. It is having too much money. And for many of us for many of these conveniences, it is overwhelmingly hypocritical in that we want that convenience always and cheap, but we don't want to pay living wages to those who do the task or manufacture the product.
And then there is the loss of knowledge aspect. In a nutshell, the convenience of feeding oneself without knowing how to do much more than operate a microwave or boil water leaves one poorly fed and in less that best health. One is ignorant of cooking and preparing foods. One then spends more on food than necessary too, likely has less knowledge about food history, food cycles, from where foods come, not to mention how to grow one's own food.
That ignorance in certain worst-case scenarios will kill people or lead to death, because when the zombie apocalypse occurs and the lights are out, I will not share my store of goods with someone who has to look at me and say "uh, how do I eat this cabbage?" or "oh, can you kill and cook that for me?"
Of course, I might invite that person in for dinner. Wash up first, please. Just hop in that "bath" over there. Yes, with the carrots and onions. Trust me.
PS
so about the man of the 80s-it seems that the more elite one is, by virtue of gender, race, status, income, power, the less one has to worry about the mundane aspects of life-laundry, dirty diapers, multiple bus rides to and from work, purchasing groceries.
A couple of presidents come to mind-George Bush Jr.'s surprise at how supermarket check outs work. Our current "president's" disdain for any other aspect of fatherhood other than reflected glory.
We've turned Maslow's hierarchy on its head. Money and job security are traded for children's lives. Market dominance and profit Trump clean water, air and healthy food.
Convenience in this context is a drug that keeps us numb to the larger grotesqueries.
1
I thought I'd wait for a more convenient time to read this, but I was pretty sure I'd forget or find something more convenient to do by then, so I just went ahead and inconvenienced myself for five minutes. I'm still trying to figure out how to get them back, maybe driving file miles an hour faster for the next trip.
I recall a piece in the December 28, 2017, NYTimes (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/28/technology/bookstores-final-shakeout.... and a quote from writer Michael Schutz: “Convenience changes our expectations, and then erodes our taste." Schutz' observation continues to resonate as I observe family and my circle of friends trying to "optimize" everything, saving a few minutes in a digital, linear void while discarding multiple pathways--and the pondering and discovering that it entails--toward their objectives. Actual experiences and stories are the things that stay with you for life, not a "personal stylist on the app store" and so-called "free two-day shipping."
1
I write fiction. Highly inconvenient because no one has yet invented freeze-dried inspiration or an app that brings a muse to your door at the tap of a key.
3
Written just like a guy. It’s men that have traditionally been spared the “inconvenience” of tasks such as quality cooking. Also the cleaning, the shopping, childcare, etc. Once women began to work outside the home, those inconvenient tasks remained as additional tasks for the “woman of the house” or were shifted onto hired help; usually another woman. All that lost quality that the author laments went away when women joined the workforce and our culture lost the free labor of half our population after WWII. Good quality anything is expensive because there is no free labor pool to produce it. Get over it, or quit your job and start doing the laundry and cooking. That would bring quality back into your life - all it takes is time, but time equals money.
2
When was all that labor free? The idea that housewives were free labor is a recent one designed by women who work outside the home.
My Mother's "paycheck" was the knowledge that she was raising two girls with good moral standards and good grades. She was insulted when the US Census considered her "unemployed". Today, the value of what she accomplished has little worth in this gotta-have-money-to-buy-the-latest-version-of-something-that-will-make-my-life-easier.
Mom often spoke at great length how it was easier, ie., more convenient, for women to work outside the home, but believed they were short-sighted when it came to the actual income gained. Child care, housekeeper, lunches eaten out, and a proper wardrobe. Mom believed the expenses negated the majority of a woman's paycheck and staying home was a better choice. Her family sat down to a home cooked dinner, she was there when we came home from school and she was available for community service.
When women shifted to outside the home work, the women who took over the chores certainly didn't do it gratis, either. They expected to be compensated for cleaning the working woman's home. You can argue about the amount they were paid, but it was never done for free.
I worked for a long time before I realized it was healthier for my family if I made the bread, grew the food and took care of the house. Guess what? Mom was right - our bills are far lower than our friends who have everything done for them.
2
With all "time-saving" activities or conveniences the woke person will ask "What am I doing with the time I save?" If you don't, it's squandered with increasing mindlessness, negating any perceived benefits other than an oily modern smugness.
1
Wow. After reading this piece and the comments, I must assume that the writer and commenters live in an urban area where the conveniences they decry are readily at hand. But for the rest of the world, where driving somewhere to buy something we need takes 45-60 minutes each way and adds the risks associated with driving. This article is a pean to a time long past. I LOVE Amazon and the time I get back by not having to waste time with activities that I can do online. It gives me lots more time to focus on what I like and which benefit my personally and my profession. I'm a surgeon and I try to stay on the leading edge of new developments in my field and I get the time to do that from Amazon and others.
This article is absolutely insane. None of my patients would want me to use outmoded surgical techniques - I spend a lot of time with education and teaching. The present gives us unlimited possibilities for human advancement. Use technology wisely and your world and life will be
better. The world of the past is past. Move on. Adapt and enjoy all the extra
free time you have. And do something useful with it!
2
Growing up in a large family in the 60's, we had no dishwashing machine. My mother set a schedule for us kids, rotating, taking turns washing and drying, two together. I believe to this day my siblings are all close due to the times we spend bonding over the dishes.
2
The sense of accomplishment one gets from doing everything themselves ... It is such a gratifying feeling. Leave one thing for hired person to do. For me, it is cleaning.
1
Seriously? We don’t need to do laundry by hand to understand life is hard. And if you have the luxury to actually afford all the conveniences given to you, it sounds like you have a bunch of first world problems for which I have little sympathy.
One of the greatest "crimes" of convenience is people continuing to bank with convicted felons who willfully defrauded millions of Americans. The banks were not "too big to jail" -- it is just too inconvenient for most to change over all those automatic payments, and give up the "points" on their cards...
2
Consider the effect of the convenience of our governments taking “care” of us through laws that presume we can’t choose what’s best for us. Except for some laws that also protect us from others’ actions — think smoking in common areas and, yes, wise not all-encompassing gun control —
I’m a 70-year-old curmudgeon and I thrive on convenience. As an example, assume BigStore's Sunday advertisement is offering a purple widget at $10 off the usual price. I trot off to Big Store where I discover that the widgets are in Section X. In order to get to Sextion X, I have to wind my way through Sections A, C, L-Q, S and T, all of which are offering attractive items that just happened to have a high profit margin. Arriving at Section X, I don’t see any purple widget soI have to track down the sales clerk who is engaged in helping someone in Section Z, because BigStore doesn’t hire enough people to staff all departments. Now that I and the clerk have arrived back at Section X, she explains that they're out of purple widgets but I can special order one that will arrive back at the store in five days or get a green and yellow striped one, which only costs 15% more than I wanted. So, I send my way back through the store, go home and order a purple widget from Amazon. It costs 5% more than Bigstores advertised sale price but I can get it delivered to my home in two days so I have time to bake a loaf of bread and finish reading the Sunday edition of the Times,
So let’s not convenience even for us curmudgeons.
2
The great German philosopher Maria Mies (among other books, she wrote "The Housewifeization of Labor") said, and I paraphrase, What good is having an elevator, if you have forgotten how to build stairs? Our civilization (so-called) is forgetting how to do the myriad of things humans need to survive. We are becoming hot house flowers just as our planet is getting ready to turn us all out into the wild. Only stair builders will survive.
2
Every day, nearly, a malfunction occurs in one or more of my machines. Last evening, again, the battery went out in a smoke alarm - not a malfunction, really, but a maintenance issue.
And the more devises, the more issues, because machines don't take care of themselves.
Anyway, every time you catch and extra minute, it's usually filled, real fast, with another to-do. And the papers! My God, the papers! Just keep piling up. So while you are sitting on your duff, doing paper-work, remember, you could have been getting some actual exercise washing your clothes on some rocks down by the river.
1
I believe the author would have had a better human experience if he had written this essay with a quill pen like our founding fathers did.
2
It's about balance, people. Just like everything else in life. You're never going to convince me that scrubbing laundry all day is somehow going to connect me with the experience of living. Putting the laundry in the washer and doing something I truly enjoy would do a much better job. Then I would have time to post comments to the New York Times on my electronic device. That's right, this activity we're engaged in right now is a modern "convenience."
On the other hand what appears to be equated with convenience in this article, such as laziness, unhealthy lifestyle and over-using electronic devices is of course not beneficial to anyone. This is part of the flawed logic of this article, to imply that you have to be either an automaton floating mindlessly from one modern convenience to the next, or a hippie who forsakes them all. Balance!
And as others have pointed out, it often takes personal experience of not having the option to have "conveniences" to appreciate them and the freedom they can give you in life to, yes, live.
So let's appreciate technological advancements and the like for what they are - tools to improve our lives. They could of course also dull one's life, but that is not a function of the technology. It's a function of individual.
2
The American Dream... a nation where many people have disposable time and wealth...and insufficient imagination, skills, training, and initiative to do anything.
1
This essay was a string of false platitudes. As for my laundry, I will let the author and others revert to washing their clothes by hand while I do something productive while the spin cycle runs. Perhaps I should get a donkey to ride to work? Or maybe my town should replace its modern water system with hand drawn water wells and stone aqueducts. After all, as the author asserts, we are spoiled by immediacy.
3
This is why I firmly believe everyone should consciously strive to master or at least regularly enjoy creating something with your hands. Whether it's cooking, photography, painting, sewing, knitting, gardening, woodworking — make something and then do it again, better. Not only do you learn what it takes (make a pair of pants and you'll never look at a $9.99 pair of Old Navy pants again - you'll know why selling it so cheaply is not sustainable), you discover new skills and connect your hands and your brain. In the book Grit, Angela Duckworth talks about how everyone in her family chooses one hard thing that they're not good at to work on every year. Do that!
3
One always had a choice about how much to let “convenience” into one’s life and rule one’s lifestyle.
3
Good article, Mr Wu, but you failed to mention our ultimate “article” of convenience: the plastic bag! It ranks as one of the most destructive products ever invented by humankind. Its is poisoning our lands, and chocking our oceans. Death to the plastic bag!
Otherwise, sorry, I love my microwave and iPhone (sigh)!
4
The only reason I'm reading this NYTimes article is that it delivered on my laptop each morning while I sip my instant coffee Latte that I just microwaved. Very convenient, thank you.
2
The author isn't advocating that you give these up Just that we stay aware of the affect the are having on our spirit.
2
Now toward the end of my 8th decade I remember when, in the grade and high schools of Toms River, NJ, I would lift off the receiver half of our telephone to hear the soft-spoken operator say, "Number please," to which I'd reply, "Please get me Kass, or Jerry, or Sylvia, or, or" and she would. It was a delightful game for us, two live human beings sonically touching, for it is touching, FEELING each other and nature through living sights, sounds, smells, tastes and touch that is becoming increasingly rare as we pass each other without a glance, phone clapped to an ear or call a company for assistance and hear a voice that says, "I didn't understand you; please repeat…." oh and it is SO easy to forget there IS no "I" speaking.
Yes, we continue making robots that look more and more "human" while making the Garden we are born into uninhabitable by living beings, however, I don't think the robots will care…
1
Nothing beats the convenience of letting an app think for you; telling you the milk carton is empty or wiring the door bell so you can look at your phone to see who's there. All this free time to do what? What is it being invested in? Personally- I find Life- inconvenient at times but I'm not yet at the point of doing away with it for the ultimate "convenience".
1
It was easier to have slaves...so no, convenience is not perfection or even close.
With all the "extra" time we should have more time to think to new heights, to create new aspirations, to use our great minds...but when I look around me, it seems to me that a lot of people cannot sustain thoughtful heightened forward seeking mental action and choose to just get loaded instead...opioid anyone?
1
Nice try. Convenience equals options. I get to choose to use my time for what I want. No tyranny here.
1
Fast food is the best example of the worst American convenience. I hate fast food and all forms of canned, frozen and adulterated foods foisted off on consumers as convenient. Yes, the most convenient path to poor health.
2
When Mr. Wu refers to the impact of convenience on humans, he is talking about men. Having washing machines, food delivery apps, websites to arrange for babysitters, does not typically free up time for women to experience more leisure. It allows women to educate themselves and work, so they are not trapped in relationships of financial dependence. It's ridiculous to use a singular quote from Friedan to support your thesis. Could you not find a more contemporary woman's perspective? Mr. Wu, please consider that your perspective is myopic and spend more time researching the impact of convenience on women's lives.
3
When Apple created the iPhone it was a wonderful invention for reaching someone by phone in an emergency. Unfortunately, it has become an obsession to many who no longer communicate with people or socialize with one another. In New York City there are people whose cellphones never leave their hands while walking on city streets. They miss so much going on while walking and are a nuisance to those trying to maneuver around them. It can be very dangerous for anyone who gets in their way. There should be a law to limit their use on sidewalks but it would not be possible. Self regulation is a better idea.
1
I don’t know. I immigrated from Jamaica in 1989. A few years later when I visited, I was astonished and almost disappointed at the way things had changed. Jamaica was not the same place where I had grown up. The supermarkets were larger and brim stocked with American products. Television was almost a 24 hour thing, and access to American lifestyle was just a click away. There were so many changes that I had dubbed Jamaica “The little America.” The changes were stalk enough for me to lament about “where is the Jamaica I once knew and loved?” That’s when a fellow Jamaican who had not left home told me, “What did you expect? Did you expect us to stay stagnant? Did you not expect us to grow and change?”
Perhaps what the writer is witnessing are the inevitable growth and changes that occur as we learn more and figure out more efficient ways to conduct our daily lives. When I lived in Jamaica, my access to television in America was zero; when I went back it was commonplace. Jamaicans didn’t have to wait for the next issue of The Times (as I did) to read what was going on. They could wake up and flip on their televisions and listen to CNN in realtime. How convenient! Changes are inevitable and with them often comes convenience. The writer shouldn’t worry too much about what convenience will do to us. We’re the high order of the animal kingdom; we’ll adapt. I’m not soon to shed tears about using a vacuum cleaner over the coconut brush I used as a child growing up in Jamaica.
22
Okay, so maybe there is a little more to all these gadgets than mere convenience. Here in LA it’s 8:15 am and the NYTimes print edition just flopped onto the driveway, a full 45 minutes ahead of the officially due delivery time. Only I’ve been up since 5:30 am, been up and about since then and hardly want to go back to bed now to read the Sunday paper. So now my wife has all her puzzles. At least Catholics have six am mass they can go to when they want to. The rest of us just have to wait for the paperboy and whenever they decide to get up.
1
i have three smart phones but I use them for GPS and to play music when traveling. I don't carry a mobile phone in the US (for over a decade) but when I am in India I have to have a mobile phone because that is the only tool available to keep in touch with folks (no land line, unless you subscribe to Cable). I have cut my cord to Cable/Satellite TV long back and I also watch little TV. I do stream but even that is tapering off. Obviously, I don't tweet or do text messages. I communicate through email. I do have a land line at home.
I wonder if it is just "Convenience" that has turned us into a kind of Zombies or if it is LAZINESS that ails us. I might add to this ailment, another illness and that is propensity to being Lulled (again, Zombie). Maybe, that's why we stare at the idiot box hours together. The third factor is Our Collective Acceptance to being brainwashed by Advertisements.
Because of these characteristics, We Americans are the easiest prey to Alien Invasion if ever there is one. Be forewarned!
1
Traffic is the most inconvenient - wasted time, wasted fuel, more global warming and mental stability change - road rage! Will the "convenience" of self driving cars solve all of that? Will aggressive drivers hack their self driving cars to drive recklessly too?
2
An inconvenient activity that I embrace? Writing full sentences and using full words in text messages (with no emoticons).
2
It's nice to have the time to read this article, instead of washing the breakfast dishes. For which we have a dishwasher.
3
I enjoyed the article on my Surface tablet with my electronic subscription to the NYT. How convenient.
3
In 1994, my company created a computerized story development assistant, Dramatica, that promised to help writers with the difficult task of creating solid story structure.
One day a video crew from the BBC came to interview us. They were in town to do a satirical piece poking fun at “those silly Hollywood writers” using computers in a hopeless attempt to make better films. It was a hit job and our newly-created tool was in the crossfire (our software was so new no story it assisted with had reached the public yet).
As the crew set up, the show’s host engaged in chit chat: “So, is this Dramatica going to make writing easier?”, he lobs to one of the software authors. She responds, “No — it’s going to make writing HARDER.”
The host’s attitude did a sudden 180-degree shift, as he urgently signaled his crew to begin recording.
The software, we explained, asked questions a writer might not be prepared to answer, and arriving at those answers was real work — including mastering using the tool itself. However, the goal was not to save time writing, but to produce a better story.
The rest of the interview no longer bordered on tabloid journalism. The host saw in our answers his own central thesis: when it came to creativity, there’s no substitute for hard work.
27 years later, that same tool has helped to develop the underlying story structure of films, books, TV, and plays grossing billions of dollars — guided by the inconvenience of the writer’s additional hard work.
35
Moronic article. Convenience frees our us to choose better things to do with our minds and time. Everything around us is premised on improved convenience - from the the first stone tools to now being able to access the entirety of human knowledge on the internet.
Convenience keeps us warm, dry, fed, healthy and from dying inconveniently early deaths from injury and childbirth.
Now it can be argued that Facebook and Amazon will shift the definition of friendship and shopping, but so did the invention of carrier pigeons, the telegraph and telephone for how humans interact, and similarly as did the invention of horse carts, open air markets, warehouses, fixed pricing, ships, trains, trucks, refrigeration, and supply chain optimization for how humans procure goods.
A better question to ask is: With all the free time we now have, are we using it to improve the lives of those around us?
And one last thing: Does anyone know where can I buy that robot that’ll unload the dishwasher?
1
Yeah! Let's all switch to dial up and get our morals back! Life's still hard if you haven't looked around. This reminds me of all the reports saying Millennials (of which I'm one) don't go outside anymore, and then you can't get a campground at Joshua Tree for six months. Go climb a mountain. I bet you $100 you'll be surprised how many (young) people are already on the trail. Flim flam at it's finest right here.
Nice take on big problem our nation is facing. Americans have simply become Trivial Pursuitists. And they simply can ask a device the answer and then they lack the foundation of research to dig into why Alexa spits out the answer. It is dangerously corrosive.
1
Wow the most insightful commentary i've read in quite a while.
1
What is termed "convenience euthanasia" of pets can sometimes be the least bad choice to make, though a very difficult action to take.
1
Ironic that in the same NYT issue with this thought provoking essay, there’s an article “New Google Tips and Tools for Travelers”, promising to make taking vacations easier!
1
Brilliant. Well written and entirely true.
1
Its probably a sub-corollary to the law of thermodynamics. Convenience appears to make certain tasks easier and more efficient. Think of the cost, in material and human and physical energy, that it takes to create convenience. As well as the cost to our personal and social psyches: convenience breeds impatience.
1
I read this only because it was convenient to do so. Tyranny indeed.
1
The destination I thought Wu was aiming for, but which he did not reach, is digital innovators' current fixation on acheiving tiny, incremental convenience gains while our biggest, most pervasive social problems get far shorter shrift.
The makers of a complicated device the size of a Xerox machine that will fold your T-shirts for you -- the FoldiMate, target price $980 -- get millions in venture capital. This is a task most people manage for themselves in about eight seconds, but some will undoubtedly conclude $980 is a small price to pay to get those eight seconds back. If the same energy and enthusiasm pervades Silicon Valley when it comes to making guns more secure with digital tech, or redesigning the health care supply chain, or insulating election tech from foreign-origin chaos, it's not very evident. But our best and brightest minds can offer you a "smart" hairbrush, or an app that texts you when your baby's diaper is full.
What's worrisome is not only the devotion of so many great minds to effete notions and causes in the name of "convenience." It's the opportunity cost. What critical problems go unsolved in our cultural sphere because so much tech culture instinctively caters to the trivial?
1
French women don't get fat because they take the stairs instead of the elevator or escalator
1
What a silly article. Modern "conveniences" give us choices, they don't dictate what choice we make. People can still bake their own bread if they want to -- which isn't very often. Among the benefits of conveniences are liberating people (mostly women) from much of the drudgery of housework and giving them the choice to be equal, contributing members of the economy. Fears that people will misuse their liberated time are simply snobbish arrogance. Do YOU misuse the freedom that conveniences give you? If you do, then stop it. If you don't, stop assuming other people are lesser mortals. It's your choice.
2
Two words: selfie nation!
1
The author didn't mention the environmental impact of our convenience fetish. Want coffee? Drink a cup and throw it in the trash to join the billions dumped every year. Want water? Don't go to the tap. Grab a plastic bottle at a cost many times higher than the tap, but it's convenient if you're out and about. And so on and so on. To our devastating detriment. And all the systems we rely on for life. Lots of people pushing back against this monster of convenience but we need more of us and fast.
1
It's convenience that has given you the time to write this essay. You didn't have to go out and milk the cows so that your children would have milk etc.
4
I have a Starbucks ad on my story. How convenient. :-)
2
Owning slaves corrupted their owners just as surely as an endless supply of soma corrupted Huxley's brave new world citizens. Likewise, an army of robots and robotic intelligences will corrupt their owners to death. A civilization may survive scarcity but fall to satiety.
1
Aloha! I am part of the first CoOp Gym in the U.S.. We workout together in small classes, with a coach, cooperatively, not competitively. The owners are the users. Definitely not more convenient than working out solo or getting on a treadmill at a machine intensive gym...but the physical and mental benefits of working out together is definitely worthwhile for many of us.
1
From the 1969 Zager and Evans hit, "In the year 2525":
In the year 2525, if man is still alive
If woman can survive, they may find:
In the year 3535
Ain't gonna need to tell the truth, tell no lie
Everything you think, do and say
Is in the pill you took today
In the year 4545
You ain't gonna need your teeth, won't need your eyes
You won't find a thing to chew
Nobody's gonna look at you
In the year 5555
Your arms hangin' limp at your sides
Your legs got nothin' to do
Some machine's doin' that for you
(By the way, I didn't have time to read your column in the paper but thanks to my smartphone app, I had the entire column read out loud to me while I was driving my car.)
2
awesome. one of the best thought-pieces I've read in nyt in awhile. you've hit on so many of the problems of convenience.
like despite the fact numerous studies have shown that staring into the dummy box while weaving a 4000# hunk of metal down the road trying to stay btw the lines is worse than driving drunk, we continue to allow it bc" its convenient". and we cant deter mommy on the way to get her convenient latte at starclucks now can we?
and thanks for equating "passions" for what they are; plain simple hobbies. but that was before we let 20 and 30-somethings believe they're special snowflakes who deserve a trophy for just showing up and gracing us with theirpresence. just dont use the word "nowadays". you lost every one of them when you used it.
reminds me of the greatest comic strips ever; calvin and hobbes. calvin steals his dad's glasses and shoes and mocks him saying "calvin, go do something, you hate, it'll build character". character? we dont need no stinking character.
1
The thing is, my work and my husband's work take up most of our time and energy. I don't know what we'd do without the convenience of healthy prepared meals and the like, but often think these conveniences make it all the more possible for the workplace to dominate our lives. As a woman I am liberated from much of the household work women of previous generations did full time but I'm still working, arguably, just as hard and still do the dishes at night. Some would say simplicity is the answer, quit the well-paying, high demand jobs but that wouldn't take care of my student loan debt or my husband's child support payments, housing the the SF Bay Area, etc.
4
I loved WALL-E, a sci-fi animated film about humans who had evolved to have machines do everything for them. It was wonderful satire, and should not be missed.
On the other hand, I will fight to the death to keep my dishwasher, because without one I could never allow anyone into my home.
3
I had four brothers and sisters - we each got a night washing or drying the dinner dishes with mom. It was a special time because we got to be with her on our own.
I still like to hand wash and dry dishes. The convenient dishwasher takes that away.
3
Re: Convenience:
In "The Little Prince" a man wants to sell the Prince a tablet that quenches thirst -- it will save "53 minutes in every week." The Prince demurs: "As for me, if I had fifty-three minutes to spend as I liked, I should walk at my leisure toward a spring of fresh water."
8
Great article, thanks. I'm as guilty as most but convenience always comes as a negative to resource & environmental sustainability, which will eradicate us sooner than later.
4
We often don't have enough seconds in a minute, minutes in an hour, hours in a day, days in a week, weeks in a month, months in a year, and surely we worry about how many years we have in a lifetime. "You Americans," an old Tuscan mushroom collector said to a relative of mine, "You never have enough time. We in the old country know times is all we have."
What we do with our time defines our life. Living for the ends in everything by trying to bypass the means through convenience accumulates to the point where we will come to the end of our lives without really having lived. This is the dark side of convenience.
Uta Hagen, the legendary acting teacher and performer said if there is a chair in the room, a person will sit in it. And we live in a world today filled with luxuries kings and queens of the 18th century could not have ever imagined. We imagine royalty sitting around all day doing nothing, with their thrones being the great symbols of their easy life. Today, convenience borne from technology has made our lives easier by scattering little thrones everywhere for us to sit upon, or in many cases, to stare at.
Samuel Beckett said habit is a great deadener. The less multifaceted and complex our life becomes insofar as work is concerned, the more homogenous our experience becomes as described by the author: all the ends are the same when we give up cooking and eat fast food. This can be said for the all things we used to do but have given up for the convenience of sloth.
4
In answer to the question posted at the top of the comments tab:
(a) in my old age (51), I've discovered the pleasure of jigsaw puzzles. There's something soothing about looking at a piece, studying the picture, and have the little triumph of fitting it in. I swear my brain waves calm down about 5 minutes after sitting down at it.
(b) I'm a designer by profession and like 99% of my colleagues, use CAD software to produce my drawings. Yet I've found a way to draw some things by hand and find 2 hours spent with pen and paper (at only a slight cost in productivity) to be many orders of magnitude more enjoyable than using a mouse and staring at the screen.
I wonder what (if anything) can stop this train? I hope at least some folks at Amazon, Google, Facebook, Twitter, et al (and their users!) read this piece and reflect on how these products are affecting our society and ourselves.
5
While I agree with a few of the sentiments in this article, I have to say that modern-day conveniences - like the ability to shop online (though I still go to the brick and mortar store as well), pay bills electronically, having access to the Internet via my phone, going to the ATM, etc. - have made my quality of life SO much better overall. Let's face it - people these days are working longer hours, facing long commutes, have both parents working and juggling childcare, etc. - and there is just not a lot of 'leftover time' to get such everyday tasks done without facing total exhaustion. Modern day conveniences have allowed me to have some more free time to see friends and family, participate in quality activities, etc. - time that would otherwise be spent hand-washing dishes, writing multiple checks for bills, running to the bank to get cash, going to the mall to buy all my clothing, etc. I do see the potential dangers of too much reliance on convenience - such as primarily interacting with other people via social media - but for a lot of working people, using modern conveniences enhances their quality of life and far outweighs the stress of using some "old school" alternatives.
1
While assisting with some new hires, a young guy refused to use pen and paper to write down important information about the customers he was dealing with, and kept asking me why he had to use such an ‘inconvenient’ tool. He only wanted to use his computer.
My answer: because this ‘inconvenient’ tool (or its equivalents) has been around for thousands of years, still works and has helped produced some of the most important concepts in human history.
1
This piece reminds me of the Unabomber's manifesto and its basic thesis: the Industrial Revolution was not so great for everyone. One of my favorite activities that is more inconvenient than its alternative is to visit my local public library--or local indie bookstore--and find what I want to read next.
5
Some years ago I rode my bicycle the length of the Alaska Highway. Day after day I would wake, pack up my camp and ride through all types of conditions until I was exhausted when I would camp again. I had numerous encounters with bears, moose, buffalo, caribou and wolves. It was wildly inconvenient. Countless motorhomes whizzed by me full of caged people, viewing the quickly passing the scenery, wrapped in a steel, plastic and glass cocoon. It looked incredibly convenient.
On occasion I would talk to these travelers and here are a few of the comments. A man from Tennessee told me, "I really don't see what the big draw of Alaska is, Tennessee is just as much or more beautiful and a lot more convenient." A man filling his tank at a gas station, "Aw come on, stop already..." as the the pump delivers yet another shocking bill for gasoline. Many people asked why I would do such a thing as expose myself to such unnecessary hardship.
I had a lot of time to think on this trip. The difference between my trip and those in the motorhomes is this: I earned an experience that I'll treasure for the rest of my life because I did not just see it, I lived it.
8
I love hands-on work and I love tennis, but then I am retired with so much more time than I had as a working mom. Even so, when I look back, we did not use convenience foods, which were too expensive, and, even at my busiest, I could make a meal without opening a package to get it done. Even then I could take time to walk a kid to school, to take the bus to deliver my work downtown—things that took minutes every day, but not an hour every day, and I the time lost would just have been wasted sitting at my computer anyway—I had desk jobs. At 66, I find that the more I can slow things down—like in tennis, that moment when a shot can't be rushed because even for all the speed tennis takes it also needs patience and a kind of slowness at the same time—that's like being a kid again. Just forgetting the hustle and the worry and concentrating on the task at hand. Making my own spice blends, growing my own roses, and letting the people around me who are not retired—the parent with a child in the cart, rushing to get home to make dinner—go ahead of me in line.
7
The author asserted that "convenience" began with tools to assist domestic tasks. These tools directly helped women and those of lower social status. Calling them "convenience" and "mundane", giving "the possibility of leisure", diminished their importance to these groups, and thus the groups themselves. It was not enough to cite Betty Friedan's claim in 1963 that the technology created more demands on the "modern American housewife". I agree that the technological changes are having profound impacts on all of society, but I ask that discourse about the impacts and what to do about them also consider the technologies' role in driving social (in)equities.
5
Beyond breaking free of the homogeneity of modern life, one thing related to convenience but not discussed here is who pays for it? In the case of something like the McDonald's hamburger, your "convenience" is underwritten by externalizing the costs, where the labor and environmental impacts are borne by others. The problem with experiencing at product or service only the point of consumption is that it's hard to have an appreciation for what it took to get there and the costs associated with it. Convenience gives the illusion of unlimited surplus and free lunches every day.
4
I have long noted for those that can drive it is more convenient to use your car than walk to a bus stop and wait for a bus (or train) and almost everyone with that choice will maximize their benefits by choosing to drive. But the consequences are the erosion of the countryside with sprawl, the decline of cities, obesity, roadkill of humans and animals, air pollution and climate change, congestion on roads, weak transit systems left for those that can't drive.... So a least some of the time to show, at least to myself, my abhorrence of what is happening I take the bus. That's also healthier for me, and sometimes I use the time on transit to talk to fellow passengers or read the newspaper!
5
I have found that making pancakes from scratch (whole wheat pastry flour, corn flour, oat flour, baking powder, salts, eggs, milk, and oil) is just as easy, no less convenient, and more satisfying than using a mix from the supermarket. Not only that, the pancakes taste better, and I can play with the recipe, add buckwheat flour, etc.
7
Very thought provoking story.
We do purposely choose to do some things that are less convenient but are so much more rewarding. We cook from scratch. Repair instead of replace. etc.
It is important however to not assume that all improvements are bad.
When sewing machines became a convenience that most Americans purchased in the early 1900's, there were those that insisted it was better to sew by hand. But with the sewing machine, people could make more clothes faster. Today the convenience of the sewing machine is rejected in favor of ready to wear clothes. It is all a matter of perspective.
By the way, I still occasionally use my 1901 Singer treadle sewing machine for repairs or small projects.
3
Living in a rain forest for almost one year, with no washing machine, nor television, and with the company of two dogs, that was the experience of all experiences. Back in New York City I returned to the convenience of walking more than a mile to church and using my bicycle to go to work six miles away. That way, I avoided the inconveniences of having a car or being caught among people piled in a subway car. Convenience or inconvenience? That is the question.
7
Perhaps anything that is convenient is suspicious. But the technological march to the future is as inevitable as our inability to control it or ourselves. The motion picture industry produces films that often show a dystopian future with authoritarian worlds of extreme convenience waging war against small, underground colonies living at one with nature and the magic of inconvenience. Even now, war has been made convenient. Drones diminish the need for troops, missiles can travel the globe and all that is needed is the ability to push a button. The inconvenient truth is that the final bang may be inevitable.
5
As a small business owner who has to deal with the yoke of delivery (and the unreasonable expectations that has bred, not to mention the irrational responses to unforeseen/unavoidable delays), I also wonder about the effect on businesses that are forced to bow down to convenience and worry how the isolation it breeds will affect our street life and our communities.
6
Much of what we might call convenience, now, was originally called something else: innovation. Many of which come from real need and support underprivileged people or those with limited resources. Hobbies are for the privileged. But there are some very meaningful changes we CAN make that require us to adjust to less convenience: reject food packaging, single-use plastics, cling-wrap, disposable coffee cups... Just a few changes that feel inconvenient at first but quickly become normal.
4
Would you consider that the process of become increasingly aware of an inner, truer and deeper, self is inconvenient?
It certainly requires a lot of attention, time, energy, money, which otherwise could be used to make the experience of the ‘outside’ world better, including, convenient.
1
There is nothing new in the conundrum of convenience and leisure. From time immemorial, people have used servants and technologies to lessen some of their own labors. That has always freed the masters to do other things that they preferred to do, including worrying over what they ought to be doing with their surplus time.
4
Agreed, but please remember, this is a first-world issue. A real one to be sure, but keep in mind that much of the world's population live lives of inconvenience at best, if not of poverty and struggle.
7
Life skills like growing our food, mending our clothes, knowing how to bake and cook, repairing rather than replacing seem to be disappearing in direct proportion to our veneration of "convenience" and ease of acquisition. It is not drudgery to clean one's nest or feed one's young or conserve one's resources. It is affirming of our innate abilities, creativity and resourcefulness. One might also consider environmental impacts of decreased consumption and decreased refuse stream.
8
I work in small business lending and commented recently on this very topic at a recent conference. So many business owners in need of capital are turning to online lenders who offer 5 figure loans all with just a couple clicks. While these lenders offer convenient access to capital, what they are also doing is enabling business owners to avoid dealing with the "chores" associated with managing the financials as well as the sometimes unpleasant challenges facing them. They are also incredibly expensive loans and have very onerous repayment terms. Convenience for these businesses comes at a very expensive price.
4
Thoughts provoking, but for greater good. I force myself to read NY Times every day, not conveniently watching local and national news on TV. I force myself to walk to the grocery store when necessary instead of driving. Even as I am getting close to 70, I still force myself to take trips to unfamiliar areas to refresh my mind and spirit instead of sitting and resting in my comfortable home. Last but not the least, I force myself not to spend money on unnecessary thins such as IPhone X with all the hi-tech & conveniences in the world. Instead I use my old Galaxy 5 with ease. Convenience has its advantages to our accomplishment but also disadvantage to our life experience as the author suggested.
4
Interesting essay, but in some ways I disagree. If the meaning of life is bound up in washing clothes, driving to the record store, or arranging one's schedule around the evening news, then it's probably time to rethink one's priorities. The ability to automate or dispense with some rote tasks opens the door to do more interesting and rewarding things.
Time is short. Do the meaningful stuff, explore the world.
4
We are freed from some tasks but technology has Replaced it with ever changing complexity which requires our time and energy, and I would suggest is just as tedious. Previously we had a television which had just 2 controls: volume and channel changing. A phone you just picked up and answered. Now we must constantly learn and relearn how to do what are now our everyday tasks with every computer upgrade or system change. The phone system where I worked was revised about every 3 years with a completely new set of menus and functions. Talk about convenient!
6
I'm visiting Pittsburgh for a few days with my son, age 16 and daughter, age 25. My son is interested in applying to Carnegie Mellon University and we are touring Pittsburgh on foot and by car. I used to love learning to get around a new city by studying the map and exploring; sometimes getting lost and having the pleasure of a finding something by chance. I always swore that I would never give that up for the convenience of Google Maps. Yet, I am now hooked on the utility and convenience of Google Maps and I just found a new feature is that it tells you to turn at a landmark like a 7-11! I am a convert because it is so easy and I do a lot of traveling. I do still cook at home a lot and value that as a social and healthy activity. Tim is so right that we must struggle to maintain experiences that are meaningful in a tech based world.
4
It was almost too convenient to read this article-- there were no ads, tailored to me, placed in between paragraphs to distract my reading! An article well worth perusing though. I think we get our greatest sense of accomplishment in doing things that put us in touch with ourselves-- creative work of any sort, manual labor, silent meditation, etc. Observing nature, interacting with other humans is much better than staring at an i-phone all day.
5
Convenience can only be tyrannical if it is forced on us. It’s not. And doing something inconvenient can be fun, certainly. I make my own bread from a sourdough starter and it’s incredibly fulfilling. But if I had no option to buy bread at the store, I doubt that hobby would be quite as fun. Part of the joy of it is that I don’t have to do it unless I want to.
4
This is all well and good when we get to choose what we pursue as inconvenient.
Removing our conveniences would make all these inconvenient conveniences much sought after once again. Sometimes folks long for the primitive - right up until they have no choice but live a subsistence lifestyle, right up until they need an ambulance, the ability to communicate with a loved-one regarding an emergency, right up until their heat or electricity or clean water is no longer reliable. While I think Wu has a point, we risk romanticism of the past when confronting our current problems.
Perhaps the best approach would be to moderate one's reliance on any particular thing and appreciate what we have now and how best to use the time we have before us - both the time we have freed from drudgery and the time we spend in purposeful effort.
6
Wonderful, thought-provoking piece that I welcome, despite my advanced age and need for convenience. I've worried about this homogenizing process for some time. My parents used their leisure to create and build. The only way I follow in their footsteps is in cooking and reading. Thanks so much for this important piece. Those who read it undoubtedly need it the least.
6
Let's not forget many of us who are physically limited in one way or another. Yes, I enjoy writing personal notes, sending via the USPS with a self sticking stamp. To make time and energy for the "inconvenient" pleasure of a 'task', I applaud and am very grateful for, eg, the ability to shop online. The point of not losing our wholesomeness to convenience is well taken,especially with regard to teaching our youngsters how to survive a less convenient life; however, "convenience" allows for the disabled to put limited energy into the things we enjoy doing, rather than energy sapping tasks, leaving nothing for the inconvenient things we Enjoy doing.
3
The pursuit of convenience, lowest price, combined with regulators' liberal attitude towards company mergers, have led to a major reduction of choices for American consumers.
4
How ironic that we are all able to enjoy this article because of the convenience of the internet. How ironic that our love for authentic experience of life is expressed on the very thing we seek to give less importance to.
I am not on Facebook and my internet time is sparse, mainly learning something I am curious about. I think one thing we lose with all this convenience is our curiosity. How does this work? What make this bread? How did this chicken on my plate get here? How does this do-dad go together to create something new? How would it feel to be that person, in that situation?
As long as we keep our curiosity about things and people, we can use the convenience as a way of expanding our world. Without curiosity, we are just zombie robots.
5
What a great piece! Bravo. I think cooking fulfills that need for personal challenge for many of us even though going for take-out is the ultimate convenience. I also enjoy reading and resist “make life easy” audio books. I hope to read more by you.
5
I used to wash dishes the old way until I read doing so used upwards of 50 gallons of precious water when all was said and done, especially with the running water for rinsing. My dishwasher uses a miserly 5-7 gallons every 3-4 days, likewise my super efficient clothes washer, My well and septic system thanks me I'm sure. Cooking from scratch is my embrace of inconvenient. The collecting of ingredients and making a mess is a pleasure.
4
At last, an article on this rarely addressed subject! It is as if there were a taboo against discussing it. So many inventions are presented as simplifying life, making it easier, helping us save time. But save time for what? These time-savers are implicitly linked to the idea of greater happiness, less drudgery, more time for the things that really matter. In reality, changes that supposedly simplify our lives are often for corporate, not human, benefit. Decades of making life "easier" has led to what? More leisure? More happiness and fulfillment? No. They have led to the Age of Burnout. One illustration: in a TV commercial for a cellphone, a man is shown in the shower. His cellphone rings. Soaking wet and the water still running, he smilingly answers his cellphone and assures the caller - his boss - that the subject of the call is something that the man under the shower indeed intends to take care of today. When will we wake up? Technical advancements presented as simplifying our lives to give us more leisure and family time are intended to do exactly the contrary, increase productivity and corporate profit through reducing personal time.
4
I expected the author to highlight what I see as the greatest risk of convenience: the end of privacy. As Americans, we espouse privacy above almost any other virtue. Yet we agree to send our cell phone location data to google so we can get instantaneous traffic information; we tell Netflix all our TV and movie preferences so we can conveniently be notified when new options that might interest us become available; we let Alexa listen to our conversations at home so we can ask her the weather today; we give Amazon mind-boggling access to our consumer preferences so we can buy an umbrella with a click of a button and have it show up tomorrow on our doorstep before it rains; we let Fitbit track all our of physical movements so we can understand our health better; and we put an inordinate amount of our lives on Facebook because that’s how friends and family catch up with us. We *say* we value privacy, yet time and time again we willingly—and sometimes not even knowingly—give up that privacy for a bit more convenience. I’m afraid we won’t understand the risk of that until it’s too late.
10
Well said. Thank you.
1
Convenience gives me more bandwidth to be of service to others. Being of service to others gives my life meaning. The principle is simple. This is the hard-earned wisdom of 55 years on Earth. Thing I do selfishly sap my life of joy. But things that work toward expanding my ability to feel compassion and help people — in my case, those struggling to overcome addiction — is a net good. It’s all about living for something greater than myself. Convenience helps with that. To paraphrase Yeats, convenience gives me greater freedom to be blessed, and to be a blessing to others.
4
I knew some women in the 1980s who had Sony walkman devices as well. Or is it too inconvenient to refer to "a person"?
6
As the world has become more convenient, our lives have been filled with more and more convenient tasks. People expect more of us because actions like sending a text are so easy. Work hardly seems like work, but somehow it continues to pile on and feels more overwhelming. I miss the days when I conscientiously became engrossed in a task and spent more time in a concentrated, flow state. Before we could order things online, we thought much more carefully about what we would buy. Sure, our options were limited but we were not overwhelmed by choices, and we didn't know the difference anyway. The experience of shopping meant interacting with people which provided it's own reward. With convenience has come the pressure to get more done, have more stuff, and to maintain a collection of electronic devices that we now feel tethered to. For example, because it is so easy to take a picture we take so many of them. I watch my children and it seems as though they feel that if they didn't record all of their actions and their actions didn't exist. Our brains are expected to respond at digital speed, and we are expected to process more and more unnecessary information. My father was a college professor and wrote prolifically on a manual typewriter. He never had to worry about connectivity issues or passwords. When he wrote he was thoughtful and purposeful. I wish, for example, that our president only had his device.
5
There was once a medieval place called the "Land of Cockaigne," which was a fantastic peasant's dream of everlasting ease and plenty. It appears in many works of literature, including "Gargantua" by Rabelais. You sit, after a name, and want a beer and some roast chicken, so a beer and a roasted chicken instantly appear and walk up to you. Ultimate convenience, better than Amazon Prime.
The sad thing about the modern Land of Cockaigne is that you have to be wired to the internet, deal with all kinds of passwords and codes that have to change continually, open yourself to being hacked, and then you miss the joys of taking a walk, checking out the happenings in the neighborhood, and dealing with other people. And then you have to rewire your sense of kinetics whereby you want to flick a remote of maneuver a mouse, or speak to some microphone.
I find analogue much easier than digital, and more convenient. And it's always more intuitive. I hate it when it rains heavily or snows or freezes and I have to take a day inside. But, thank God, there are always things to do inside, and there are books, and conversation, and making hot chocolate, and doing the dishes.
5
Mr. Wu,
Thanks for presenting a take on this theme. Convenience = less product/service acquisition time, less personal body movement, less $ spent, less decision time, less consideration time and quicker social status (I remember non-sliced bread). Unfortunately, without using the words "traditional" or "nostalgic", I can't begin to describe a deliberately chosen/practiced "non-convenient" life. I remember as a kid helping my mom hang clothes to dry on the line by handing her wooden (springless) clothespins. It is an important memory for me. But, you see, I'm getting nostalgic.
Keep writing,
MP
3
This essay is ridiculous. Convenience IS the great leveler. (I read somewhere that a family in 1900 would need three servants to equal the conveniences we now have). Washing machines, electric lights, self-propelled lawn mowers and indoor plumbing free up time for individual pursuits. And streaming video allows for individual choice instead of being spoon fed by what the networks want to give us. Hobbies such as guitar playing and gardening are not a reaction to convenience, they are the positive result of it.
6
This is among the finest pieces of writing I have ever encountered in the NYT!
Thank you, Mr. Wu!
3
Tim Wu has described for me why I don’t own a microwave nor a food processor, why I do my writing on paper with a fountain pen or typewriter, why I read the Sunday Times print edition, why I still play records on a turntable... Sometimes these things frustrate me because they slow me down, and that is precisely why I do them. To force myself to slow down. Thanks for this reminder to preserve life’s little struggles. The irony of convenience is that, by making tasks seem to disappear, there is nothing left to derive satisfaction from.
7
Cook, and never use a microwave. What I see in Manhattan these days is kitchen renovations that include taking out the microwave altogether.
3
I can't help but wonder if Prof. Wu wrote this essay on a bet. He doesn't seem to believe his hypothesis or to feel concerned about providing evidence.
Do young people vote in lower numbers because they can no longer stand to stand in line? he wonders. Well, no, actually, that pattern has existed for generations.
Do social media make us all the same? If only! It may persuade all too many people to post kitten pictures, but, with a little help from Russian agents, it also fosters malevolent subcultures.
Late in this essay Prof. Wu admits there is no tyranny. “Embracing inconvenience may sound odd but we already do it,” he notes, referring to hobbies, causes, and passions. Unfortunately he doesn't seem to understand why.
Here's a primer in human nature studies: we are a hypersocial species. Once our basic needs are satisfied we concern ourselves mostly with burnishing our status. We do this largely through arduous competition. Sometimes, it’s obvious: No one needs to run a marathon, but tens of thousands do. Sometimes, it’s subtle: Giving time and treasure to help the unfortunate is virtuous, but it's also a signal of wealth and virtue.
Convenience makes life better, provided we nurture the institutions that reward prosocial behavior. It's really that simple.
4
Malarkey. Nothing but navel gazing and assumption. Weak tea. To say people went to ITunes instead of Napster is totally wrong. Napster was outlawed. I wouldn't touch an Apple product with a ten foot pole. Overpriced, proprietary, and overhyped. I doubt the author used pen and paper, or even a type writer to write this article. From the moment man discovered fire, there was no turning back. We need these so called conveniences to become greater than we are.
3
Some very good insights, but the concept of convenience is problematic. By Wu's definition, all tools are examples if they "facilitate personal tasks." So, hammers and facebook pages, but what culture trait isn't? And are there social tasks (say, building a highway) that don't apply? Further, creative pursuits ("hobbies, avocations, callings, passions") are by his definition inconvenient- yet to follow them we often, conveniently, buy our watercolor paints and guitars at the store. Convenience doesn't hold up as a useful concept, and "embracing the inconvenient" makes no sense. Wu's excellent advice, to focus on being our best, individual selves in a world that increasingly makes this difficult in many ways (only some of which are by making some tasks easier) doesn't require or benefit from thinking in such terms.
2
Washing clothes by hand is not convenient. It’s a very laborious work, difficult, heavy and time consuming. Not everyone can physically do it or has the time to do it.
If washing clothes is a convenience, then it’s like riding in a car, either driving or as a passenger, or taking public transit. You could live walking distance to work and commerce. One chooses to live elsewhere.
The list goes on and on. You can live like a cave man in the stone ages. That’s the ultimate inconvenience. Go ahead, there are plenty of stones to go around. After all, the Stone Age didn’t end because we ran out of stones.
7
I've been wondering for years now if our preference for Comfort is what's killing the planet we must live on. We've become parasites who kill the host because, thought "smart" enough we can't give up our "creature comforts."
Our ancestors had to struggle every single day of their lives to survive . . . for eons . . .so that we can become weird, dependent humans as depicted in the movie "Wally" who've thrown it all away?
We don't deserve our ancestors if we can't do better than this. Though I wonder what an Anthropologist might say on this point: with all our evolutionary vulnerabilities (no fur, no claws, small teeth, etc) maybe this is the best we can do- make ourselves feel safe at the expense of everything else.
3
As a teacher, I see that students today aren't inherently stupider and lazier than students were when I was a child.
Students today are stupider and lazier thanks to personal devices.
And social media has convert the U.S. at all levels into a tribal society.
We are more and more like Iraq.
3
Often I've lamented that people don't know how to do things anymore. They don't know how to paint their bedroom or mow their lawns or rake their leaves. They don't know how to procure and prepare food. They don't know how to clean their own houses. They can't mend their clothes. All this convenience comes at the cost of losing touch with the very things we need to live our lives. There's a great satisfaction in doing these things, not to mention the connection with others.
6
Methinks there's a certain zen of inconvenience, provided, of course that you have the choice to opt out for convenience. However, what's inconvenient about convenience is that it lacks any true sense of personal accomplishment.
How many robots can ever achieve that?
1
One of my pet peeves is that there are now templates for everything. Whay a time saver, right? What happened to the challenge of creating your own document, report or presentation--and maybe discovering new insights along the way? No, software today is built on the premise that everything you'd want to do has been done already and has no uniqueness. The new rule is to think like everyone else and standardize everything worth doing so it can be copied and mass-produced.
1
I have loved touch typing for many years. But as a 73-year-old with and advancing tremor, I appreciate software that allows me to dictate this reply into my phone and have it written out for me, nearly error free. But I love hanging my clothes out on the line, and I wish my car had a stick shift. Ah well…
2
Quite simply, the most damaging submission to the tyranny of convenience in the Digital Age has been our (passive) choice to allow our votes to be counted conveniently on computers, in the partisan, proprietary, pitch-dark of cyberspace.
Our prioritization of speed, convenience, and Election Night entertainment over transparency and verifiability has left our nation's elections and politics ludicrously vulnerable to interference and subversion, by both hackers and insiders, and has led America far down a very dark road.
Hand counting paper ballots -- or mandating uniform public audits of every election in this country -- would be "inconvenient." It would also save us.
6
The worst aspect of increasing technology is the decreased income of those it is displacing. We see already the wages of the working and middle classes have come down drastically in the past 30 years, while that of the controllers of that technology, business owners and banks, has gone up 250% during that period.
What must be restructured along with new implements of societies is the system that has allowed this to go on. If we are to remain a "democratic society with freedom and justice for all" this aspect must seriously be considered.
3
Thank you, Mr. Wu, for a thoughtful piece. Pull in your claws, people! He is saying we have choices. We are saying we make choices. That is freedom. Keep using it (even to criticize ideas like Wu’s).
How nice to read this online. And to engage electronically with you who are all over the U.S. and elsewhere.
2
Bravo!
Next you want to address the tyranny of The New. Which is a close relative and closely tied to the tyranny of The Convenient. It's the source of appalling waste (of time, money, resources, energy). And is perhaps more insidious and wanton. And absurd. I'm looking forward to it.
3
It is not the convenience that is the problem but how we use the time convenience has freed for us. If we spend our new found time gaming, binge watching or googling around the clock Mr. Wu is correct. But suppose we use the time for exercise, sports and hobbies? Suppose we spend our Facebook time staying in contact with our families and friends to a degree never before possible? Convenience can be a problem, and alcohol can be a problem, but I love my free time and I like an occasional beer. This can be managed.
5
Excellent piece and thanks. I love my world of inconvenience.
2
Not only are we saving time with these conveniences in order to watch more Netflix, we’re giving up our civil liberties for absolutely nothing. My friends have willingly wiretapped their houses with an Alexa, given their faces to an iPhone X, I’ve given over my thumb print. I worry my generation has traded our birthright for a mess of pottage without any consideration of the dangers.
4
As a music teacher, I've noticed how convenience has eroded my students' knowledge of the basic repertoire (compare to the "canon" of English lit.). I can't help but wonder whether having everything instantly available—recordings are on YouTube (unlicensed, mind you) and public-domain scores are on imslp.org—has hindered their ability to seek out and find sources on their own. As a child, I used to ride my bike a hilly four miles (one way) to my local public library to browse the stacks for LPs. Anything I didn't know I'd take home, consume voraciously for two weeks, and usually dub to a cassette (this was the '80s after all!). Then I'd try to track down the score, which was harder since public libraries didn't carry sheetmusic. A little later as a teenager, I got myself access to my local university's library, but if even they didn't have something I'd usually ask my teachers. This would engage us in conversation, and sometimes I'd be lent a well-loved copy of a score from a teacher's private library. All this was a heady experience for a kid falling in love with classical music. Now the librarian has been replaced by an algorithm, and the conversation has been replaced by a comments section (irony!). Still, I use these "convenient" tools daily, but I know what I'm looking for. I wonder if my students are able to navigate them at all with a sense of purpose. After all, that might be too much of a hassle....
73
Our local library still has librarians, and I assume yours does too. Whether kids take advantage of her (or his) knowledge rather than simply looking things up on the computer provided by the library is another thing.
2
My local library did have some sheet music, and the thrill of riding my bike down there at 14, checking out the score to Beethoven’s 5th, and reading along with it as I listened to my borrowed LP, is a thrill of discovery and experience I still remember. I could read music at 14 because my public school district had a full music program that taught you how to play and read in 4th grade, if you chose, and if you put in that joyous inconvenient work, you could continue to play on a school instrument and collaborate with others in cooperating and making music until high school graduation - which I did. I can’t imagine how impoverished my life would be, or how limited my brain, if I hadn’t had that opportunity. The instrument was free; the cost was the labor and devotion; the reward profound. Now we have the wrong end of the stick: no music or arts in school, yet produced performance on demand.
4
I just turned 80. My wife and I cut down trees, split our wood and heat our house with a wood stove in CT. The neighbors used to laugh at us but now they all come over to enjoy the 72 degree heat my wife so enjoys. It takes us about 8 hours work and is free except for the gas for the splitter a friend gave us and I repaired. Is this an inconvenience?
1
This obsession with convenience affects not only how people relate to things, but how they treat others. If convenience is the ultimate good, anyone who poses an inconvenience can be labeled "toxic" and dealt with accordingly. Advice book after advice book, list after list, tells you to cut ties with people who in any way impede your progress and well-being. George Saunders's "Winky" (a brilliant story) satirizes this credo to the bones. People are inconvenient by nature. The better we know them, the more inconvenient they (and we) become. That's what we're here for: to be something other than a formula, something other than the exact expression of others' expectations, assumptions, wants, and needs.
4
The premise of Mr. Wu's argument is that we all have the time to forego convenience. Any average Jane or Joe knows that's incorrect. But he's welcome to use a typewriter to produce his work from here on out.
2
Guess you've already cut your ties to Facebook and Twitter. Bravo.
Assuming your comment is sarcasm, the answer is yes - a long time ago. I consider the plurality of social media accounts to be personal fake news channels (because they are so curated).
And not at all "social."
Great read....this is why I garden. It is a first world problem but we must struggle intentionally or the struggle will force itself upon us.
1
As Americans, I can't help but think this applies to our sense of entitlement and lack of world view as well. We are a privileged nation yet clearly an apathy has infected our citizenry, enabled by our mass media culture, which now threatens our democracy, economy and even our planet. If Robert Mueller is successful in halting the current crisis it will take real effort on the part of Americans to redefine their shared values, recognize their privilege and work together to promote both the ideals and welfare of its citizens.
1
Nothing new in Dr. Wu's piece, but it does serve as a useful reminder to avoid mindlessly surrendering all that makes life worth living. I suggest that readers take a look at the written works of earlier 20th century American thinkers on rural living like Helen and Scott Nearing. Their book "The Good Life" told the Nearings' story of leaving NYC sometime in the '50's -''60's and building a new life with their own hands in rural Maine. The simple joys of day-to-day living meant building and maintaining a homestead, tending gardens, and harvesting cordwood to keep the home fires going. Despite the physical effort involved, the Nearings found time to read and write, to ski, and even to build a wood-fired hot tub to relax after a hard day. Life for the Nearings wasn't a walk in the park, but it kept them healthy, vibrant, witty and full of life right to the end.
We are most human when we strives to go beyond our own (human) limitations. This awareness would help deliver us from the tyranny of convenience AND AI.
Nice article. I would certainly disagree that most people use Facebook though, and feel that "convenience" started with cavemen sharpening stones, and using fire, to their advantage. Good reading regardless, on my phone!
Bwahahahaha! We can order tickets with a click of a button, and fly across country in a matter of hours, but still no laundry folding machine. Care for our children and our elderly cannot be meaningfully mechanized and scaled up. If you are one of the lucky people who suffers from too much convenience, I'm wondering who is doing all the physical labor in your life and why they are invisible to you. There is a lot of unpaid and underpaid labor supporting an oppressively convenient life.
5
Actually, clothes folding machines have been around. I just saw that another one was shown at the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas.
We don’t do Facebook, we prepare meals from scratch, we do our own housework, we walk to our village small businesses and recently began art classes. But after reading this, I think I will use a broom instead of the vacuum. Okay, so we are retired and lucky to live in an Italian village away from guns and traffic and two tongued don.
Read a history book. I always laugh when Luddites want to go back to the good old days when people mostly spent their days performing brutal farm chores, families had 10 children because 6 or more would die before the age of five, and men had multiple wives because women died in childbirth at a staggering rate. Giving people more time for leisure is a socioeconomic experiment. What do people do with spare time? Do they volunteer to help their less well-off neighbors? Do they walk to the library and read this newspaper on the internet? Do they read a good book while drinking a cup of nice hot green tea? Or do they binge Dexter and eat Doritos? Don’t blame society’s advances and the entrepreneurs who gave them to us - blame people’s poor choices.
8
I worry that it is the "convenience" of an individual being able to live inside his or her own echo chamber that is shattering social connections and making it easier for people like the Parkland shooter to do what they do.
1
yardwork. i could easily hire somebody to take care of the yard. nearly everyone does around this part of town. i could afford it, and it would be very convenient. it would allow me to stay comfortably indoors out of the cold, the heat, the humidity, the aridity, the mud, and the dust. it would also sever another connection to what's going on in the world outdoors. so, no way.
4
This article misses the point...we like convenience so we can do those things that are the most fun, important and fulfilling.
5
Yeah, like drinking a Rd Bull Energy Drink every morning makes you skip that inconvenient thing called breakfast and get straight to Vaping on your way to work. So much fun to be had!
'As a driver of human decisions, it may not offer the illicit thrill of Freud’s unconscious sexual desires or the mathematical elegance of the economist’s incentives.'
Not so. Inconvenience is a type of opportunity cost. If I have to recycle my sardine tins by washing them out carefully, then cutting up through the corners with a pair of tin snips in order to flatten them out, this consumes time, effort and energy that I could have spent sparingly blankly at the TV.
If I spend time, effort or energy on a task or act that I could have spent on a different task, then this is an example of the economist's opportunity cost.
1
Excellent article. A few years ago my husband and I got a wood stove, which is our main source of heat when it gets colder than freezing. It’s really inconvenient; all that wood stacking, hauling around, having to feed it frequently, wood chips tracked all over the house, backs thrown out. But we love it. The dependence on each other’s physical labor adds another layer of richness to our marriage.
Oh, and I teach basic math at a community college. A big piece of the struggle is teaching students that yes, they actually have to use pencil and paper to help them solve problems (even though the program is online). They find it somewhat inconvenient to use their hands to write. And it’s also hard to convince them that some problems really do require lots of steps to solve. I’m not making fun of them here: thirty years of industrial engineering experience trained me too that productivity is the highest good, and the feeling of effort is a sign of a process requiring automation.
2
Have you ever read about the amount of carcinogens there are in burning wood and how polluting it is?
2
In this profound commentary, I wish Wu had gone further to point out how the convenience factor has directly led to the unavailability of the quality products we once had. Take men's pants: it's easier for a guy today to estimate and order a "close enough" size online rather than go through the hassle of trying several pairs on in a store to get the proper fit. This snowballs into mainstream clothing manufacturers cutting out what were once standard offerings like 31" waist sizes and inseams (lengths) available by the inch. Thus, whole herds of men are out there walking around in pants that don't fit their lower torsos as the ends drag on the pavement until their heels rip their cuffs. The irony is that even as we've achieved the ability to offer MORE custom choice, consumer laziness persuades manufacturers to instead offer LESS selection. Regular people who can't afford tailors are left to conform their bodies to the most common boilerplate cuts and sizes, and end up with pants that almost never work for them.
76
Why do we think doing the smart thing is a "hassle" ?
It’s much cheaper and less time consuming to buy online and take the pants to a tailor who will tighten the waist and shorten the length. Better yet, learn the trade of tailoring yourself.
Agreed! Buying pants is an arduous process.
2
The article makes an important point despite the verbosity and pleasant self-importance.
I am especially aware of the isolation which innovation can bring as well as the erosion of privacy. I spend a lot of time working in health care facilities. In these as in many other settings, a decided majority of people are walking around with their attention fixated on their cell phones, 2 feet west of their noses. It's funny and also pathetic.
Social networks may be social but they provide a lot more information to a lot more people than I want to have it. Facebook seems to be thriving without my participation.
It has been a century and a half since Thoreau inveighed against this:
"wherever a man goes, men will pursue and paw him with their dirty institutions, and, if they can, constrain him to belong to their desperate odd-fellow society".
1
When I was a high school teacher with over 170 students a day I learned to maintain my sanity by refusing to multitask. In the fishbowl of a school day I learned to take on one activity at a time without any concern for the others. Each task came in its own time. I don't know if making things easy is a problem in as much as an individual choice for preferences. I don't see it as a black and white issue. I like some modern conveniences, however I don't embrace all of them. When it comes to the use of media like newspapers and television, the only change I've made over the past 68 years is reading this newspaper online rather than in the paper format. I still turn on the television set, but I don't have cable or satellite television. What is the point of paying money to watch commercials? While I drive a car, I prefer to walk or take public transportation whenever possible because it's fun to see other people I like trains rather than airplanes, yet I do fly when I need to do so. I don't have an iPhone. I exercise every day rotating Pilates, yoga, weightlifting, cycling, and walking and I nap on the couch. I eat well, but i do like chocolate. I send birthday cards and valentines to my grandchildren through the mail and I Skype with them. I vacuum the house once a week, use the dishwasher, washing machine and dryer, and the stove. A year ago I started violin lessons. It's hard but fun. So lighten up. Make your choices wisely, and just be aware of what you focus on each day.
6
Another issue to consider is that our "convenience" society also has become a "disposable , once used, throw it away" society " where there are not enough land-fills and waste disposal/recycling facilities to handle all of this "stuff" that we discard. Now, THAT is a waste of our natural resources. Plastic is EVERYWHERE and it flotsam and jetsam has polluted the oceans.......
4
Kind of curmudgeonly. Reminds me of my parents *and I am in my 70s) kvetching about the TV, use of the telephone, autmatic transmission etc.
4
Sitting in a common area next to a group of graduate students, overheard conversation: "Hey, did you know you can make peanut butter at home?" and another said, "Did you know you can make ravioli at home?" I fear for our future.
53
For a moment I thought you would write “did you know money doesn’t come from the ATM and that your parents have to put it in a so-called bank account?”
3
You should be more optimistic - at least they are interested in doing it.
1
In the 1950s and 60s, there would have been the same ignorance because Big Food was ascendant. Nearly everything came out of a can or package. Grad students aren't a representative example. They tend to live on the cheap and aren't culinarily inventive unless they have a special interest.
1
One of the biggest costs of convenience the author failed to mention is the proliferation of single-use plastics, which has made its way into virtually every aspect of our lives. I live near the beach and coastal wetlands and much of our 'convenience' purchases end up in the waterways. By 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean unless we rethink how we consume and dispose of all that toxic plastic waste.
4
I embrace reading the NYTimes every day. Not always easy.
I embrace learning difficult music and as a percussionist, this is way more difficult than firing up an iPad and triggering a few loops.
I LIKE to shovel the snow off the sidewalk.
I like loading the truck (OK SUV) and making trips to the dump.
Don't own a microwave or a dishwasher.
Someone invented the wheel long before the dishwasher.
I agree that the 60s reflected a sloughing off accepted ideas of progress.
"Are you thinkin' of telephones, and managers,
And where you got to be at noon?
You are living a reality I left years ago
It quite nearly killed me." Crosby.Stills, Nash and Young
1
Convenience is fun but spawns laziness. Those who suffer from this have a terrible aversion to work, and halt in their tracks at the slightest challenge or sense of discomfort.
3
YesAmerica has even made it convenient to go to war no more dead american soldiers use contractors,drones other countries soldiers to make war.Keep USA safe while destroying others.
1
Contractor to go to war on your behalf? There’s a word for that - it’s called mercenary. It has existed for millennia.
1
At last, a breath of fresh air. I wonder how the obesity epidemic fits in to this. Is this a symptom of having too many conviences? Will it be the downfall of the human race? I’ve never owned a microwave oven for this very reason.
2
Convenience is just another way of saying you have more time available to use on other pursuits. The irony is most people don't know what to do with the time they already have, much less what to do with more of it. A sad state of affairs is it not? So it goes...
John~
American Net'Zen
2
It is a self-congratulating, first world, mass media fed construct that most people don’t know what to do with more time. How can we really know?
If you raise two or more kids where you sometimes feel so exhausted that you have to think about your back pain before putting your clothes into the laundry, this talk about too much convenience feels nonsense.
8
As you say "convenience" is a choice. For me it is about the homogenization of Americans==everyone has to have the same phone, same hair style etc. I choose not to have a cell phone. I will not buy from megagiants when I can buy locally. I do not stream TV-- I do not watch TV...You also pay for your so called convenience with your privacy--something many do not seem to care much about anymore.
3
While I can understand the basic tenet of privacy as a theory, unless you have something to hide, what's the issue with data collection? In an era of easy collections and quick analysis, both business and government would be remiss if not incompetent if they don't use the available tools and methods. Eventually, like turning around when you are in sight of a police roadblock equalling reasonable suspicion to justify being stopped, so to will paying with cash, not having a smart phone or declining the EULA for software be a sign of something suspicious.
The irony of “inconvenience” in spending the time to read a well thought out article about “convenience:” priceless!
3
“Priceless” is the reason my paid online NYT subscription and free Google on my expensive phone and computer are worth the money. I can more easily choose what news I actually read, and quickly learn more about subjects that interest me.
Voting by mail is more convenient.
2
Insightful. Profound actually.
The healing smell of a new morning can never be fully savored if we haven't made the effort to grind the coffee....kstew
1
Please stop. This reminds me of the poor but happy narrative we have been assaulted with from the medieval period “the poor will get their reward in heaven after they die” to the “good night” ending of every Walton Family. Hard work is good for you — except when it shortens your life (think black lung and asbestos). You don’t need to retire. You can work until — the day you die.
It’s all done to keep the poor and middle class from revolting against the 1% who have the ultimate convenience of servants (and at one time slaves and serfs) to make their lives easier.
4
Once the future promised us a Jetson-esque lifestyle where we lived in a dome and robots did all the work-the unasked question being:”So what do we do now?” The movie “Wall-E” presented a similar tongue-in-cheek (and subtly terrifying) iuumination of humanity as a bunch of osteopathically challenged obese homogeneous blobs, marching like lemmings through an anodyne existence.
This is a great piece, and my personal takeaway is that you need to be conscious of the give and take (and control over you) that convenience provides, and make a conscious inventory of the places where it meaningfully gives you the bandwidth to spend the time and effort on the things that are actually fulfilling and contribute to the world and your place in it.
Budget it, and spend it wisely.
3
Convenience is the lubrication the sparks the economy.
It also serves the purpose to remove the consumer from the ugly realities of labor, environmental collapse and many other unethical things which the consumer would revolt (hopefully) if they knew, causing the collapse of above economy.
I’m certain Tim Wu typed his column on a manual typewriter. Not!
4
Mr Wu, I enjoyed reading your article and in taking the time to do so, I was engaged in the gift of reflecting on the way I conduct my lives and the way those around me conduct their lives. We all have the capability of spending time engaging in something difficult. Time to get going.
1
I don't know whether iTunes made downloading music easier or not, I never used Napster. What I hope is that at least part of iTunes popularity is that people realized that downloading free music was hurting the artists and that paying for the music would support them and enable them to make more music.
Catullus said it two millennia ago in Poem 51:
otium, Catulle, tibi molestum est:
otio exsultas nimiumque gestis:
otium et reges prius et beatas
perdidit urbes.
Idleness is a troublesome thing for you, Catullus:
In idleness you revel and delight too much:
Idleness has destroyed both kings and
blessed cities before.
3
Yes! Also, Seneca wrote of "desidiosa occupatio" ("lazy busyness") in his letter "De brevitate vitae" ("On the Shortness of Life").
1
I love voting, I love the standing in line with my neighbors and the enlivening experience of being a participant in democracy. The thought that standing in line might be a deterrent to voting for the young people we are depending on to save our country is important for voting rights activists to address. It will not be just registering new voters, but explaining that the process itself, though time consuming and inconvenient, is essential to our future.
3
How convenient to be given a handy explanation for the world’s ills. A pocket history of industrial design, a quick sketch of social psychology, a gobbet of confession (instant coffee!) and look!— how neatly everything fits together, the world arranged around a single term. I’ll take a dozen , straight off the rack.
I would suspect Mr. Wu typed this on a computer rather then writing it on paper.
1
Shopping on Amazon.
1. It’s convenient to buy items hard to find. But stoped buying one recurring item that is not hard to find because I was shocked how much packaging was used to ship.
2. Great to leave items in my shopping cart or on wish list until I decide whether I really want them or find something more suitable.
3. Costly in money and time when items pile up that require return, and maybe are never returned.
4. Invaluable for those who cannot easily access other shopping — my friend who lives far from shops, out of this ADA country, and in a wheelchair so he can only leave home with someone to help with transportation and those darn steps and unpaved paths.
2
The Calvinists, we call them Pilgrims, who founded this country believed in hard work, sacrifice, and thrift. In 1845, Henry David Thoreau wrote Walden, about getting back to basics. In the 1980's Neil Postman warned us about the Faustinan bargain of new technology (you get something, but lose something also), when writing about television.
I read books to gain knowledge, which is time consuming but rewarding. When online, I read full articles and avoid videos and pictures. I shun all social media, all chat software, and use my smart phone only for mobile calling, not for web browsing.
4
You use smartphones only for calling not for we browsing? Really? If so, you wasted money as you could buy a regular phone. Funny you said you don’t browse using your smartphone. Yet, it seems you commented on this article using your smartphone, either a handheld or a bulky one some of us call computer.
I am presently trying to put into some order the hundreds of letters that my wife and I exchanged with each other and our parents and children many decades ago. I almost cried, not at the memories contained therein (which bring me smiles and laughter, not tears) but at the feel and smell of the paper: my American sweetheart's letters were sent and scented with love, written on that crinkly, translucent, airmail paper.
Lovers today have lost all of these 'connection' possibilities. My lover's fingers were in the paper she folded and slipped into the envelope, her saliva made the stamp stay stuck thereon, and sometimes the ink from her fountain pen was smudged by her tears at our separation. These were all connection points impossible to duplicate in an email or smartphone text.
How my heart leapt when a letter arrived (2 or 3 times a week for 8 months) and I recognised the airmail envelope and her hand upon it - a connection even before I'd opened her letter and read a word. Today's generation of lovers wouldn't understand what I was talking about and would only see the inconvenience involved.
Thank you for a brilliant article.
4
This article speaks the truth to me, and it was beautifully written. I have done many things in my life to choose inconvenience although I did not think of them as such at the time. I would say that you can see this same truth in other living things as well. As any gardener with a cold frame can tell you, plants that are started from root or seed in a cold frame and protected from the elements grow differently and are not hardy as the plants that are grown from the start out in the open garden where they are exposed to different stresses. I have often thought that this mirrors human life, and reading this it has brought that lesson back to mind.
2
Great article. It's hard to find the balance-- do the mundane tasks of daily living and forego (or slow down) writing that novel, painting that painting, or inventing something. And not just "rich" people. Struggling people can use a break too -- develop a skill or create something that could lift them economically.
I've often commented on the irony that acquiring these labor-saving things makes us work harder and longer to pay for them, thus cancelling out the time we were supposed to have saved.
And let's not forget that the purveyors of "stuff" want to entice us with convenience, and yes sometimes fun, so they can sell it to us and make money... the god of the US. Well, pretty much everywhere.
Gonna be hard to turn that ship around.
3
I live in a snowy area (upstate) and my house has a driveway that runs the length of the lot. My neighbors hire a plow service every winter. I shovel. Sometimes it takes hours. I shovel the driveway, my sidewalk and my elderly neighbor’s sidewalk. I break shovels every season. I bought a snowblower but stopped using it because of the noise. I’ve decided that shoveling snow, usually at night after work, is a focused, single-purpose activity that diverts my attention from daily concerns and, in heavy winter clothing in a dark, silent world of falling snow (save for the rhythmic scrape of ny shovel), qualifies as a means of achieving zen-like reflection and peaceful relaxation. I look forward to it. Mostly, though, I like the results of shoveling. From edge to edge, scraped clean, the driveway and sidewalks are safe, the clear paths precisely carved through small canyons of snow, it beats my neighbors’ plow service every time. But they think I’m nuts.
9
Same here. I detest how fossil-fuel burning devices (one neighbor even uses a leaf blower) disrupt the serenity of snowy morns on my street.
Most of the 30-40 something white-collar men using them could stand to burn a few calories shoveling. And they finish no quicker than I, a middle-aged woman with a 14" shovel, because they like to run their toys over and over the same area.
They, and their kids, are mega consumers of sports, food, mass entertainment, large SUVs and more, and I have never seen them pause in their noisy routine to appreciate nature. Not once.
2
I have to wonder out loud about the irony that if you neighbor's plow service permits them to easily get to the high priced gym for a workout that time spent shoveling would deny them.
2
All around best--most balanced, informative, enlightening--Week in Review from cover to cover in months. Indeed, most of the topics explored here, from stalled gun control legislation nationally and undoing of some worthy Tea Party goals to our blithe national ignorance of over a century of meddling by our government in elections worldwide and the schism between younger and older women about feminism, are among the many casualties of "live for the moment" convenience. We are on automatic overdrive as a nation, lulled by our self involvement, greed and inertia, all of the while professing surprise every time our governments fail to act in the common good, capitalism is all but owned by the private sector and free to run around or over the public sector, and any semblance of checks and balances slowly evaporates. "What is right is often forgotten by what is convenient."
4
In my woodworking I resist the power tools that could make steps easier, in fact I own only an electric hand drill and the simplest router. I take great pleasure in my plethora of specialty hand saws, chisels, planes, drills, etc, some of which were my grandfather's. I figure that the minor imperfections that result from my approach give my work character which is lacking in mass produced items.
3
I congratulate Mr. Wu on raising this fascinating philosophic subject, but I'm not sure I agree with his overall conclusion - that excessive convenience might not be good for society. I'm in my eighties, as are my closest friends. Having had the benefits of a good education and living in the center of a big city, we are unusually adept (for our age) at taking advantage of today's conveniences. So, are we sitting around and contemplating our navels? No. We're generally in good health for our age, move around a lot, go to museums, volunteer, travel, etc. Convenience, now that I think of it, has been our savior.
But what about the teenagers I know, grandchildren of friends and relatives. They are the beneficiaries of convenience on a scale I could never have dreamed of. But their lives are chock full of activity, movement and obligations. I don't particularly admire their lives, but the negatives have little to do with excess convenience. In face, convenience might be one of the only good things about their lives!
2
Loved Mr. Wu's essay on convenience. I'm old enough to remember days without computers let alone smart phones. I've recently started making my own bread again, two loaves on the weekend. Why? It is definitely more convenient to buy an artisan loaf from the grocery store, but there is also definite pleasure in kneading the dough, watching it grow and become fluffy, and while it's baking, enjoying the aroma that fills the house. Then eating a crusty slice right out of the oven is a piece of paradise. Our culture has lost something beautiful in our love affair with convenience. Victoria Mott
3
At least once a week, I prepare a meal from scratch with my daughter. We shop for the ingredients and actually read a recipe and measure out ingredients. So convenient to just grab a bag of food from the freezer section in the grocery store, but learning to cook is an art. It is a pleasurabe hobby and when possible, shouldn't be rushed. Learning about spices, oils, and various cooking methods is work but also inspiring. When you put a gourmet meal on the table, you feel a a sense of accomplishment versus pulling a packaged meal out of the microwave after 5 minutes.
This doesn't mean that I don't use microwave meals when I get home late on a work night, and am glad for that convenience, but when I can work side by side to prepare a healthy delicious meal with my daughter, I make sure we do it.
12
The writer uses the word convenience well to tie his essay together, but a more appropriate word is actually efficiency. I brew my coffee because it is more time-efficient than stopping and waiting in line for a cup at Starbucks- the writer is probably unaware that a much higher percentage of Americans buy their morning fix from the likes of McDonald's and Dunkin Donuts because it is actually more time efficient than brewing ones own.
Time efficiency of modern appliances has allowed women to join the work force, the efficiency of machines and scale has reduced the relative costs of food to allow Americans to buy those washing machines, driers, gas powered lawn mowers, vacuum cleaners, etc. that keep our consumer economy going while providing people more time to work and shop.
Of course there is a price to pay. Greater efficiency by way of research reduces many occupations to an exercise of following specific directions which shrinks the brain and soul.
An example is the production of wine- right here in NY State, plutocrats with their private wineries are capable of producing a delicious product without using their noses, eyes, palates or brains- just invest in the best equipment and follow the instructions and with Hudson Valley grapes grown by Cornell guidelines they can produce an excellent Pinot Noir.
Computers are replacing the need to exercise our brains which is very efficient but completely unfulfilling to human emotional need. We need to solve problems.
3
Some forms of Convenience make us lazier, more spaced out, less aware, and easier marks for manipulation.
And, Freud noted that humans are motivated by the pleasure principle, which in part means seeking the easiest ways out, not the realistic and necessary ways of engaging with and dealing with realities.
3
I don't agree with most of this, all change going back to the invention of the wheel was disruptive. It is absurd to pick a static place in time, now, and decide that the current wave of change is bad. But I'm 55 and have noticed that the hobbies that I hold dear, scuba diving, sailing, flying, riding motorcycles seem of little interest to most people in their 20's. I don't know if in a world of instant gratification a hobby which requires a commitment to master is simply too much work.
3
Perhaps young people aren’t pursuing those hobbies which you list because they are not inexpensive. I used to sail in college (not in NYC) and loved it - it was also very affordable (and convenient, my college was on a lake!). I haven’t sailed in the decade-plus that I’ve lived in NYC because it’s out of my price range, not because I don’t have patience to master a skill.
3
J, I think that may well be part of it but people spend money on things like 5 dollar lattes that could add up to sailing rentals or intro scuba courses. I think if there was interest many more people would find a way. It is hard to even find younger people who can drive a manual transmission.
1
Oooohhhh, the $5 latte and avocado toast argument! ;) Sometimes we Oregon Trail generation folks spend more on little luxuries than people in our parents' generation. It's hard to justify spending 10% of my monthly rent for a few hours on the river. It's much less painful to spend $5 on a fancy coffee and going out for lunch a few times a month because - even if I'm spending the same amount as I would on sailing - because I'm not laying down the money all at once and the pleasure derived from getting lunch or coffee with friends lasts longer than the few hours of the sailing lesson. (I can go out to lunch with friends 10 times for the cost of a sailing lesson or boat rental!)
I don't understand how the manual transmission comes into this, but I'll play along. Most younger people in Europe can drive manual because car manufacturers still make manual cars. Try buying a car in the US that was manufactured in the last 10 years that has manual and isn't more expensive. Even when I was learning to drive in the late 90's manual transmission wasn't an option in driver's ed and I didn't know anyone with a manual car. How is that my problem?
Convenience has allowed many of us to become more productive, and for that reason it is worthwhile embracing. The darker side of convenience is the impact it can have on our well-being . I think of highly processed foods and the temptation to insulate ourselves from other people by making excessive use of online convenience.
2
As I observed to a friend once, it feel like we're becoming a nation of dilettantes. This column nicely captures the "why".
When results are too easy, learning is forfeit.
4
Thank you, Tim Wu, for one of the most articulate and thought provoking opinion essays I have ever read. My own most inconvenient - and rewarding - life choice is to have a pet. My dog has his own needs and personality, which do not always neatly fit with my own. Yet, the rewards of having his companionship far outweigh the necessary walks in frigid weather, cost of interruptions to my workflow, and compromises in travel plans.
9
I have my own small rebellions: I refuse to buy through Amazon, dropped my WaPo subscription, just as a personal objection to the Bezos monopolization, and doing some re-thinking about Facebook participation. I refuse to look at or "follow" anyone on Twitter. But my cellphone: At my age it is a comfort to have my cellphone with me, particularly when going for a walk - I consider it a safety feature. And definitely a No to a refrigerator that tells me when I'm low on a particular item, or a device that turns my lights on when I start up the driveway.
8
Cell phone? Allows me to be a caregiver to my father without having to be there all the time. Helps me remember things, like add to my market list so it’s on hand when I need it. Helps me to remember people I meet, to make notes about them, and discard those business cards that multiply like hangers. Allows my husband to reach me anywhere, connecting us more even when far apart.
2
I agree w/the reject Bezos attitude .. if he paid his warehouse workers decently, respected them as humans, was not sooo greedy .. did not engage in contests to have cities bend over backwards by offering huge tax advantages (to the wealthiest person on the planet) so they just might have him pick their town for his next store .. paying not enough to employees to live on .. that he routinely attempts to dodge taxes .. so that his shortfalls become what we the true taxpayers fill in on .. I do say & wait for the 'greed backlash' against Bezoz & Apple, Google, Musk etc who offshore their $$$ to avoid taxes while our schools, cities, infrastructure all decline .. now we have given them all a huge tax giveaway . and have not managed to corral their offshoreness ..
many of us will have nothing to bezoz' convenience s because he squeezed all of us for his own gain .. share a bit more w/yr workers ..
1
I don't shop at Walmart because I hate their corporate practices. I especially hate their treatment toward former disabled (and probably current) employees. However, but I do have a Prime Amazon account. I am disabled with no car, so it's made a tremendous difference in getting necessary items (and at a discount) I normally would have trouble taking home.
There's only so much you can "protest" when it comes to living your life and getting necessities. What one person is okay with, another is not. If I had to boycott all the companies whose ethics I disagreed with, I would be unable to have any kind of life.
I was a Peace Corps volunteer in early 60s in a rural village with no indoor plumbing, no refrigeration, but with the "luxury" of a battery eating portable radio. In 66-67 I served with the Red Cross in Viet Nam. I was bitten by a rat chewing on my hair when I was in bed/ cot. Both experiences were very rewarding because of the community and content of my work, not because I didn't have indoor plumbing etc.
This Sunday morning I love the conveniences of reading NYT on day of issue, delivered to my front door, having a hot shower, and cooking a breakfast with the option of cold milk, not made from a powder.
8
An aspect of this dilemma that isn’t often brought up is the extent to which we as a species are diverging from the lifestyle for which evolution has prepared us. Evolution through the ages has rewarded those who excelled at the tasks needed for survival and reproduction. Skillful problem-solving and interaction with others and the natural world developed and strengthened in our genome to become the essence of humanity. Use of such skills brought it’s own rewards through the satisfaction derived from harmonious interaction with the natural world. Increasingly, our surroundings are becoming less natural and more artificial, and the longing for the traditional rewards of a natural way of life go unfulfilled. Poorly understood frustration and feelings of alienation build until something snaps. I believe the consequences of our artificial lifestyle are dire and growing worse.
6
This nicely articulates the root cause of much of what we moderns suffer - cancer, obesity, depression, etc. It's a mismatch. The lives we've created for ourselves are profoundly different from those evolution crafted us to lead. How do we fix this? It's difficult. For most of our history - a history that extends backwards hundreds of thousands of years - we simply replicated the form of life of our tribe. No mismatch existed. However that chain has been broken. Most of us are largely ignorant of the form of life for which we're best suited.
Pain is a price people pay for pleasure.For many if not most people their marriages and children provide their greatest pleasure, but they are not without challenges which are painful. Giving of oneself his/her maximum effort to accomplish something valued most always involves some pain. Comfort is not the same as pleasure and making comfort/convenience the greatest goal is the hallmark of a decadent society.
2
the addiction to convenience is not due to the machines or habits in their use...the time saved is rather spent staring as screens than, say, baking one's own bread, regular exercise, longhand writing, (rather satisfying than inconvenient for those who still do such things)
we have been warned often, neil postman's "amusing ourselves to death" is a classic, more than resonant ever, even after a quarter century, but still long after clark gable in the 1948 film, "the hucksters" told us all we needed to know, about media mind-capture, were we disposed to listen.
in the schulberg/kazan film "a face in the crowd," the plutocrat seeking to put his product into everyone's hands and his own man into the white house, allows that television, "the greatest medium for persuasion ever invented" will get both jobs done.
p.s. not sure how inconvenience can be "embraced," maybe tolerated of some neccessity,
but hardly held with affection...herewith top 5 inconveniences dismissed: 1, trying to get news from tv, especially the cable couch crews; 2 shopping in big brick and mortar markets (yet treasuring small, expertly tended, specialty shops); 3 attempts to engage in dialogue with close-minded public school bureaucrats; 4 utilities' customer service phone calls (it take less time to dash off a note, by e- or snail, to the CEO who responds promptly and sends your note to where is needs to go; and 5 entering an airport terminal with anything undone, boarding pass, baggage check-in, etc.
3
As a designer and environmentalist, my job is to make things easy and delightful —in a word convenient. When I think about the things we do poorly or that are harmful, ie using plastic bags or creating waste at every opportunity in particular, it is a matter of convenience. Instead of making it easier to buy stuff, we need to find ways to do the boring right thing. This is not the struggle or aid—because that is becoming commercialized—but the simple acts to make less waste, it must be convenient. And yes, I totally acknowledge that it’s disappointing that this is the ideal, but we’ve it’s always been hard to push against the grain and the problem lies in the majority who don’t.
2
What wisdom. I spend so much of my time in libraries, working, relaxing, thinking, looking. I cook my own food, walk my dog, read in the arboretum, write to friends. I have eliminated television, socializing with people I don't like, never "order out" , buy"stuff"on Amazon, or use facebook. Life is sometimes lonely - as it should be- but it also includes real contact with many people. It is real.
10
We likely live in the only house on our suburban street WITHOUT electric garage door openers. Sometimes I would like to embrace the convenience of having one--just like everyone else. But then I think "it takes more calories to get out of my car to close or open the garage door than it does to press a button." That means the energy is coming from me and not from the grid. Good for me and for the environment. I'll stick with that choice. Over decades it can make a difference.
4
Some commenters are disparaging Tim Wu's argument with the snarky and disparaging put down "rich people's problem." This is almost proof to Wu's theme. Try reading his article a little more carefully...he's not making a blanket condemnation of convenience, but asking us to be more mindful of the costs of convenience.
Let me give a work-related one: those of us of a certain age remember when we were told that computers would ease our workload. I do t know about you, but I juggle about 4 different management softwares at my job (workflows, relational databases, payroll, etc), none of which is adequately integrated or optimized, and all of which need to be logged into multiple times a day because our IT will log us out after some time passes. And this doesn't count your basic Microsoft suite. These programs provide my employer with convenient access to information but take up an increasing portion of my day and keep me from doing what I see (and they, come performance review) as the core tasks of my profession.
23
We have neglected “conveniance” as a driver of environmental destruction. Plastic/styrofoam containers are a prime example, as are any tasks that use electricity instead of man power to be more convenient.
16
It is now covenient to read five different newspapers from five different countries one right after the other - that was never there for someone of my means before. I am now able to continue my research on language acquisition without belonging to a university facultybecause I can research the whole world online. I can check the weather and find out about local events that are not in a newspaper because the organizers don’t have the funds to advertise in every rag. Technology has given me more rather than less.
20
of course...you would get no argument from the author of the article
1
My great grandfather used to rail against what he saw as the decline of society and the softness of my grandfather's and mother's generations due to their indoor toilets and coal furnaces. But then, Brooklyn wasn't turn of the century Ireland so a bucket to do your business and cutting peat from the big really weren't an option.
2
Washing dishes and running! I get so much thinking done while washing dishes and lots of story writing while running. When something is enticingly convenient, I ask: what's the trade-off?
3
The price we have paid is the collective soul of humanity. Individualism requires egalitarianism.
3
Convenience: the material organization of hegemony, in which you cannot imagine alternatives to the list of choices that you are offered by the market and/or social norms. You can make choices from the list you are offered, but you have little or no control over the constitution of the offered list -- and it becomes increasingly difficult to imagine what might be "missing" from the list, and almost impossible to imagine an alternative to "lists" altogether.
This became clear many years ago, when 7-11 (an early model of the convenience store) adopted the advertising slogan: "7-11 Gives You Freedom of Choice!" with the slogan set within a nationalist, patriotic visual context -- flags, etc. Freedom indeed! Coke or Pepsi? But no alternative the status quo...
8
I can still delve into “inconvenience” exactly as often and as much as suits my current needs and preferences.
Facebook, Twitter and all of those jabber-rests have no place in my life and you won’t see me wandering around in public places, in a daze and with “music” in my ears. I don’t watch broadcast television and I select only those streaming programs that suit my tastes.
Absolutely nothing “forces” me to make use of any conveniences - - but you’ll have to pry most of them out of my cold dead hands in order to take them away from me.
8
This column discusses convenience as a choice. I work 50+ hours a week, take care of two kids under 5, commute 60-90 minutes a day, and get minimal societal support. And I'm lucky to be a white collar professional with family around to help. The bias toward convenience isn't a choice, it's a necessity in America today.
40
" convenience isn't a choice, it's a necessity..."...it seems a though that you've you've made other choices...you have two kids under 5, you commute 60-90 minutes a day...
2
I used to work for a wise old judge who had 30 grandkids who’d had good educations & iPads at age 6 & iPhones at 11 & red ribbon-wrapped cars on their 16th birthdays. He said sometimes he wished for another Great Depression, as these kids would then have to learn to garden & sew & cook & do without.
I’m with him. Convenience & the privilege that goes with it does us no favors.
20
"... a wise old judge who had 30 grandkids who’d had good educations & [certain material things]."
So the judge was implicitly criticizing his own children for their indulgent parenting. In your telling, the judge is part of the problem he is complaining about.
"Convenience & the privilege that goes with it does us no favors."
The first item in the list you attribute to the judge is a "good education". How does a "good education" do "us no favors"?
What you left out of your would-be parable is how those "30 grandkids" have conducted themselves as ADULTS.
Convenience supposedly involves making the tedious parts of life take up less time and effort so you spend more on "things that matter" - but increasingly I have to wonder exactly what those things are. Seems like we "convenient" ourselves into ennui and boredom and then have to seek out distractions.
23
Some business practices that are based on confidence are justified by new gig companies profit. My gig job replaced the non-convenient aspect of a company that had to find, retain, pay the “market” rate, provide incentive benefits......
A gig company provides me a contract to select (because I modeled their requirements to be able to select contracts they offer)....the company using the gig company to supply labor is off the hook for all responsibility of finding, retaining, and paying the laborer.
My convenience in selecting contracts I want does not assuage the bad implication on our economy (gg) in relation to worker rights and sensible benefits.
3
As a teacher, I am sad to see that students want to Google an answer (What is the lifespan of a whale? What is the definition of "element"?) instead of doing real research. Not only do they lose the delight of accidental discovery that comes from reading a book or encyclopedia, they tend to think " Why learn this when I can just Google it?"
I worry about the intellectual capabilities of this next generation.
6
If you worry about the next generation I strongly suggest you google Emma Gonzalez or David Hogg.
Also, the idea that you don’t get the delight of accidental discovery from googling things is something thought by someone who doesn’t spend a lot of time googling things.
6
The places I have ended up on the endless Internet have fascinated me. Follow the links.
3
So, did I miss the part where the dishwasher loads itself?
7
Maybe the Amish are onto something.
101
Except for their propensity of massive puppy and kitten mills!
3
No, but Thoreau was on to something!
3
I was reading this right after I read the piece from a dreamer talking about the sacrifices his parents had made for him. All I could picture was the father, working three jobs and the mother scrubbing other people's floors and watching other people's babies, and how any convenience helps them. I've known a number of full,tenured professors, and they have the lightest work load of anyone I know,especially if the aren't their children's primary care giver. Most people Have too little time to do the things they must do to survive and make a living. So, Professor, here's my suggestion: find a woman in one of your classes who is also raising a child or children and also working a job ( I bet you there is at least one of those) and go home and make her kid's meals for a week or pick them up from school if they get sick or watch them on a day when school is out and she doesn't have affordable child care. Or at least go volunteer to do free legal work for the poor. Do something like that instead of washing your clothes by hand.
29
I worry that people and children will be unable to care for themselves because they subscribe to too many convenient features of modern life. They won’t be able to identify the quality of produce and how to cook it if they never do it for themselves sometime. I insist on obtaining maps of states to travel. I will never own an “Alexa” because I do not need a personal assistant to check the weather for me, turn on some music, or order something to buy. I am unwilling to pay for services that I can do myself because I have my good health. The stressors or modern life should be reduced by lifestyle changes first. I know it sounds “corny,” but in an ideal world, families need to spend more time together and help each other with preparing meals, which offers the opportunity for real conversations. Younger people can learn skills by watching their elders and asking them questions rather then choosing YouTube first. I rarely take my frequent walks with “EarPods” to podcasts, when I can observe nature and life around me. I don’t want constant stimulation, I don’t want to multi-task when I should be mindful of each moment. Find the joy in your hobbies and passions, and make opportunities to discover things for yourself.
9
The scientific management principles (aka "Taylorism") Dr. Wu alludes to dominated manufacturing in the 20th-century. Drawing on data from time-and-motion studies and experimentation with assembly-line speeds and organization, among other metrics, scientific management often reduced line workers to little more than extensions of the machines they operated (making it easy for human workers to be replaced by robots). The same general approach characterizes the production of many of the spiffy electronic devices and convenient throw-away goods that dominate our mass market today. It's a good system for keeping costs low and profits high, but not very convenient for those who have to do the production work.
1
these things were once called labor saving devices. The wheel is an early example. So is the rock.
2
You have to wonder if this trend contributes to the obesity epidemic. I think so.
10
This article articulates (perhaps too well) what I've been feeling for many years.
2
I have recently been studiously avoiding the convenient life; the faster more efficient way of being. I have embraced going slower and being more aware. I have found that time accommodates my change. I have an enhanced perspective and have the time to think about what I am up to and not about what I should be doing three tasks ahead of me. I take pleasure in all of my small pieces of the puzzle and more enjoyment in what I accomplish. In the end you either live your life or it lives you.
13
One consequence of the dynamics of convenience that Mr. Wu doesn’t mention is the frequency in which much of the additional free time created by convenience gets vacuumed up by employers by ratcheting up expectations in this world of ‘at will’ and temp employment.
23
Our computers already simulate our "remembering" friends' and family birthdays. Their computers are capable of automatically responding, simulating reciprocal appreciation and love.
Our enemies, troll farms and "bots" are manipulating "social media" whose "algorithms" manipulate what we "think" (we'll, FEEL) and buy.
Perhaps the most popular inconvenient truth is how convenient it is to bamboozle increasingly lazy, inflammable brains.
89
This is not exactly a novel thought, but this article, and your post, reminds me once of again of the irony that in the 1960-70s, the prevailing dark fear was that increasing conformity could be the result of a powerful central government (we all read 1984 and Brave New World). If the tech revolution first seemed to promise a robust bulwark for democracy and individuality, it may in fact insidiously be a vehicle for apathy and conformity.
2
Or, as Jello Biafra said, “Give me convenience or give me death!”
1
While I’m guilty of succumbing to the tyranny of lists and hyper-scheduling, inconvenience is assiduously planned within this paradigm. My 8.5 year old son, who makes lists as necessary (e.g.: a "needs & wants" T chart), privileges inconvenient activities. This is a matter of natural proclivity & osmosis as he observes my partner & me doing, w/an admixture of passion & vexation followed through to divine satisfaction, what either does not necessarily need doing or could be done efficiently albeit soullessly. He's growing up relishing the epithet of eccentric.
Examples of our family's inconvenient pursuits are: cooking, baking, making chocolates from scratch; making art, inclusive of various appurtenances for art; knitting; making, repurposing toys and their mise en scene; building hut from self-harvested bamboo & other found objects; concocting potions to perform ablutions; writing stories when between books & not ready to cede imagination to another author; origami for notes to peers...
On a meta scale, choosing to teach - private school (less pay & protection than public sector) w/non-neurotypical students - when we have multiple degrees not in education from Ivy schools is an example of choosing inconvenience in many of the ways treated in Mr. Wu's article, & beyond. College chums esteem our career choice as eccentric, quaint at best. Work colleagues ask why we would do this when we could __ w/our pedigrees. Mr. Wu's piece is a nod toward an answer.
4
Isn't convenience just a feature of the human condition as in Maslow's hierarchy of needs? Lower levels (physiological, safety) force a rawer experience of the world -- which we happily abandon as we ascend to belonging and self-esteem. Self actualization was supposed to entail self-realization and awareness; maybe an appreciation of the unfiltered experience of the inconvenient world, e.g. backpacking, running, swimming in the ocean, traditional woodworking, french cooking etc. But modern day wealth and technology has shunted us all to cluttered havens of convenience and ultra-consumer trinket-ism with security cams showing us what's going on outdoors. French cooking is on channel 56.
6
I wash our family's clothes by hand for the physical exercise, and to lesson our carbon footprint. Of course, it helps that I'm retired. But, convenience and using our "time saved" to volunteer can also be an option. Our washing machine is starting to look pretty convenient, as I volunteer helping students improve their English while learning about climate change.
3
Well Tim, for inconvenience, try the sheer hard labour of raising small humans. Your choice of examples re: convenience strikes me as gendered.
27
Both genders parent though far to many Dads still don't do their share. Perhaps this article reflects privilege and wealth more than gender bias.
The virtue signalers are out in force today.
Hand washing, riding bicycles, driving old cars ... so why not making your own butter or cream, reverting to cloth diapers, and handwriting duplicate copies of the latest legal document you needed?
Convenience isn't tyranny, it's what has made most lives a whole lot more comfortable. Nor is convenience a modern concept, it's been part of human nature forever. Do you think that prehistoric tribes wanted to struggle to light a fire each time one was needed or the existing one went out? Don't you think that maybe they loved that piece of flint and dry tinder that made making fire so much more ... what? Convenient?
12
What about the impact convenience has on the soon-to-be plastic planet?
8
Oh come on. Women work outside the home mostly by necessity, because two incomes make ends meet, or because they are single mothers. Either way women work two jobs as they come home from work and then do the vast majority of the drudge work i.e. housework chores and child care.
So why the extolling of the old ways? What - go back to the mangle and the wash board(ever try one?), hanging out wet clothes after using the wringer?! My mother wished that they had had disposable diapers as she used a diaper service but hated the dirty cloth diapers. I could go on and on here. No I say hooray for modern conveniences, obviating the need for slave, OK drudge labor, and don't knock it if you aren't the one having to do it, as mostly men and you Mr Wu are the escapees here.
Twitter, Facebook, Selfies, even TV are not modern "conveniences", not really. They are modern remedies for boredom.
15
You lost me at Napster. People would rather pay musicians than steal from them, hear music legally than end up in (a very inconvenient) lawsuit.
1
Old news. Shakespeare railed against convenience (which was then called 'commodity') almost four centuries ago in "King John":
'That smooth-faced gentleman, tickling Commodity,
Commodity, the bias of the world,
The world, who of itself is peised well,
Made to run even upon even ground,
Till this advantage, this vile-drawing bias,
This sway of motion, this Commodity,
Makes it take head from all indifferency,
From all direction, purpose, course, intent:
And this same bias, this Commodity,
This bawd, this broker, this all-changing word,
Clapp'd on the outward eye of fickle France,
Hath drawn him from his own determined aid,
From a resolved and honourable war,
To a most base and vile-concluded peace.'
See also http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17450918.2013.833983 ("This also opens a space for King John to be read as a critique of the alienating effects of the newly emerging economic system in the early modern period – capitalism.")
1
I don't see how that passage supports your thesis. isn't he bemoaning peace with France at the expense of the honor of England? If so, wouldn't the effect of capitalism be peace? Capitalism would spell the end of nationhood and the birth of a borderless Europe, like the EU.
I do not think Shakespeare had proto-Marxist thoughts. he wasn't thinking about alienated labor and class war. He was thinking about national identity, or that's how I read it. I am opposed to Marxist readings of Shakespeare.
2
Turning on the gas stove to cook your meal is a lot more convenient than gathering wood to cook your meal. Turning on the faucet and getting water is better than walking a mile with big jars of water on your head. Which is what many Indians do. Many of these Indians would trade the conveniences that you in the West call inconveniences. The problem is that your citizens have everything known to mankind to save labor. Even the drive through in your restaurant is a convenience. Who wants to get out of the car to get a meal. People in comparatively primitive societies where they still get up and go the fields and toil like that lifestyle and that lifestyle has meaning and and value. They enjoy meeting people in person and not through Facebook. Even porn is a convenience. Think about it. You can watch anything online while your partner is sleeping in bed.Count your blessings and move on.
4
I see signs of convenience all the time. Bad spelling (I had to use spell check to spell convenience), obesity, and impatience. To me, all the Olympic athletes are simply crazy. Only a handful of world audience will care about majority of sports that's on Olympics right now but the athletes spend so much time and money to train for only 3 medal slots in any event. I think they are crazy. Some will get super popular and rich and actually be good and get their stories told but most of them don't matter to many people. But they do it anyways. I suppose passion and pride is what's driving them. But I'm too lazy to care about all the inconvenient things around me.
2
I love convenience. It frees up time to do challenging stuff.
3
Mr Wu, you're wrong about the shift from peer-to-peer sharing via Napster to iTunes. It wasn't just the convenience that made iTunes more appealing; it was the fact that it was, and is, legal. I like the fact that its sales result in royalties paid to performers and composers. Legal beats illegal every time.
4
My grandmother was a 1950s-70s homemaker who dutifully churned out three meals a day, though she didn't much like cooking. She was the first in the neighborhood to have a microwave and taught microwave cooking classes to other women. (Sample dish: microwaved chicken breasts in canned orange juice with sliced grapes.) She never understood why I, her granddaughter born over 50 years later, would read cookbooks and make slow, fussy dishes like Boeuf Bourguignon. I once called her to ask if she knew a good birthday cake recipe and she recommended I go to Ralphs and pick up a Betty Crocker yellow cake mix. I suppose the difference was that cooking was my choice. I cook enjoy slow cooking and extra labor because it wasn't a duty foisted upon me by social expectations. The pendulum swings both ways and labor becomes a luxury. Someday grocery shopping will be a sign of social privilege.
10
TIM WU Raises many interesting ideas which, in my opinion, lead the human condition in a dystopian direction. His ideas, described with clarity, alacrity and energy, are a tough sell here in the US because of the Great American Pioneer Myth: Time is money. You can make it on your own. You can do anything if you try hard enough. The reason we humans provide ourselves with so many conveniences is because of the perception that we are spending our resources better if we provide for our needs efficiently. So the matter of deciding how we use our precious personal resources and energy is based upon how we value things, or our preferences. For example, would you prefer to prepare espresso for yourself or to go to coffee shop and stand in line? Would you prefer to spend your time and energy working on other tasks while the washing machine cleans your clothes, or go down by the riverside, spread them on a rock and beat them with branches (using soap if you want to get sophisticated)? Is the soap made of a combination of ingredients beginning with wood ash and lye, or purchasing the soap ready made? Humans operate according to the pleasure principle, described by Freud as seeking pleasure and avoiding pain. So the unconscious activities of our brain are weighing out how we get through our lives based on choosing to do things in ways that end up giving us more pleasure. There's also eustress, like lifting weights to build our muscles. It's endorphins versus soreness. OUCH
2
The cult of convenience in America, of course usually technological and bureaucratic convenience, and all that is inconvenient considered wrong?
Convenience in America seems to have led to High School Society. A world where ideally there should be little difference between President of nation/congress and school principal/administration. All literature has to pass sanction of school newspaper/national organs. Music increasingly is turned into school talent show/cheerleading. Sports are paramount. The intelligent in school, geeks, nerds, are far more often than not next in line for primarily further technological/bureaucratic advancement of society. Teachers of course are university professors in minor and the both are increasingly suspect, watched and committee chosen.
The internet functions as teaching device in class and society at large. But it's also Big Brother, which is to say writing on the internet might get you, like writing an essay in a high school English class, condemned for this or that hate speech or dangerous line of thinking, and you will have to be brought to attention of administration, parents/relatives, the medical profession (psychiatry/psychology), law enforcement. Essentially society a well regulated machine/high school. Everyone conveniently fed, housed, educated, and conveniently formed to take next places in hierarchy. The part I have played is to have written the wrong things in English class and in society at large.
2
Wow! Articles such as this are truly rare. A simple yet profoundly elegant truth, that has been brought up and pointed out by mystics all throughout history. This is the real beauty of truth. It resonates beyond the realm of the mind.
6
Being challenged is part of our DNA.
When all challenges are removed people become restless until they find new ones or they get medicated. Just look at what happens to animals in captivity when they get bored.
4
"I prefer to brew my coffee, but Starbucks instant is so convenient I hardly ever do what I “prefer.”"
Good article, but this I cannot understand. How anybody can be so lazy that rather drinks horrible coffee than spends five minutes to make good coffee?
5
The problem is not convenience, but over-convenience. Over-convenience is what makes us prisoners of our homes and slaves to our computers. Instead of the pleasure or discomfort of face-to-face interactions, Facebook and Twitter allow society to bypass the risks and rewards of in-person contact. The prime human example of this phenomenon is Donald Trump, who can Tweet hatred and misinformation with little concern for the human beings affected, as he never steps out of his bubble to meet them.
7
Excellent article. So much of our post-modern complaints (city living itself!) stem from the convenience imperative. It’s best to understand this root cause — the tyranny of convenience — than to merely feel guilty over the specific behavior it produces.
Reading this article has answered my doubts about a property I am thinking of buying. It will require real-time living, the reason I have expatriated. But I have been doubting my ability to shift what has been a lifestyle enslaved to instant everything. I now see that I shouldn’t doubt, but I should stay true to my vision of a deeper life.
Thank you for this article. It is well-thought out, well-written, and of utmost importance for the U.S. national character.
6
What we choose to need, and what we choose to need convenience to accomplish is the core.
I love being able to simply browse the local library system, put books on hold and wait for them to be ready from one of the 30 or so libraries in the system that would be difficult to visit and browse individually. I don't need to have a drone deliver the book. I can pick up up.
I like the convenience of using an app to skip the line in Sam's, but I would have been OK with the line, if they'd ever staffed it.
I like to make dinner fast, but I don't need the convenience of having it delivered, or having my shopping done by a meal prep service.
I like on-line shopping, especially for nitty little repair parts and things I cannot get locally. But I like wandering well stocked stores, and trying things on, and having lunch with a friend more. The first is necessity, the second pleasure. I resent having to order off the internet because local stores have nothing in stock.
And, yes, I'd much rather have time to poke around in the garden, dig and weed and feel the burn of the sun, than have a convenient solution that makes the chore go away. It isn't the struggle that makes it worthwhile, it is the achievement. That is my garden out there, in all of its amateurishness. I did that myself.
8
The device paradigm. Every time a new device is invented, it's underlying intention almost always being either efficiency or convenience, humanity loses yet another increment of skill and knowledge about how thing are done an work.
We have created a society of men and women that with few exceptions only know how to move data from one file to another.
4
Terrific timely piece. Here's my example: Although the GPS has become a useful tool, I try to use it rarely. I actually like to know where I am and where I'm going and how to get there and back. I value my sense of direction, and don't want to cede it to a gadget, however useful. And when was the last time anyone consulted a map that wasn't electronic?
12
I don't see any value in daily living tasks being harder. If value is proportional to inconvenience then we should go back to gathering our food, trapping animals and living in caves.
It's up to each individual to decide what is valuable to him/her and to devote time and energy to pursue whatever he/she chooses, whether that's watching daytime TV or curing cancer.
And I take issue with that notion that keeping it hard to vote (take time off work, waste gas driving somewhere, stand in line with strangers) has some intrinsic 'civic value'. To me, voting should be as simple as possible (by Internet or mail) because I value the greatest possible participation.
8
With more and more "gadgets" that we own for "convenience" - our lives have become much more complex in purchasing, managing and maintaining these devices. Then, inevitably, such items become outmoded or break down - and have to be replaced. This, in turn, creates a perpetual "need" to dispose of the old and purchase anew.
In the classic French comedy "Mon Oncle" we find this fanatical gadget fixation hilariously ridiculed by Jacques Tati as a "new" status symbol! A sister's family has totally adopted the post-war consumerist lifestyle - and in the process - living an empty sterile existence and alienating their young son!
As highlighted in this excellent article - at some point, we reach a moment of diminishing returns - where our lives have become much more cluttered than really fulfilling. At this juncture we need to "simplify" our lives by returning to the more basic joys of the “real world”.
6
The author ends his piece with "we must never forget the joy of doing something slow and something difficult". That would best describe getting through this piece.
A professor once told me that university work is "elaborate explanations of ideas that are completely obscure'. He must be at Columbia.
7
I pretty much exclusively buy my supplies at my corner convenience stores. I think I was an early adapter of this ethos, since I have been living this way for more than 20 years.
I can testify: convenience is just convenience. It does not free up time for better things, it does not create opportunity.
In fact, I think a better word might be laziness. After many years, that is what I have concluded by indolent craving for convenience amounts to.
3
Mr Wu:
I would suggest that convenience, and our willingness to pay for it over free alternatives, is indicative of just how over-stressful our average urban lifestyle is.
Our choice of convenience is a reflection of our innate desire to quiet a little bit of the insane, extraneous commotion we have created for ourselves as a species at this stage of our evolution. It’ll calm down in 500 years or so.
2
Are you kidding? Have you ever washed clothes by hand? If my grandmother and great-grandmother were alive to read this article, they would think you were out of your mind. But that's because they did strenuous labor every day just to live. They had no choice in the matter.
The point, for us, is to have enough good sense to separate the activities that are simply time-wasting drudgery from tasks you consider meaningful (even if difficult). The beauty is that we can each have our own different list: you enjoy raking the leaves by hand, and I use the leaf blower. Convenience makes it possible for people to have the time and energy to sit around debating whether convenience is a good thing.
13
While you enjoy not wasting your time by raking leaves, I'm sitting over having my time wasted by your blasted leaf blower.
4
I am about to do something I detest, all for the sake of convenience. I will board an airplane with a couple hundred other jostling sneezing unhappy souls to be whisked in a few hours to a place that would take me three or four days to reach by car. I will miss all the places I could see, the unexpected adventures, the conversations with strangers along the way. I will add no memories to my personal store.
I've been to Hawaii many times, but I only have stories from one trip - by small sailboat. And it was darned inconvenient.
10
i think everyone who has a knee jerk reaction to the article and author by defending whatever conveniences they subscribe to is missing the point. As he states so many times, he's not advocating hardship for hardship's sake and not forsaking the washing machine to clean your clothes. It's becoming more homogenous and lifeless by embracing convenience for it's own sake, and getting swallowed up by it in the process. An excellent article. Thank you. In return I'll start by deleting my facebook account, and maybe spend a half hour walking down to the local store to get the object I need rather than spending that half hour scouring amazon prime for it and having the convenience of it arriving 2 days later in a way oversized cardboard box I have to waste more time tearing it down for the recycle bin.
15
I am pushing 50, and fully embrace the technological advances that have come my way. While I write this, my robot vacuum cleaner is quietly removing the cat hair from the house. She, and the washing machine and the fridge/freezer, in particular, have liberated me from the tyranny of domestic chores and allow me to spend time reading the New York Times and other papers (online, which ensures they're timely), and writing (which I do both for a living and as an obsession), taking photographs and making films. Your convenience is my freedom, and with the time that these machines give back to me, I am more myself than ever.
6
It’s ironic that these comments were most likely provided through the convenience of electricity, computers, the internet, mobile devices. How many comments about this article will come through the mail?
And how many of you congratulated yourselves for being so inconvenient! We’re all so delusional. Technology is a prison of our own making and we’ve made it so comfortable that we’ll never leave, even if the prison gates were wide open.
4
The hobby and avocation route is a dead end. As George Orwell wrote in "The Road to Wigan Pier":
The function of the machine is to save work. In a fully mechanized world all the dull drudgery will be done by machinery, leaving us free for more interesting pursuits. So expressed, this sounds splendid. It makes one sick to see half a dozen men sweating their guts out to dig a trench for a water-pipe, when some easily devised machine would scoop the earth out in a couple of minutes. Why not let the machine do the work and the men go and do something else. But presently the question arises, what else are they to do? Supposedly they are set free from 'work' in order that they may do something which is not 'work'. But what is work and what is not work? Is it work to dig, to carpenter, to plant trees, to fell trees, to ride, to fish, to hunt, to feed chickens, to play the piano, to take photographs. . .? All of these things are work to somebody, and all of them are play to somebody. There are in fact very few activities which cannot be classed either as work or play according as you choose to regard them. The labourer set free from digging may want to spend his leisure, or part of it, in playing the piano, while the professional pianist may be only too glad to get out and dig at the potato patch. . . . Mechanize the world as fully as it might be mechanized, and whichever way you turn there will be some machine cutting you off from the chance of working--that is, of living.
3
Many of us -- including poorer people -- go to McDonalds (and other fast food places) not just for price, but for convenience.
As we head home dog-tired, we choose McDonalds to cook, serve and do the dishes. We know it's not the healthiest choice, but it sure is convenient.
How do we resist when so much of the rest of our lives seem so hard? How are we supposed to choose inconvenience?
7
I am skeptical, even of my own opinions. I try to own my mistakes and do better. I write letters to the editor, and I research the content. Sometimes I discover my opinion is unsupported by facts, and I have to let it go. I believe honesty is an activity which requires effort, not just passively avoiding untruth. I notice that I do well with passing acquaintances, coworkers, other people in lines, etc. But I'm not very good at deep, human, relationships. I'm not sure if connecting poorly is a cause or a symptom of of my trying to live mindfully, or if I'm wrong to look for cause and effect connections at all.
4
Loved this article. Wars will now be fought and won by those who or can control the internet. The real power brokers and third political party are social media companies. Oh well, me,I'm going out for a walk.
5
Great insight.
Personal convenience is intoxicating when there are no limits what is available to us.
The downside is the Faustian bargain of having to work ourselves 24-7-365 to keep up with it.
9
I'm amused at commenters here waxing nostalgic about the 'inconvenience' of records. Before Edison, music could only be heard or created live. As a result, a lot more people knew how to sing and play instruments, and music was a special event, a cutting through mundane sounds, instead of being itself a mundane sound. Humanity was not subjected to piped-in music in hotels, shops, restaurants and sports games. The convenience of mechanically reproduced music has led to the exponential increase of noise.
9
This was a beautifully written article. Bravo for putting words to it. That is all.
8
There’s something to be said for this argument but rather than lamenting the fact that younger people don’t vote because of the need to wait in line, there IS a compelling case to be made (Russian interference not withstanding) to make voting in the 21st century easier and more technologically oriented. Let’s face it, technology isn’t going away and if most of our info about politics comes to us online, there’s no reason why online voting shouldn’t be an option to be embraced as well.
2
Thank you for this very thoughtful article! Great insights. Convenience can be beneficial, as you can certainly apply this to so many things we do in life. I think the most important question is - are you conscious of the effects of that particular convenience or know the extent to which it has played a role in your life? I think articles and insights like yours are particularly valuable today, especially for younger generations in cities/suburbs who are frequently immersed in their computers. I thought of this a while back as I saw my four little cousins (age 10-19) who loved ordering out to save them time so they could stay home and spend more time playing with computers. Then, I remember my experience in the countryside in China; growing up, without technology, I befriended many people in the neighborhood and around my school. I played and chatted outside very often. Those were my best years. And I remember in Paris, befriending bartenders, waiters, and owners of a restaurants on my street because I enjoyed these many daily and sweet conversations that went into the night - probably reminiscent of my Chinese childhood memories. But I felt that I had this awareness of technology because of my earlier experiences without technology. I am a bit concerned that without comparisons, technology might be shaping the convenience problem that you pointed out in this article for the younger and future generations more deeply than I (and older generations) experience.
17
Convenience has this problem because we live in a culture that isn't comfortable with leisure. We are task-oriented, if we retire we start new businesses, build houses, volunteer. On a trip to Latin America I noticed the locals enjoy chatting, sitting around, hanging out, and are fully engaged in the moment without the separate umbra of a task. Then convenience achieves the purpose for which it was designed, leisure, liberation, enjoyment, and all the beauty that comes with it.
15
Great article.
I’m always amazed at the egocentrism created by modern technology and conveniences, making “loners” and destroying societal cohesion.
Thanks to technology and convenience - children grow up without benefit of the rituals, and shared experiences that bonded us together.
Parents and children experience life independently, and virtually. Family meals aren’t prepared together, meals are ordered online, and disposable tableware avoids even the need to clean up together.
Families travel in their cars as independent entities who just happen to occupy the same mobile structure, while staring at phones or iPad screens, headphones preventing communication with each other, even if they wanted to communicate.
Parents no longer teach their kids to appreciate or care for their property. Convenience allows us to discard and replace what we used to maintain and treasure.
Google or apps replace mom and dad helping with homework, denying parents the opportunity to share education struggles and accomplishments.
Parents monitor and instantly respond to work related texts, emails, and phone calls 24/7, denying them the opportunities to carefully observe their children to make the small corrections needed as they grow.
Technology and convenience have made loners of far too many - and we claim surprise when isolated and troubled loners with no connection or appreciation or respect for other carry their guns into our schools.
7
Another consequence of convenience is that it has changed our brain chemistry so much so that people never really think too much about what they feel, how they relate to fellow humans and most of all how they communicate. Email has destroyed letter writing which used to be somewhat of an art. When we wrote letters to people (or the New York Times) we really concentrated on what we felt and how best to express it. I am of course in my early seventies so perhaps I can be excused for saying that I used to love looking forward to the mail.
12
This commentary goes nowhere. It touches on the problem of convenience and Amazon, and it mentions having more leisure time for more heady pursuits, but its stops there.
The problem with the former is obvious. The problem with the latter is that we just work harder and consumer more faster. Instead of valuing leisure time and trying to make a better world, we just find more ways to compete and fight and destroy. And we get fat.
4
There is much to approve in this column, although I wonder if Mr. Wu used modern conveniences enroute to his impressive education.
The urban young ARE achingly under skilled and overly technically dependent. But as one ages, and many of us age alone, the need for labor saving devices is greater. A decent measure of autonomy is possible if one uses some technology, especially those powered by electricity. Water and sewage is a necessity in our cities. Communication technology is requisite if we want to stay in touch with our young.
Yes, many ride bikes in flat Northern Europe. But not everyone, especially the older and disabled. I plan to keep my car as long as I can safely drive. It gives me a range of options and experiences that would be impossible to duplicate by any combination of two wheel and public transport.
3
Technology, true, gave the world of people convenience. In so doing, it expanded the market, and, in turn, subjected it and the people in it to conspicuous consumption, which implied emulative behavior, which was proscribed by control and organization. To embrace it was, is, to conform. What stultifying effect conformity possesses is a matter of opinion, generally produced culturally. Social stratification determined who among the mass of people could more intensely embrace convenience, and it excluded some people, rather unfairly. The "tyranny" is not of convenience, but of the people who control technological applications, and continually affirm the social structure which conditions the rate of organization in the market. To bemoan a loss of individuality, so called, might be a hedonistic act which tends to preclude co-operation. That would be a bad thing, anti-natural in that it ignores various over-lapping behaviors which only produce the appearance of various exclusions when in fact they are there as matters of degree. The time that it takes to rid oneself of prejudice as regards individualism is one of "constant self-correction". This apperceptive inclination helps to make people appreciate more fully the effects of convenience creation, and inclines them to share more readily, rather than obsessing about individuality. Involved in action is the cognizance of consequences at the outset, which leads to the fulfillment of the action, or its modification or its annulment.
1
This article is such an amazing bunch of garbage!
Imagine suggesting we should wash our laundry by hand for no other reason that it's inconvenient! Has Mr. Wu considered that hand washing is ever so less effective? Here in Taiwan, virtually everybody hangs their laundry to dry, or takes it to a coin laundry where they do have driers. (But taking it to the coin laundry has its own inconveniences.)
What an amazing flood of words for such a trivial and unimportant matter.
I can assure you I am not being tyrannized.
3
Posting as I do in the New York Times, and answering serious responders (and poking fun at others), has become increasingly inconvenient, yet increasingly important to me. We endanger who we are as Americans when we allow ANY self-satisfied bubble to form within which the monumentally self-assured congratulate themselves that they are among the ideological chosen.
Been thinking of posting on Breitbart, for the same reason -- except that THESE folk typically are armed.
1
Very interesting article!
The other day, I went to Starbucks to order my coffee (a convenience…). I had an 8:30 appointment and the line was long. I watched the barista diligently making drinks as we all waited. Then a few people waltzed in and grabbed their drinks, which they had preordered on an app. Off they went. I made the meeting, by a minute.
This has happened before. In these moments, I've thought about getting the app. But over the years, I have come to know the people who work at the store near my house. I really like going in and seeing Rose and hearing about her young daughter. I have said goodbye to several young people who have gone off to college or trade school or new jobs. My husband went in once and ordered my 'drink.' They said to him, "Are you getting that for Lisa?"
So, no app. for now. I wouldn't want to miss out on these (near daily) encounters with some nice people.
4
I've heard the author’s argument many times in many guises over the years: “People have it too easy today. Back in (my day, or some distant past) people knew the value of hard work and it built character. Today people have it too easy and they’ve become lazy.” That is, all of the improvements up until the recent or medium past were fine, but now they’ve gone too far. I've heard this about car turn signals, dishwashers, electronic calculators, and GPS.
The latest round of tech advances haven't debased social communications. Back in e.g. 1960, social communication was just as banal and homogenized as it is today – anybody remember the dread when hosts would pull out their vacation slides? But now people can keep in contact with vastly more people. And the formats today are no less constrained than the communication formats back in the old days. The results can be heartwarming or toxic, but that’s a different matter.
And struggle? People struggle plenty today. Ask anybody in the lower 40% of the U. S. population about their struggles to make ends meet. Ask the top 10% about their struggles to stay there. And ask them if it builds character. Hobbies and voluntary struggles are fine, but drudgery and struggles to survive confer no special benefit.
3
I agree so much with the premise, I'm not sure I'm scrutinizing the evidence carefully. Nonetheless, I would add that much of the robotics revolution in the workplace is that it's more convenient for management. No training, sick days, insurance, pay raises, complaints... And later, no management. And, in the end, if it's more convenient for the Earth to proceed without humans and the destruction they cause, natural law may say adios to us as well.
3
"Sometimes struggle is a solution. It can be the solution to the question of who you are." So well put. I love this concept, Tim. Great article. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
3
Thank you. This piece has so many great insights -- much appreciated, and dearly felt. Working in the software industry, you can get caught up in the zeal of optimization and efficiency, where everything can be made to work a little better, a little faster. Before you know it, you're trying to make everything in your life more efficient so you can get more done.
But where does that lead us? As Tim said, "When things become easier, we can seek to fill our time with more “easy” tasks. At some point, life’s defining struggle becomes the tyranny of tiny chores and petty decisions."
Time to go home and cook dinner, allowing plenty of time for talking among the family. The incessant stream of easy choices can distract us from thinking about where we are, what we want to be, and the struggles it will take to get there.
5
Beautifully written. In China, where I live, convenience is a substitute for the absence of higher values and aspirations. With Xi Jiping's increasingly paranoid and controlling government, one of the few alleviations from oppression for the ordinary man, is being able to do everything on a mobile phone: paying for bills, buying train tickets, unlocking a city bike and ordering take away. No doubt a degree of convenience and instant gratification are important tools to survive harsh Chinese metropoles and overly bureaucratic systems, but it is worrying when the only progress the people and the government measure their country by is technological. The already scant civil society is in retreat, inequalities are growing and freedom is dwindling, but people do not seem to mind, as long as they can live and easy life.
2
I recently moved to the suburbs. I was amazed to learn that the homeowners in my development PAY people to rake their leaves, mow their lawns, shovel their snow, do their landscaping, etc. I watch them emerge from their garages (using automatic door openers) already in their cars and return eight hours later to be swallowed back up. They are never seen outside. We live in a gorgeous area - I find it unfathomable that people don't want to be out in nature doing chores.
9
We do not have a dish washer, clothes dryer, or air conditioning. We wash our dishes by hand. Hang out our clothes to dry. And cool the house in summer by opening the windows at night, and closing them and the south facing window drapes in the day. We use fans when it's really hot. We heat with wood until that runs out, sometime about now, then use oil for backup. We cook from scratch. We read books, eschew facebook 90 % of the time. I like life before computers more than now. Google search is the exception. Love that. I remember when we were sold on computers as something that would make things easier and give us more free time. Bologna ! All tech has done is require us to do more at work, expand our work day into the night and weekends, and made the to do list 3 times as longer than it was. And, oh yea, stolen our privacy and financial security.
9
Thanks for making us think about how we spend our time. I love my TiVo and CSPAN! That's not convenience, that's making tv watchable. Every morning as I wash my bedclothes because my meds make me sweat at night, I thank goodness for my washer and dryer. I'm glad I don't have to fetch water or gather firewood. Indoor plumbing is my idea of perfect convenience. Even our toilet seat is heated: comfort. I wouldn't enjoy retirement half as much without email. I've lived in 20 states and don't have lifelong friends who live nearby and I don't like the phone. I detest FaceBook but love research and shopping on the Internet. I garden and clean my house for exercise and to make our home our own. I use a broom and dustmop -- if only they'd invent an automatic duster. We get along without a disposer. Thank goodness for composting. I strongly disagree that women (have to) spend more time on housework now than before modern appliances. And while it may take some mental work/ imagination, we can take advantage of convenience and still do some hard, authentic stuff. Thanks for the concept of convenience as a way to thwart spending our time to OUR best advantage..
2
Beautifully articulated, Mr. Wu. I once lived in a cabin on a road inaccessible peninsula on a lake in the Yukon. A sacred place, I loved it deeply, and I still do - not only the splendid beauty of the place, but how it made me and defined who I was in the best possible way, as self-sufficient, living well in a kind of perfection, aware, Orion my beloved companion.
As long as I was faithful to my cabin, getting home from work or other pursuits - by walking, skiing or paddling - before the fire went out, ensuring enough water and firewood, a sauna instead of a shower, it was a most satisfying and rewarding life.
As soon as I strayed - stayed out too long, house-sat in town or, eventually, married - somehow it became inconvenient. I gained hot water, a furnace, a garage and convenience...but I - and my private Eden - lost something much greater.
In my heart, I felt at loose ends, aware daily that the convenience of urban living was hollow at its core in comparison.
And when I eventually sold my cabin, to my eternal dismay the next owners did not understand what they had. They tried to turn it into something else; to make it convenient - the big house, the noisy generator, the off road vehicles, the debris - with truly disastrous results. A profound desecration. They divorced, further dividing the property, he is felled by Alzheimer's, the property almost beyond hope.
All because I opted for convenience and the hollow at my core.
12
An interesting article conveniently brought to my iPad so I could read it before even getting out of bed this morning. I pondered it while walking the dogs. And now I am conveniently reading (and adding to) a discussion about it with many interesting people from all over the world. Oh, the tyranny!
You can call it convenience, but I'd call it progress. And the fact that we can choose between "convenience" and "inconvenience" is the benefit of living in progressive, enlightened times. Sweep on!
5
The "tyranny of convenience," "efficient conformity"? High-end nit-picking! At 75 I live alone, so nobody does my housecleaning, laundry, food shopping, cooking, cat feeding and litter emptying, banking, rent and bill paying, etc. I don't have a car, an iPhone, or God forbid, mess with Facebook,Twitter, etc., which to my personal knowledge appeals to the egotists I used to be friends with (they love to post pictures of themselves). I just use email and the net for sharing information or a break from the routine. So don't try to convince me that there's a problem here. Maybe people who are hopelessly and infinitesimally distracted to social media, to keeping up with the Jones', or who are just plain lazy or spoiled might have something to chew on here, and perhaps do need to be reminded, as Mr. Wu suggests in his last paragraph, that doing chores is good for the soul.
4
This editorial reminds the great Greg Brown Lyric: "...ease into the comfort that kills..."
At it's best convenience frees up time & energy for leisure or other pursuits. At its worst it breeds conformity, ill health, and dependence bordering on enslavement.
Thank you Tim Wu for the stimulating, cautionary reminder.
3
The trouble with all these designs for living is that they come from intellectuals.
Living is what ordinary people do. Most of it, if no other demands surface, consists of sitting around talking or doing the modern equivalent of the hunter/gatherer lifestyle, which comes down to shopping. Work is, at best, an unfortunate intrusion.
Making things easier has one dramatic effect: anything that gets easier gets used more often. Example #1: computers.
Labor-saving appliances let people without servants have homes that look like the ones that have servants, so naturally there's an arms race to make your home look better and better. Betty Friedan saw the symptom, but she may have missed the cause.
Basically people are going to revert to their basic programming, evolved over the past 100,000 years or so. Do the minimum, socialize, jockey for status, put down your rivals. When in doubt, vegetate.
2
Plastics are an impactful convenience unmentioned by Professor Wu. They contaminate sea life from Krill on up the food chain, are found in over 90% of US tap water and as particles in Parisian air and as trash in ocean gyres, kill Albatross and Fulmars, and after a single trip from the super market often end up impaled on a tree limb or unsightfully draped in a local creek. Chemically immortal, we are only beginning to understand their consequences. Fortunately for all, Anglicans have been encouraged by their Church to give them up for Lent!
2
Folks are misunderstanding leisure. It's important to be fed, clothed, and kept plague and infection-free. However, it's supposed to be meaningful to have leisure. You can't worry about who God is, if all one's mind considers during our short lifespan is how to successfully get to heaven, and finally get to a place of ever more leisure! Are we worthy of any more leisure if we squander it now? Or do we accept evolution as a grey muscle short cut to the myriad design renditions of hard thinking-working deity who desperately needed a rest? We have the internet now folks. The whole world's conscious thought is merely finger tips away from ours. We are newly situated to understand much more of life than our bankrupt religions and sciences had available to them a scant few years ago. We should get to work, and quit complaining about first-world pains. Or is true virtuous thought, newly needed thoughts, about why we're here too taxing on our jaded free time?
1
Long ago I saw this in Marshall McLuhan's _Understanding Media_:
Language does for intelligence what the wheel does for the
feet and the body. It enables them to move from thing to
thing with greater ease and speed and ever less involvement.
Instead of distinguishing convenience and inconvenience, maybe we need to distinguish involvement and detachment. This relates to how our choices affect our experience of life. Modern life is full of detachment. It distorts our vision and our behavior. (See the front page of the New York Times for examples!)
2
Professor Wu has been impressing me since he was a law student. The current essay is a bit atypical, unexpectedly leaving his area of expertise — the effect of communication technology on culture and the reciprocal effect of political culture on telecommunications policy — to make a very general point. A valid one, to be sure, but it smacks of the classic essay that seeks to be balanced if commonplace. Lamb and Hazlitt hit Op-Ed.
At the beginning I thought he might head off to Veblen's Leisureland, still most valid in its famous "conspicuous consumption" and "keeping up with the Jones'". Veblen also came up with "learned disability", right at the heart of making everything too daunting by making everything too easy.
Still, Professor Wu never disappoints.
3
Amen, amen, AMEN. I'm 59 and happily married but childless by choice. I don't shop online, I've never been on Facebook or Twitter, and I maintain my relationships via one-on-one contact, be it phone, text, or hand-written holiday cards. I marvel at the extent to which our culture has been overtaken by lemming-like behavior with all this junk described in the piece. Sad! People are robbing themselves of their humanity and the human experience - we're rapidly approaching the dystopia predicted by so many science fiction writers of the 20th century. But I'm not. I invite anyone to join a movement away from this kind of slavery. We're all in control of our own destiny, at least in this regard.
1
Once humans figured out the principles of the lever, screw, gears, inclined plane, wheel and axle, block and tackle, there was no going back.
3
This sheds light on the best kept secret of the 21st century: living more slowly and deliberately makes a person happier and healthier. Personal screens and high speed convenience cause surface glee and inner turmoil. Mental health data is very clear about this.
But the big $ folks have brainwashed so many that this article will no doubt be met with accusations of "privilege". This is the big lie. If someone accuses you of privilege for slowing down, walk away and go tend your plants of fix a doorknob, preferably in silence.
8
Tech-enabled conveniences such as "on-demand"/instant gratification services increase economic and societal inequality.
Uber, food delivery, e-commerce, Amazon etc are predicated on low wage workers doing crap jobs - so people with more money don't need to bother to do the work themselves and don't need to bother to think about who gets stuck doing the work.
In cities like SF and NYC, affluent millennials are heavily reliant on such conveniences.
Tech-enabled conveniences essentially enables the new serf society.
4
The dominance of convenience in technology was originally analyzed and criticized by Albert Borgmann in his 1984 book "Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life." His careful distinction between the technological paradigm of devices that hide their workings while delivering a commodity, in contrast to focal things and practices that engage our lives in meaningful activities, complements and deepens Professor Wu's argument.
2
Brilliant piece! It helps if "Efficiency" is defined more broadly as the ratio of: Outcomes Which Are Valued TO Resources Which Are Scarce. Outcomes can include the destination and the journey; Resources can include time and money, and spiritual, mental and physical constraints.
1
That's an interesting definition of efficiency, I like it. Did you create that or does that come from something?
When my daughter was young, I was berated by some for my choice to not have a t.v. in the house because I was supposedly depriving her of a valuable cultural amenity. We spent a lot of time playing, creating, reading, walking. I believe she was and is a lot healthier because of that choice. She clearly has not suffered from my choice to spend the time and energy with her rather than giving the entertainment job to an electronic device. I was a single mom, so it's not like I was a stay-at-home, I just made the effort.
But time is growing more and more limited for many of us, and with that, our energy is sapped to the point of exhaustion. Instead of giving us the expected leisure-time that should have come as a result of labor-saving devices, corporate America grows ever more greedy, demanding more and more of us. We are like robots, not human beings. We work longer hours than ever in the interest of ever-increasing corporate profit, and then are too exhausted to even make healthy choices.
So many of us eat out night after night because, yes, it's more convenient than cooking, but also because we're plain tired. I might be tempted to eat out continually too, but it's expensive so I put in the time and energy to cook every night. I'm glad I do, because my family's a lot healthier, but in the interest of our health and well-being, we as a nation need to reclaim our right to exist as human beings; we are not fodder for the corporate machine. The land of the free???
5
I'm pushing 70 also. I remember using clotheslines for drying in the sun and walking to and from the store for groceries and supplies. We kids spent a lot of time outdoors on our bikes and Saturday morning was "cleaning day" at our house where my sisters and I (alas, not our brothers) cleaned house, changed bedding, did laundry, etc. Today I clean my wool sweaters by hand and shop at second hand stores which causes me to wait for something I have in mind to buy and gives me enough time to decide whether I really want/need it in the first place. I read paper books. Mind you, I still do use online stores sometimes and drive a car often.
One benefit of "inconvenience" is opportunity. Have you noticed how your mind and heart open up when doing something that others might call labor?
4
mr. wu argues that convenience is tied inextricably to monopoly. i think that is the case only in situations where the context lends itself to natural monopoly. even in technology, this is not always the case--look at the recent move to speakers with voice assistants--i can see google home, apple homepod and amazon alexa being viable together--perhaps often in the same homes.
he also ties convenience into multi-tasking--but i am not sure i see the link there--is the argument that everything is becoming so automated that we will sit there and merely orchaestrate the work being done for us?
A good impulse; however, it's possible that this author is looking at the problem through the wrong end of the telescope. The drive for convenience is basic to all human psychology, which means that it's useless to study it in isolation. It's the wrestling with INCONVENIENCE which procures convenience. Thus, the better research is done on inconvenience. Also, the issue is not the tool itself, but the purpose to which it's put. Efficiency requires that we move masses of people upstairs on an escalator; human health requires that we occasionally drop out of life and take the staircase.
2
I wouldn’t equate convenience with efficiency or claim that increasing the number of choices one has is an unalloyed good.
What you call the tyranny of convenience I would call the tyranny of choice.
Sure, online access to information is a great convenience, but instant access to streamed media, for example, presents us with quasi-infinite choices at every moment of the day. This can cause not only confusion and more complication, because one has to evaluate the choices, but also constant distraction. Distraction may be welcome when you are engaged in some less efficient activity, like waiting in line for a service or physically transporting yourself from place to place. The rest of the time, to make wise choices based on your priorities and resources, you have to exercise a lot of discipline, something most of us don’t have in abundance. Convenience also trains people to expect instant gratification and tends to make them less patient. As most of us don’t live or work in isolation, patience is required and should be cultivated.
1
I remember feeling quite vacant and very uncomfortable after ordering something from an pilot (no minimum, no membership fee, no delivery charge) instant delivery service and having it arrive at my door within a couple of hours. I think it was a package of nail files. I knew then I needed to move out of San Francisco - and I did - to place that would encourage me to live my life in a more real way - just across the Golden Gate Bridge ;). I remain conscious of my convenience choices and the impact they have one me: ordering from Good Eggs (a local local organic delivery service) instead of going to the Farmers Market in a rush after my regular weekend morning workout. I like that i have a lot more free time and don't have to rush around but I don't feel the same kind of amour toward my frisee lettuce as I do when I talk to the vendor in the sunshine amidst so many others in community, and thrilled there are still a couple waiting for me to eat later, when I will saver them and the memory of my adventure of finding them, communing with their vendor, and taking them home.
3
Remarkable that speaking of convenience and it`s impacts, our choice of the automobile over mass transit and walking and the subsequent climate crisis is avoided. Reminding me of so many of my fellow leftists, those who use jet travel to enjoy eco-tourism or attend climate conferences.
4
My ex-wife's motto is "Give me convenience or give me death." The whole world had to stop in its tracks when she wanted anything.
My mother had an older brother who died before she was born. How did he die? He was scalded when the pot for water to wash clothes tipped over, splashing him with gallons of boiling water.
He was two. This was in 1944.
My grandparents' farm that didn't have indoor plumbing or electricity and thus my grandmother had to wash clothes the "inconvenient" way: boiling water over a coal-fed stove.
Learning actual physical skills is important, which may be one of the reasons behind the rise of crafting: quilting, knitting, woodworking, etc. But people too easily forget that the rise of machines to help women in the household was not merely for convenience. It was dangerous to cook over an open flame or boil water for cleaning clothes. People died doing chores which we just consider boring and unfulfilling now. Thank goodness for progress!
9
I do wish that people would stop bashing Amazon as a blight on individuality and a vaguely sinister influence on commerce in its role as a purveyor of convenience. I live in Ghana now. With broadband internet, I can now download from Amazon books, movies, and TV shows directly to my KIndle. I can also read the Washington Post, the New York Times, Ghana's Daily Graphic, and the New Orleans Times-Picayune. This is incredibly convenient. When I lived in Ghana in the 1970s, we had to wait for the international editions of Time and Newsweek to arrive by mail, weeks after their publication dates.
When I was a child, in rural Illinois 35 miles (it may just as well have been 35,000 miles) from Chicago, the Sears Roebuck catalog was our family's only source of everything, from washing machines to garden tillers, vegetable canning kettles, our yearly school book bags, our twice a year new shoes, and all our Christmas presents. We pored over the Christmas edition of the Sears catalog, dog-earing the pages that contained our hearts' desires. Whatever clothing my mother could not sew, came from the Sears catalog. So to me, Amazon is just an on-line version of the old Sears Roebuck catalog. Sears delivered our twice yearly packages to our doorstep, same as Amazon does. Where but Sears, or now Amazon, could we get kids' socks, a new sump pump, orthotic clogs, cat food and litter, and twinkle lights for the Christmas tree? In the bush, this is not just "convenient." This is necessity.
5
Perfection!
Some of the newest 'conveniences' are basically scams fueled by good marketing. What is more convenient about going to the app store, downloading (for example) Uber or Lyft, setting up an account, and then opening and using the app instead of just speed-dialing (or - where possible - just flagging down) a cab? Not everything is better just because "there's an app for that."
3
It must be nice to be able to afford a traditional cab's expensive fare whenever you need to go somewhere like the doctors, grocery stores, etc. Oh, this is especially useful if you don't/can't drive for any reason.
Sometimes it IS about the money--and thank goodness for time and pocketbook friendly apps.
Hundreds of thousands of years ago the cultures of the time depended on skilled artisans to keep fires going over distances. When a group moved from A to B, this artisan would carry a structure with an ember glowing inside. He knew enough, and had enough skill, to keep that ember alive. Then some genius discovered how to use flint, which meant that fires could be started as desired. All the skills needed to transport fire died. I suppose Wu would say there were two sides to that as well.
2
I’ve learned to take my ease despite
The fear of corrupt appetite.
Hard work a virtue still may be,
But blisters seem a vice to me.
Convenience makes me soft and weak
But naptime is a joy unique.
2
Convenience is defined as "the state of being able to proceed with something with little or no difficulty." Ergo, convenience can have no moral quality ascribed to it. It is what is accomplished by convenience that can add or subtract value or confer morality. We should rather look to the verb and not the noun. It is convenient to kill with a gun,fly across the Atlantic when vacation time is short. Most would find it inconvenient to use an outhouse or an ice box. In the end it is what we accomplish with the convenience that confers value to to the tool. Increasing the number of conveniences in a society puts more tools in our toolbox. It confers more choices. It has alway been up to homo sapiens to choose wisely.
1
Some communities (mine) consider clotheslines a threat to property values and forbid them. We were made aware of this AFTER we moved in when a neighbor informed us that, "Nobody wants to look at anybody else's drawers." We have been forced to resort to "outdoor fresh" dryer sheets. Oh the irony!
4
With regard to housework, 'convenience' has not only changed the emphasis from journey to destination, it's also raised the bar on the destination. My grandmothers were both much more diligent housekeepers than either me or my mother, but their homes, which were enviably meticulous by the standards of their time and place, would be considered filthy by today's standards. Not only because more cleaning formulae and devices are available to later generations, but because the culture promotes an almost antiseptic level of cleanliness. Part of this is advertising, whose goal is to convince you that no matter how clean your home, how white your teeth or slim your waist or stylish your car, you fall short of a level of perfection - which, of course, they will sell you something to attain. 'Convenience levels the mountain, only for the sake of piling up a higher one and pointing you toward it with pick and pitons. Sisyphus would understand.
4
Thank you for bringing this to more of our focus, to our "attention."
It is indeed more convenient to avoid critical thinking about our needs or our society.
Yet our brain is like every other part of our body: "Use it, or Lose it."
1
Comfort and convenience can be prisons.
1
Just wanted to add - I'm guilty. I live in one.
This column about convenience is he epitome of a a "first world" problem. I recall once watching a woman in Africa walk down to the river to fill a large earthen pot with water. Then she carried the heavy container back to her village on her shoulder. I'm sure she would have appreciated the convenience of modern plumbing.
6
So you're going to brew your own coffee from now on, right?
5
walking the dog
Can we say rich people's problems?
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We can say it, but it won't be accurate. It's a cultural problem. If anything, screen-based "convenience" afflicts the poor more strongly.
11
Absolutely a rich (mostly white) persons problem.
Review at all these wistful tales of chopping wood, canning fruit, biking to
work...
Somewhere there is usually a back story of a trust fund, or other deeply burrowed form of financial security....but, never mind...
So nice to look down on those poor misguided unfortunates who have to use thermostats, or cell phones to arrange for child care while juggling three jobs.
Ask a single mother in the outer boroughs with the hour and a half commute on public transportation if she would like the convenience of a car to drive to work.
Actually, better not. It would so disrupt the narrative...
232
Maloyo... it's not just rich peoples' problems... it's normies problems. These people aren't disabled or disordered. This article just insults and trivialize the hardships of poor people and people with disabilities/disorders.
1
America has been at the forefront of homogenizing human experience since the invention of sliced bread and the assembly line. Now we begin to see the unintended consequence of living your life on automatic pilot with a character in the Oval Office who can't be bothered to read anything or do anything beyond watch TV; who can barely bestir himself to utter sweet nothings when children are being massacred in their schools. Great column, if only boiled down, put into pill form, and thereby reach the masses.
2
Reading articles about the tyranny of convenience.
1
A good companion article from NYT
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/12/22/upshot/what-2000-calories...
The band the Dead Kennedys predicted this insanity years ago.
Listen to the full album
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cKcwwEZ9Kw
1
Haven't had time to read this in full. Perhaps the author can provide a convenient synopsis?
5
“As Evan Williams, a co-founder of Twitter, recently put it, “Convenience decides everything.” Convenience seems to make our decisions for us, trumping what we like to imagine are our true preferences.”
This is a damning observation, coming from the co-founder of a social media platform that enables foreign provocateurs to disrupt our national political conversation and that gives a giant megaphone to a divisive leader. Goebbels would have loved that megaphone. Convenience is a tyrant. Beware.
1
So silly. Hard to know where to begin. Tim, go back and start chewing your meat raw. Fire is a convenience you know. Of course over time (lots of it) your ilk will revert to something pre homo sapien as your brains shrink. But it appears yours already has, even with the convenience of cooked food.
3
When I mention that I iron sheets after hanging them on a balcony to dry, and pillow-cases, other items, I get incredulous looks and comments. I did once enjoy very much the making of bread, the pushing and pounding was a great way I thought to get out any frustrations. And yes, cleaning house not a chore, rather a way to move and make order out of chaos. In the yard or garden, the same goes for what my mother would say when women in town would ask why she didn't hire a "yardman" as the term was used in those days. This is my therapy, she'd respond. Cooking affords the same pleasures: chopping stirring, taking the time to do things in a slow and patient way soothes the troubled beast. Yes to Anne-Marie's comments: why in the hell are we headed for driver-less cars? Why not trains? A smart engineering student responded but it would be safe? But alone, I asked? You could have someone sit w/you. Nope, not the point. We need in the country mass transit on the order of other countries, from European countries to others, i.e., Japan, etc. When I stayed in Budapest one summer, I could walk from my pension to the bus, which would take me to the subway which would take me to the train station, which would take me, depending on whether heading south to Szeged, or north to Prague, to those places. There are people on the trains. You can ignore or you can chat. We miss a lot with our fascination with both speed and so-called efficiency.
3
A far more strking trend is the rise of inconvenience -- busiesses (especially large corporations) shifting costs to the customer by requiring the customer to do (or pay a separate fee for) X, Y, Z that was or should be part of the product or service being purchased. It's a hot topic in health care but is present and growing in every sector of the economy. One sure tip off: when you are told that "for your convenience" ****, you are about to get hit with a cost which should be on the seller.
6
Sometimes things appear to be convenient but in fact serve only one of the various purposes of whatever they purport to replace. I recently started driving. Other than for the specific commute for which I got the car, I do not find it more convenient than walking. It saves time from the specific task of getting from point A to point B but it gives me no exercise, fresh air, time to think about anything or nothing. I have to take SEPARATE time if I want to do those things, or suffer the consequences if I don't. When walking I need not stay on the road, I can cut through open spaces. I can read a magazine.
On a practical level, driving requires parking, which I find damn inconvenient after being accustomed to arriving at my destination and simply walking in. For going anywhere within a mile or so, I don't even find driving to save much time, esp if I have little stops along the way. Because I live in a small town, nearly everything is in walking distance and I can get 3-4 errands done by walk in less time than it would take to drive all those places, navigating one-way streets, waiting to turn signal and finding places to park.
Recently I drove to the library. When leaving the library it was so pleasant that I simply walked home. "Just because I drove here, do I *have* to drive back?" I thought. Am I some kind of babysitter to that car, taking it wherever I go?
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Excellent points! I recently moved to southwestern North Carolina, and had a hard time dealing with the fact that though I had a huge shopping center a little less than three quarters of a mile across the road, there is, and was no reasonable way to get to it, unless I use my car!
1
"convenience — that is, more efficient and easier ways of doing personal tasks — has emerged as perhaps the most powerful force shaping our individual lives and our economies." Really, the most powerful force? I am doubtful. If all people cared about was convenience, everyone would live in the suburbs and eat mostly fast food, nobody would be moving back into Brooklyn brownstones for high rents, long subway commutes and high end organic restaurants. Because it turns out people actually want quality, not just convenience. If anything the 1980s were the height of cheap convenient crap, and all of that seems trite and empty now; society has moved decidedly away from it. In fact the parts of the economy that are growing the most are arguably high value services that give people the kind of unique personalized experience theyre missing in the mainstream capitalist junk stream America cant stop drowning in.
1
I like cauliflower rice and buy the cauliflower and process it myself. I get told that I'm so cheap (frugal?) or stingy (thrifty?). But the real reason I do it is to entertain my Sheltie, who loves to bark at any noisy appliance. That is priceless!
2
One of the scariest areas where convenience triumphs is in the electronic medical record (EMR). It was supposed to make care bettter safer and quicker. It has done the opposite. We have sacrificed quality and clarity for physician, provider, and biller's convenience most notably in the use of Copy/Paste function that has turned the document into reams and reams of unreadle gobblygook. Used to be we couldn't read it. Now we can but cant find anything inportant there.
6
At least we still have our mortality to give life some meaning. What happens when genetic engineering produces perfect humans who never get sick or grow old?
2
In these let's-reconsider-the-desocializing-effects-of-convenience pieces, somehow nobody ever seems to mention the little elephant in the room, that convenience may be important to Americans because on average they work longer hours than anyone else in the industrialized world, e.g., http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=93364
Ya think?
4
I was on youtube and ther was a video of old photos from the 60's - 80's with the theme "Your parents were WAY cooler than you".
Guys shirtless posing by their muscle cars, riding uni-cycles, early skateboarders (both male and female) women with mid rifts showing and bell bottoms, etc.
Many comments said "These people look amazingly healthy, muscled, skinny, happy, interested, active, etc. - what happened?!!!"
One word - convenience (as in staring at the phone).
1
Ah, the tyranny of inconvenience of voting that allowed the plug-and-played voter to elect a convenient con to fulfill their wishes. The lesson is the cost of inconvenient voting perpetrated by the GOP is tyranny like we have in government leadership positions.
Ah, the convenience of squeezing every living productive hour to enrich those at the top while conveniently scooting around in golf carts. The utopia belongs to the 1% - while the rest of us pay for it. Indeed the Republicans have made it so convenient to transfer what little wealth we have to the 1% as the rest of us are called an inconvenient expense.
Ah, the convenience of acquiring huge arsenals of weapons by mentally sane but ANGRY and Extremist people.
4
This article is about a fascinating subject, but is poorly written. It's too theoretical. (I see the writer is a lawyer.) It should be packed with examples of times when we go overboard for convenience. "Shortcuts" for Microsoft Word? Really? Is one mouse-click now too much?
Was e-mail really too inconvenient? So we had to resort to "texting"? Ugh. Is making your own coffee really too much trouble? Your own lunch? I pass my neighborhood McDonalds and wonder why people sit in line in their cars for 20 minutes rather then walk inside and be out in five? What are they doing while they sit in their cars and burn gas and time? Multi-tasking? Ugh.
I book music lessons at a music store as a part-time job. A family will enroll one kid for piano lessons Tuesday at 4:00. A month later, they want to enroll their second kid for guitar lessons, but UNLESS THAT LESSON IS ALSO TUESDAY AT 4:00 they won't do it. Heaven help them if the'd have to drive to the music store twice. They'd rather deprive the second kid of music lessons altogether.
Ugh. But I'd like to hear more comments about this article from people, listing examples of when convenience seems to trump everything else. And I'm grateful to Tim Wu for broaching this subject. I just with the article itself was better.
1
It's easy to delete your Facebook.
2
tl;dr
:)
But seriously, I would say smoking is incredibly inconvenient. And yet...
2
I would love to read your entire column...but I am distracted by my devices and choices.
I could not agree with your premise more. Convenience is the "brother from another mother" of distraction....twin fraudsters stealing our minds and peace.
1
Someone should show this article to Microsoft. They are abandoning the best operating system they ever made, Windows 7, in favor of a dumbed down piece of junk app called Windows 10, which removes most of the user's choices just so that milennials can have their computers feel just like their phones. Great decision, Microsoft.
Brilliant article, thank you Mr. Wu. The numbness, the dulling of enchantment that arises because of convenience will be what ultimately destroys humanity and may well lead it into its cyborg future.
3
If Dr. Wu is concerned that his life is too convenient, a good solution might be to quit his cushy Ivy League professorship and get a job as a sanitation worker or with a maid service. That should take care of a lot of his problems with convenience and he would have a more credible platform from which to criticize the rest of us.
4
I fail to see how Prof Wu's article was a criticism. I thought it was social commentary, and useful at that.
2
Convenience, in the end, may do us in. Amazon is killing all kinds of small businesses, ruining lives, and compelling us to shop while sitting. Clothes are cheaper, both literally and figuratively, so much so that it no longer pays to make your own clothes, so fabric stores are now practically non-existent. Trader Joe's is cheap and easy, so why grow your own food-what is the point? Not only are we losing options for how we consume, we are losing skills that were once known by everyone. We are raising lazy people who have no practical knowledge. If disaster strikes how will unskilled people survive?
I say, hang convenience, bring back handmade clothes, homegrown food, composting, bread baking, carpentry, etc., if for no other reason than as a hedge against disaster. If disaster were to strike right now the only people to survive would be the Amish and farmers.
5
What a thoughful article. Let’s bring back the one “inconvenience” we’ve sadly erradicated in suburbia — walking. It is so human to walk around your heighborhood, have chance encounters, build social networks face to face, and not over corporate platforms. Biking does the same. So let’s rebuild our sidewalks and set up bike lanes. Take a stroll or a bike ride today!
2
Lets start with voting. Voters could get a mail-in ballot and STILL only half of the eligible to vote do so. So much for convenience. People can drive down to the local store and buy most of what they want and still they persit on using the net and "browsing for hours" to get what they could conveniently get at Target or sears or Monkey Wards but they are CONVINCED they can get a better product ONLINE.
Mr Wu, this is nothing new. Vance Packard wrote a book in the 1960's titled
A NATION OF SHEEP.
Has little to do with convenience, has a lot to do with something that makes people FOLLOW the likes of Trump, Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Putin, and a lot of other people. Read Stanley Milgram's
OBEDIENCE TO AUTHORITY.
There is something at work in humans, and maybe other animal species as well, but IT IS NOT CONVENIENCE.
HOORAY! YES! And every other loud affirmative conceivable.
I have lived my life with intentional inconvenience, for 40 years; for all the reasons here, and many more. My guess, Dr Wu, is that you are aware of my "other reasons" and intentionally did not mention them to avoid overload in this essay. Good idea.
I am infamous for living without a refrigerator- in 2009 my disciples and antagonists got into the NYT on that one - and that story was then picked up by Scientific American, Consumer Reports, and Tree Hugger. https://tinyurl.com/bfg99o
The overwheming response was "you're insane". Never mind that many people report doing without a fridge actually simplified their lives - once they adapted.
Convenience is a hugely important subject; arguably our worship of it is one of the most destructive things we do; but the discussion is long, and barriers to hearing the arguments are very high and automatic.
One you point out, that convenience robs us of all skills except multitasking - sounds humorous, but is deadly dangerous. These days I have enthusiastic young people come to my farm to learn whatever it is I'm trying to teach.
Highly intelligent, well educated, Willing to work. From urban backgrounds, these days. And with NO skills whatsoever. None. In any world where full urban convenience is interrupted 2 weeks; they will not survive. Literally.
My original no fridge post is here: https://tinyurl.com/yw4qvr It's short; but follow comments, etc-
44
I hear you, but keep in mind that people optimize themselves for the environment they are in. It's basically just an evolutionary process - survival of the fittest. Most people in the US are in an urban environment, where fixing farm implements or taking lots of time to do what can take much less time is not highly adaptive, and is thus not highly "successful" in a financial/career sense.
Then why not live without electric light, with only herbal medication, no printed books, no NYT, no imported foods, transportation on you two legs only, etc. people lived like this for tens of thousand of years and proliferated, as our presence in this world proved, but all things considered, it was hardly a good life.
too much "convenience" is one thing, but I did spend much of my life without a refrigerator or a washing machine, and I wasted a lot of time on basic survival, such as advocated in your blog.
Well, someone has to do it so others are not tempted to try.
I hope the author, Tom Wu, will read this congratulatory comment on his great article of a brilliantly identified issue. For years I have realized that the value of things I own or have done is strictly proportional to the amount of effort and time I expended in achieving them. Compare hand making and finishing a piece of furniture to ordering a reasonably nice version on the internet. You may allow guests to put their feet on one of them but not the other. Which one would you definitely carry with you every time you move? The personal satisfaction of creating something reinforces the good feeling of your competence, while getting one without effort deflates your worthiness balloon. A side benefit is the physical and/or mental exercise that have an enormous health value.
Of course, alternatively, the value to you would also increase if you have to spend six months in a second arduous job, or work many hours of overtime, to earn the money to buy something that is ready-made.
1
My mother (90) and I have correspond. 2 or 3 hand written letters a month. She lives an hour away. We both have phones. But we write letters in cursive. This changes the communication - and the mind. We think differently in cursive. It takes time. It is not convenient, but worthy of saving in ribboned bundles. We write who we are; we are who writes. Where are the men and women of letters? This is the polar opposite of the convenience of a tweet.
Last night I disassembled a Bernina 1260 sewing machine, a 20 year old top-of-the-line model worth hundreds (if working). I poked, and looked and prodded until I found the problem. Fixed. Saved from the landfill. And I felt like a magician, a wizard, a veritable god! I've never repaired a sewing machine before, but I have swapped out defective components in laptop computers. Who does such things, writes in cursive, repairs modern electronics, washes the floor on hands and knees?
Some have talked about identity through enmity. We are based on who our enemies are. We are that which we struggle against. Think Robert Redford's character in 'Jeremiah Johnson'. I struggle against winter. One of my self images is that I am that guy standing on top of an eight foot high pile of pole wood with a running chainsaw - grinning. (The 8 foot two-man hand saw hangs in a place of honor on the wall.) Am I not a (small) god?- a god of the inconvenient. Some day it will kill me, but I will have lived and become all I have overcome.
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I collect and clean antique typewriters as a hobby. Why? Well, I don't need 'em--got a computer. And I use them primarily to decorate--a lot of them were designed to accent the home starting in the 1920s. But it's fun on some level to bring them back to near-working order. And they look terrific. :)
3
Thanks S. Very much enjoyed your comment.
Made me think of the letters my girlfriend and I wrote to each other over the four years we spent in a long distance relationship when she went away to university.
those letters wait in a suitcase for our retirement when we will open a bottle of wine and read them again. When I tell young people about this they exclaim how romantic and sweet that is, recognizing that it is something they miss out on.
1
Evan Williams may have said convenience decides everything just recently, but I have been saying this to my circle of friends that one must look at one's convenience in everything they do. A simple example would be towards buying a car. Why would I want something all fancy if it requires all sorts of maintenance and I must pay a truck load of money for it. I would rather go and get a Corolla for which one only needs to put gas in it and it keeps on going.
Evan Williams is right. Convenience decides EVERYTHING. At least in my life it is doing so.
I take advantage of every convenience that streamlines the drudgery repetative fairly joyless parts of my life (buying cat food, toilet paper, socks, shoes and office supplies on line and shipped to my door) so that I can actually have time for the non-convenient, time-consuming but joyful activities like playing with my cats, spending time with my family, sewing custom clothing, restoring vintage furniture and digging in the garden.
"Minimize your therbligs until it becomes automatic; this doubles your effective lifetime - and thereby gives time to enjoy butterflies and kittens and rainbows." R.A.Heinlein
2
A depressing thought came to me as I finished this article. My teenage son's main hobby? Video games. Yep, a manufactured 'struggle'. Sigh.
2
A fine, thought provoking essay. It is inconvenient to read comments posted by readers, but, as a retiree, I often take the time to do so. How refreshing and informative to read the comments posted with this piece and those responding to the equally well done piece on the land grant colleges. What a contrast with the closed-minded, often hate-filled, commentary often filed in response to article or columns on today's odious political scene.
I sure wish that more publications, including the Times, required commenters to reveal their real identity rather than some nom de plume. The best editing tool is having to expose who you are along with what you think.
1
as long as the convenience is not brought (or bought) on the backs of third world workers who are not being compensated in the way that they should.
Thank you Mr. Wu for explaining the most underestimated force in the US today, socially (think of Tinder swiping vs actually texting or my god, calling) and the corrolorary result that we become all outcome obsessed.
In 20 years of reading the NY Times, no one has more articulately explained the biggest, quietest and most important trend in societal behavior and its potential ramifications. Tyrannical indeed...I'm just glad I could write this from the comfort of my lazyboy, multitasking over the morning news, Amazon shopping and eating breakfast. God help me if I had to actually work to read your brilliant column!
2
Wu: '... technologies of music distribution like Napster made it possible to get music online at no cost, and lots of people availed themselves of the option. But though it remains easy to get music free, no one really does it anymore. Why? Because the introduction of the iTunes store in 2003 made buying music even more convenient than illegally downloading it. Convenient beat out free.'
That argument is fallacious. Wu concedes that Napster downloads were illegal, yet he concludes that convenience is what led to the success of iTunes. Wu ignores the lawsuits, some of which targeted individual downloaders. Wu also conflates "free" music with "illegal" downloading.
2
I am concerned that our military is so used to eating MRE’s or food prepared and served in a contractor’s food court, that they will not be able to prepare food for themselves. Picture a platoon of men (around 40), marching through cow pastures and past barnyards full of animals and grain — and starving. Even if they decided to eat a cow, pig, etc., is there an army field kitchen or butcher’s tools, or are they just going to throw strips of meat and wads of grainy dough onto hot coals?
Just this morning I was thinking of how the "convenience" of plastic and disposable, throwaway stuff is ruining our environment and therefore our lives.
2
This is an excellent and through provoking article. Having variously moved between three different societies (USA, Australia and Europe) – I’ve always been struck by the extent of “convenience” in America. Every time I visit, there are a whole variety of lovely new gadgets, concepts and processes that fit into the authors notion of convenience. While many or most penetrate other societies with time, many could only originate in the US. For example, where else but the USA would Facebook have become the phenomenon that it is? However, if the premise is correct (that convenience is a tyranny), then are Americans more susceptible to its negative impact than other societies that do not embrace convenience as quickly or as extensively?
I've begun to wonder what everyone is doing with all of their newfound time. No one has to go out into their community anymore to purchase groceries or goods b/c Amazon can have anything to you within 24 hours. What I observe in my post-War suburban affluent neighborhood is that my neighbors are tearing down their perfectly sizable Colonial style homes in favor of McMansions that straddle their property lines. They've done away with their yards because they no longer go outside. They sit inside their massive new houses while white delivery van after white delivery van delivers more Amazon boxes, presumably filled with more convenient product. This results in neighbors not knowing one another, families not going into their communities, people becoming more distant. I wonder, to what end with all of this? We are going to die among our many Amazon Prime purchases, having lost the art of conversation, blinking wide eyed into our phone screens, hitting the like button and forgetting that the whole point of being a person is to connect with other people in real and meaningful ways. Stuff doesn't love us back, no matter how convenient it was to procure it.
4
My life is so convenient that I have to try hard to build in the kind of "struggle" that will benefit my mental and physical health: hence the manual lawn-mower. At the same time, I remember my working mother's exhaustion, with no dishwasher, washing machine, computer, disposable diapers, microwave, phone, or car. Her mother cooked with a wood fire and believed the gas stove was god's gift to women. Those who perform the labor usually crave the convenience.
3
This part struck me:
"Yet Facebook seems to make us all the same. Its format and conventions strip us of all but the most superficial expressions of individuality, such as which particular photo of a beach or mountain range we select as our background image."
During the industrial revolution, the thousands of factory workers all seemed the same. During the Middle Ages, the peasants and serfs all seemed the same. And so on, throughout history, the large majority of people had no time for expressions of individuality. Travel and education were limited to the elite. And now, we live in a country and world where unimagined experiences are available to all.
Have a mountain picture in your background? 300 million visitors enter national parks each year. 67 million Americans traveled abroad in 2016.
Maybe it's not individualized to visit a beach or a mountain because now they are accessible to all!
4
I miss the days when I had the telephone numbers of dozens of friends memorized. No need for having them in my brain now that they're all filed away in my electronic devices.
You could say that that was a waste of brain space, but in some simple way, I felt smarter.
I still do many inconvenient things. I use the library and return books in person by their due date. I stop for groceries daily for fresh vegetables and fruit. I make cookies from scratch for my book group. I am a hospice volunteer. I pass on copies of the New Yorkers I've finished to a friend who lives a few blocks away, and I go there on foot.
2
All part of a social contract that is deteriorating, lack of leadership and poor examples at the top of the belief that we are all in this together. Sad.
Very thoughtful piece. Thoughtfulness - how inconvenient - do you mean I have to think about this? I remember as a child, mom buying our first electric can opener, and thinking, why? How silly, what waste - even as a kid. Removing "toil" became part of the status badge. My wife and I founded and ran a large bakery - making everything form scratch, with all real (good) ingredients - all butter, fresh eggs - and it all tasted so good. But our industry - like our society was - and is - all about convenience and cheap - so 99% of bakeries open up 100 pound bags of cake mix, add water, and voila. No inconvenience of buying all those delicious ingredients, or having to train people well or inspiring them to care about their "craft". Convenience lead to "disposable" - our "disposable" world - 200 billion chopsticks every year, thrown in the garbage after one meal. This is 50 million 20 year old trees cut down for chop sticks, ever single year. They sequestered 2.5 million tons of CO2, every year, then chop sticks and trash. This in insane. Every restaurant that serves food with chop sticks has real chop sticks. Straws - 500 million plastic straws every day, just in America, into the "garbage", into the oceans. Like so much in life, it's about nuance. Sometimes convenience and comfort are perfectly fine. Normally, it's just thoughtless waste. Are we too lazy to think about making conscious choices vs thoughtless waste? Time's running out.
4
Simple human laziness is, and has always been, the driving force behind technological discoveries and innovations. People want to move faster, be able to experience more within any given time, and expend less muscular energy.
All the environmental and psycho-social consequences of this drive are secondary.
Love this article. The point is not in the various degrees of our lucky but spoiled ways of living as adjuncts to the world marketplace, but that humans living this way lose their innate abilities developed over eons, their tolerance for struggle and their stamina in pursuing long-term goals. Why would we cede our sense of direction to a robot GPS? Why cede our ability to react in real time and make decisions to a driverless car? Driving is the experience, the use of skills, not an inconvenience. Granted conveniences improve life for some, especially the handicapped. But in general, we are programming ourselves for extinction or subjugation.
2
What activity do I embrace that is inconvenient? Working three jobs for an average of at least 13 hours a day, six or seven days a week, in order to cling tenuously to the bottom rung of the financial middle class--at 74 years old. Convenience is expensive. Wu's lecture underscores the woes of wealth.
1
Really, my disagreement is with the idea that removal of obstacles is actually a threat. First of all, there is no shortage of obstacles to overcome. For all of humanity's technological advances, hunger, sickness, death, poverty, etc. have been our constant companions. It seems a bit early to start worrying about too much convenience.
Secondly, even if our species had a technological solution for all obstacles, the well-known societal obstacles would only become more troubling. Consider, for instance, the number of people around the world who die for lack of what most people would consider basic medical treatment. There's also millions of people condemned to live in ignorance despite all the communications technology and information available. While some farmers are paid not grow food, others a world a way starve.
Technology is slowly stripping away humanity's excuses and laying our faults bare. After all, no one is responsible for things wholly outside their control. But as our technology grows, we are forced to confront the increasingly apparent fact that a good portion of our species suffers because we choose to allow it (or even impose it). It stands as an inherent rebuke of our shortcomings. "Frustration" at our failure to solve our societal problems will only increase as our collective technological abilities grow. These are where the "slow" and "difficult" choices come into play because the true obstacles will be internal.
2
I try to use the stairs instead of an available elevator. This article along with a recent column by George Soros in the Boston Globe listing the negative influence of consolidation of social media companies give us fair warning of where we appear to be heading. I'm an 83 year old biking enthusiast who was forced by balance issues to use an adult tricycle; it's good fun during fair weather and avoids using the car.
1
Glad to see professor Wu taking on the big issues of our time this week. His first column was about how to let NHL players play in the winter olympics and now he's taking on washing machines. Excellent work.
The core of the argument, stripped of the verbiage, is that for many people everyday tasks are the only thing that fills their lives. And when these tasks are made too easy, people are confronted with the terrifying blankness of boredom. If I don’t have to clean, cook and wash, what do I live for? The answer should be creative self-expression but many people are simply incapable of it. Hence drugs, violence and suicide. Much of self-destructive behavior is motivated by boredom and anomie. And until we learn to produce inherently creative individuals by some kind of genetic manipulation, some proportion of the population will need drudgery to make their lives worth living.
3
There are a number of us who have forsaken TV and mindless entertainment. We do work with our hands, even when we have the means to hire someone (or something) to do it for us. We read actual books, on paper! I'm somewhat prejudiced on this, but I think we are happier people.
1
In a recent episode of "Victoria" on PBS, Prince Albert brushes a servant aside so he can stoke a fire himself, while Queen Victoria revels in the everyday activity of darning a sock--this after the couple spend a night with humble cotters after getting lost in the woods of Scotland. The audience can relate, because at our core, we realize that too much cushioning and convenience takes away the satisfaction of doing such things oneself. On a similar note, last night my husband and I resisted the urge have a pizza delivered to our door (we often order pizza online). Instead, we made our own, including pizza dough from scratch. It didn't take that long to do, and the activity was something we shared together. We both agreed that the pizza was way more delicious.
1
A worthwhile, if long winded, case for endeavor. I am all for it. (In subject it's reminiscent of an architect's written piece on 'Slowness'.)
I embrace the fundamentals taught in grade school. (Besides the subject of laziness, this conversation needs to probe deeper into the value of endeavor and the beneficial bi-products of enduring; learning in this case.) Calculators and spell check are two no-brainer conveniences to use regularly, like a lighter to a match to rubbing sticks for fire. But the endeavor of doing math and spelling by memory - those first hardwire ability and second maintain it; ability and smarts are more convenient than grabbing your smart phone.
Convenience has devalued the development of fundamental skills to the point of absolute reliance on the conveniences. Collectively, at what point do we stop subscribing to them? Probably on the whole, a smaller percentage of people can spell or calculate than in previous generations; today we collectively are forgetting how to navigate (and have already forgotten how to drive a manual.) Will future generations forget how to ride a bike? Stop learning second languages? Have nothing to say without the internet?
1
Convenience has been a shaper of civilization. It is more convenient to plant and harvest crops than to walk miles searching for seeds, fruits, nuts. It is more convenient to bring water to fields in canals than buckets, to build one permanent shelter than a new one every few weeks. Is the problem convenience or is it that people generally (with the exception of Times columnists and readers of course) don't reflect on the nature of the good life?
2
Wonderful article! But I must say, I see young people having no problem at all waiting in lines at Starbucks, faces glued to devices.
1
I can't help but notice that many of the conveniences Mr. Wu cites (scrubbing powder!) made the lives of women easier. It's all very well to lament the invention of the washing machine, when you're not the one who's being relieved of the labor.
6
Thank you, Tim Wu, for articulating an urgent concept to help us save ourselves. It’s not complicated, it’s not novel but it’s vital. I resist the tyranny of convenience in LA by riding my bike and not driving and the result has been nothing short of an awakening to living life here to the very best. Yes, I have the luxury of doing so, but I’m making that choice. It’s the same resistance to online shopping, to fast food, to a Facebook message instead of meeting friends face to face....Here’s another plug to read The Attention Merchants. Tim, you’re the sage hipster.
1
I liked this piece very much.
But it feels so urban-centric to a rural person. So you want to make a fence; the tools to do this now are much more convenient, and they lead to a better job---particularly cordless tools---but you still have to lay out and conceptualize the work, gather the materials, and set forth with intelligent planning and physical skill to accomplish the task.
In my view, one of the most disheartening aspects of our present socio-political lives is the great Rural/Urban divide. And a major part of this is what either group considers "work."
Everywhere around us are the things that people physically made, regardless whether it was "convenient" or not. In our utterly material culture these items are worshipped and coveted, yet those who create these things are not. And now with more and more automation, these makers of physical things are further left out in the cold, unappreciated and misunderstood.
Their pain of that disrespect has caused lots of our problems encouraged by foolish whipping up of the culture wars. Rural people segregate themselves (accurately or inaccurately) from Urban people by who actually MAKES things, not simply assisted their transport and marketing all over the World.
This Country should consider regulating automation to preserve our human endeavors and skills, and ultimately, our self respect. That is a subject worthy of this writer too.
2
We have to rely on convenient ways of cooking and shopping so we can obey our corporate bosses who require us to work longer and longer hours for the same meager wages and dwindling benefits.
4
Thank you for this thought-provoking article. A few embraced activities that could be viewed as inconvenient:
*I do most of my laundry by hand, in a bucket or the bathtub, wring it out and let it dry in the apartment draped over the shower curtain rod, a microphone stand, an open tripod, a hanger hung on whatever will support it. There is something very primal and mind-shushing about doing laundry by hand, and one's jeans and t-shirts last longer without being subjected to intense heat. (I think) Ditto washing the floors on hands and knees.
*Weight lifting, sprinting and vigorous swimming. There are no apps for these. One must show up, in person, and "pick things up and put them down."
*Type and print letters which are then sealed in envelopes, addressed, stamped and mailed.
*Figure modeling - again, no apps. And the students, who tend to be under 25 years old, can't text during class. It's done the same way it was done 500 years ago, except I believe during that time, commercial oils and charcoal weren't so readily available.
*Washing and drying my cars by hand, then telling them to smile while taking their photo.
*No microwave - a potato takes 60 minutes at 350 degrees, and that's all there is to it.
1
I disagree with the theme of this article. When I compare my own life to my mother’s I find everything is less convenient. Children now need to be strapped into difficult car seats, hair and lice treatments are far less effective (because the old kind were phased out due to risks), garbage must be rigorously sorted for recycling, children must be walked to school until age nine (due to crowding and traffic in my area — although this is basically a legal requirement), children needing more help and chaperoning through school (due to the greater necessity of a university education), less ability to drive places due to lack of parking everywhere in my crowded city (not a problem twenty years ago), far greater problems with vermin due to the age of the housing stock, and on and on.
This is not the fifties, and it hurts, especially when you have the expectation that you will have your parents’ level of leisure time. Leisure is choice; it’s fun. Work does not set us free.
Even when you think we have Amazon and smartphones, we used to have milkmen and secretaries. We used to have people pump our gas for us. And on top of that, we all work longer hours now.
4
Well, after retiring from the military and getting into graduate school, convenience definitely allows me to focus on ... graduate school. Amazn delivers the course books, google scholar lets me do most of my research right at my computer, groceries are delivered ... and that leaves more time for things like walking the dog or ... shocking ... the family.
If tyranny is 'preferring' to brew your own coffee but going to Sarbucks instead, perhaps the real issue is that you do not in fact prefer brewing your own coffee?
5
Convenience could be great to free up some time to be creative and do some meaningful things in our lifetime but instead we are glued to our devices and distracting ourselvs with useless information and communications via social networks. We are actually now wasting most of the time we we so conveniently were given by technological innovation.
1
One of my survival jobs as an artist is teaching the Chinese martial art Taiji Chuan. Though usually taught as a watered down martial dance it actually contains movement principles that teach us how to use our bodies efficiently and ergonomically. As I explain to my class, our grandparents understood how to use their bodies to perform labor much better than we do today because so many of us have taken most of the labor out of our lives.
As we go over the different techniques in the form I point out that the movement that we use to pull an opponent in and down and then toss out is the same our grandparents used to crank water up a well. Over the years I've been identifying more and more of movements as ones we still use in our daily lives- from how to open a heavy door by using the front leg to push the other hip back to lifting and turning with the legs.
Convenience products have allowed us to remain stupid in our body usage. We learned the most important movements (standing, walking, lowering ourselves) before we could speak. Our so thought "comfortable" furniture like bowled chairs and soft couches invite collapsed posture and age our bodies unnecessarily. True, a lot of our knee and hip replacements are due to a greater longevity in the general public but it used to be only those who treated their bodies well and used them well made it to old age.
PS need to add-
I frequently wear an iPod and earbuds not because I wish to shut out the world, but to shut out whatever music a store or gym insists I listen to whether I want to or not. In one Planet Fitness I go to, there is a loud TV in the locker room AND "hard-hittin' pop" in the speakers overhead. I wonder why they don't just install a 1,000 watt light to blind me, too, and dump a gallon of cologne on the floor if they want to bombard gym members.
5
For me, its the balancing of “convenience” and “simplicity”, all under the purview of “security”. I’ll do some online shopping with a credit card, but I’ve had the number hacked a couple times. Fortunately, the charges were covered. If my entire identity was stolen, that’s a different story. I don’t need home “connectivity”....my refrigerator doesn’t need to communicate with my smartphone. I don’t need (or want) “social media”....a simple text is fine if you really want to share something. I love my iPhone 8 for calls, texts, photos, and driving directions....and not much else. In many cases, I prefer my home grown vegetables to store-bought. Generally speaking, the less I own, the happier I am. Now that I’m retired, my life is basically thought, adventure, and helping other people.
2
The main quest for humans in life is: Make life more efficient. "Convenience" is just a semantic way of demeaning the efficiency that humans have added to their lives.
Would you prefer to take your deathly ill child to an ER by (a) carrying her, (b) putting her on a horse, or (c) calling an ambulance? What is the "price" we pay for the "convenience" of an ambulance? Hint: It's the opposite of the price we pay for the inconvenience of carrying someone to the ER instead.
Our lives are better, fuller, and more lengthy BECAUSE of "convenience".
3
This is why there's so much anger, depression, opioid use & failure to stay at a job or at a marriage: why sit and weed a garden when you can use Round-up? There's a certain meditation in the "drudgery" of life.
When asked why I continue to dry my clothes on a laundry line even though I have a perfectly good dryer, I explain that there was a time only poor people had a tan from labors outside, but as the Industrial Revolution took over with people working endlessly inside, only the well to do could afford to leisurely sit out in the sun to tan. I feel so well off financially that I can afford to leisurely hang my clothes out on the line. Go far enough East and you end up West.
2
"Is physical work always a nightmare?" So writes a male upper middle class journalist. I hate to raise the phantom gender card but one of the more laborious and fatiguing jobs women have done for millennia is wash and dry (and starch) clothes. The best thing that happened to women was the washing machine. (And wash and wear cloth later on). Also, there are plenty of people out there who slave away under very difficult physical circumstances: strawberry pickers, steel workers, housekeepers (especially in hotels with 8 pillows per bed) and on and on. Initially it could be invigorating but come middle age or after injury or if you have to go to work with a fever, it is torture. I agree that we should not lose sight of our physical being as computers want us to but be aware that labor is hard.
4
Convenience and Entertainment are the cornerstones of American society, and always have been. Combine them, and you have addiction, as in Smartphones. Or in Alexa, one of the biggest cons around, a device that saves you a few seconds from stepping to the wall or to your music system to turn up volume or turn up the heat.
Its just an amazing piece, so aptly described. Just loved reading it and how convenience in the 21st century has made robots out of us, created grounds for impatiently behavior and at times the instantaneous nature of things makes us so difficult and fragile. The inability to make an effort due to so many conveniences has made us disconnected from reality and draped ourselves in its cloth. Convenience indeed has become a tyranny. Kudos to the writer.
162
I felt the same way about this article . It just so wonderfully articulated many things I felt but couldn't put into words.I ride horses 5 days a week and this is what keeps me "sane" and by that I mean it feeds my soul and spirit and connects me to a place no screen could ever take me.
1
As someone who keeps my flip-phone cell phone in my car at all times (for the"convenience" of being able to notify someone if I'm running late or in an emergency situation), I feel strongly that carrying a smart phone full time is the opposite of convenience.
It isn't convenient for people to believe that I am reachable twenty four hours a day. It isn't convenient for people to text me whenever they want and expect a prompt reply. It isn't convenient when people I am with interrupt whatever they, or we, are doing to respond to that seemingly irresistible Siren's call that they've received a text message.
It isn't convenience that drives people to fill every spare moment with electronic stimulation. It's a sorry emptiness of the soul and an easily formed addiction. Call me eccentric, call me out of touch, call me a dinosaur. I'm fine with that.
3
Tim, great points, but I'd like to counter that not everyone, or even nearly everyone, is on Facebook. Granted, for families who are dispersed geographically, it can be a useful way of keeping in touch, but nobody in my family is on Facebook. We basically think it's a den of vacuousness. I simply don't like Facebook - I don't like the interface, the content, and the entire concept. And I know I am very much not alone in those views. I'm really tired of hearing people say that nearly everyone is "on" Facebook. It's simply not true, at least not to the extent of nearly everyone being on it a lot of their time.
But going back to the overall gist of what you wrote, we indeed seem to be heading in the direction of a "Wall-E" future, where we are just plump blobs sitting in self-propelled chairs, and everything we need/want is available at the touch of a button (or command of a voice, or maybe someday at the thinking of a thought). Whoever wrote Wall-E was one profoundly perspicacious individual!
3
Care giving for children and for the elderly is both inconvenient and undervalued in our society yet I have found it to be the most meaningful work of my lifetime.
2
As I read I thought Prof. Wu completely something about our hyperconnected aka ultraconvenient era in the US. For many, many employees the predictable nonwork hours of the week enjoyed some decades ago have become a thing of the past. Salaried workers are expected to be available by email or text message virtually 24/7, to pick up the slack when retirees are not replaced, etc. Hourly employees in many workplaces contend with shift schedules that change at the last minute, demands to do prep work before or cleanup after clocking in, etc. With apologies to my friends in academia who feel a need to be flexible in dealing with students and colleagues, Prof. Wu is in one of the relatively few professions where the employees can pretty much control their own schedules .
When people have that much challenge as workers they probably aren't looking for more challenges outside of work. What I can't tease out is what came first: the era of ubiquitous communication or the increased pervasiveness of paid work in our lives. Some of the credit for that pervasiveness goes to the only union president ever elected president who then did his best to bust unions and to the leveraged buyout firms that made money by cutting labor costs. For myself, I know why I resisted having a cell phone until I retired (early and voluntarily) in 1999. While I was getting paid very well I was not willing to be on duty 24/7.
3
Oops! Please mentally insert the word "missed" after completely in my first sentence.
Wonderful article.
For some reason, long ago, I rejected the notion of choosing what was easiest. I was certainly aware that with all the home technologies like the washing machine and toaster that American’s were promised more leisure time, which, as you say, never materialized. Our bosses found other ways to fill our time.
Maybe it was the nuns at my Catholic elementary school chiding is for taking “the path of least resistance “ or as a serious collegiate student of guitar, my professors telling us to choose the fingering that sounds best, not necessarily the easiest fingering, that hide my brain wired in another way.
In any case, I’ve made my living as a professional musician, actor, and film maker, all of which never requires considering a paradigm of convenience. I got lucky I suppose.
I also ditched all my social media accounts 5 years ago.
3
I love this article, and it’s something I’ve thought about a lot. The kinds of “inconvenient” activities that Wu talks about sound like what Michel De Certeau described as “tactics” in The Practice of Everyday Life back in 1984. He thought that the main source of creative freedom for regular people were tactical operations required to accomplish everyday but sometimes challenging tasks, like shopping, cooking, and getting from place to place. This wouldn’t mean avoiding modern conveniences, but maybe using them in a different way from what their producers intended, or simply having your own special way to move about the world and get things done. Normal, necessary tasks could become artful and meaningful.
The more these kinds of activities become streamlined and centralized, the fewer opportunities there will be for everyday creativity, the more one has to struggle against conventional behavior to do anything that marks them as an individual. As Wu suggests, for all the additional conveniences we have access to, finding meaning in life becomes harder, not easier.
2
To struggle is to define yourself. Convenience removes the struggle. Thus who am I?
The struggles can be large or small but in making the effort i must become active and immerse myself in the process. I begin to define myself by action and being. I am exploring my limits. I begin to have sense of self in surviving my trails of action.
Perhaps the stoics of old were onto something.
3
What worries me most about the convenience of looking up "information" on the internet is the increasing number of people (teens, especially, but I'm seeing it in all ages) is the perception that if you watch a YouTube video or read a posting about a subject, you then "know" everything about the topic or subject in question. For example, I've seen several people who think they can fix their own electrical wiring or plumbing problems and end up with massive repair bills. There are already studies showing that people who read books online retain less information than those who read paper books. We used to remember phone numbers, addresses, etc. in our heads - now they're all in our cell phones, and woe betide those who misplace their phones.
3
In answer to the question at the head of comment column, I'd have to say walking (with a little Mass Transit, when demanded).
True, I've used a car for most of my adult life (my work required it, and it made it more productive); but I've chucked the car since retiring.
During my driving days, I noticed that folks would drive to a Grocery or Mall, and search out the closest parking space to the entrance. Not finding one they might drop someone off to get what was needed, then park in the fire lane with the engine running until their return. Lest we forget the drivers who idle in parking lot drive paths waiting for a car to leave a close spot. Sometimes, I could be in and of an establishment before those folks could get their space, even if I had to walk 50 yards from car to entrance.
Walking lets you see the world you missed when you were behind the wheel.
I've learned more about "my fair city" from my own two feet. You'd be surprised at what you discover when you walk, or hike some trails.
Walking/Hiking, inconvenient? To some, maybe; but not so for me.
4
I think much of the tech industry's offerings of amenities such as chef-created meals and games for breaks, and such, to be coercive and designed to keep their employees at work instead of out shopping for food and taking care of the tasks of daily life.
I see a generation of people who don't know how to take care of themselves or recognize the joy of doing so. My young neighbors have everything delivered and even have made services in their 20s and 40s. Granted, I'm in my 70s, but my mother forbade our house cleaner to clean my room so I'd learn to do it myself. I've always taken enormous pride in polishing my shoes and my silver and keeping my home clean.
3
Convenience isn't offered to everyone.
I can find stores open seven days a week at all sorts of hours. Convenient for me be not for the people that need to juggle their lives to work those inconvenient shifts.
3
We are wholly owned subsidiary of marketing.
I am sick of advertisements that have pretty women barely touching the ground and clicking on phones to do everything, and kids lecturing adults about the best way to be alive (more expensive wifi and infotainment).
Recently I had to rent a car and they gave me a recent Corolla, and it made me reflect on how "convenient" (and rather wonderful) this expensive aspect of privilege was.
We are a divided society where increasingly toil and sub-living wages are for the poor and working stiffs, and convenience and justice are for those who have more than enough. At the highest end, there is a whole luxury market that sells overpriced and meaningless status symbols.
This is dangerous. At some point - and it's becoming much more common - the power will go out for days or weeks on end (let alone Puerto Rico, the playground of profiteers removing value from ordinary people's daily lives for profit) - and you'll discover the value of tools for living and entertainment that doesn't help heat up the planet.
Speaking of that planet, we're headed into the danger zone, accelerating into inhospitality for earth's biggest predator species.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8d_JvMpoY4&list=PL5WqtuU6JrnXjsGO4W...
5
It makes perfect evolutionary sense to conserve energy when possible. If lions could get gazelle steaks delivered via an app and a drone, they would certainly do it. If birds could find breeding and feeding areas closer to home they'd stop migrating. Humans and other organisms are constantly gauging, consciously or not, whether to expend energy now or conserve it.
I would argue that much of the energy that seem apparently wasteful, such as on marathons or learning musical instruments, is actually a gamble that such endeavors will pay off with increased chances of reproduction or other future advantage.
Actually, convenience it isn't helpful from the evolutionary standpoint of a species. It's helpful to the individual.
If lions cold get Zebra steaks delivered to the Pride's den, they would soon cease to lions. Wolves who opted to scavenge human campsites stopped being wolves after some generations. They became dogs. Dogs are very successful from an evolutionary standpoint. Wolves... much less so.
3
Terrific thought-provoking essay.
But I disagree with much of the premise. Friedan was only partially correct, and my mother would have disagreed with her. My father provided the income, and my mother raised five of us. To Freidan’s point, she said, “A vacuum cleaner and a dishwasher give me more time to read.” And “birth control pills spare me a lot of anguish concerning my affection for your father.” She preferred reading to television, but she did watch, and was conscientious about muting commercials, at which time she would go back to whatever reading materials interested her.
In other words, she controlled convenience and did not automatically buy into the commercial interests who bombard us with “buy the latest in dulling your mind.”
With her example, I trained my eyes and ears to avoid and negate advertising and commercials, and was extremely happy when Apple started to offer technology to keep advertising off my computer screen.
It is always the same: Commercial interests bombard us with convenience. The individual has to pick their poison.
Coda: the pesticide garden is meditative to grow and the results delicious and healthful. But most of the time, a trip to the organic grocery store gives me the pleasure of doing something also enjoyable or, ahem, necessary.