Legs of 21st Century people

by Lilek Vasilek


There was a man who once said that laziness or sloth was the engine of progress. I can agree with these words to some extent.

Scientists invent new things, make their brains work, so that others can use them for their own purposes i.e. for satisfying their needs. Of course, its cool to use computers, cars, microwave ovens, etc.; but, these things were made for people's convenience, and not meant to be used indiscriminately. For example, I think its rather inconsiderate to allow junior pupils in the school to use calculators during their Mathematics Class. This is because Maths is a subject useful for developing children's logic and if a small child always have to "add 2 to 2 or multiply 3 to 3" with the help of calculator; it is not only his mind, his intellect degrades, affecting his very upbringing to adulthood. There's a possibility that, later on, he becomes helpless and solves some life problems with difficulty. That he finds every impediment, even a little one he takes, as a catastrophy or some insoluble thing.

Then some words about television.
All the videos and cartoons are undoubtedly methods of entertainment -n- relaxation for people, from children to adults! Yes, it goes without saying, especially for people of our generation, but not entirely for the elder ones. They have more useful methods; take walking in the forest or quiet talking as examples. This is because in their childhood they didn't have TVs with their serials and entertainment shows. This was the primary reason they became interested in reading or discussing the stories or novels they read. As a result, they had bigger imagination & better creativity in comparison with our generation. When you read you imagine the main characters, the places where the action's happening, but when you watch TV you are deprived of this thinking, you just watch and watch and watch! This also distracts children from their homework or other interesting things which are important for their age. With an increasing role of TV in people's life we observe a decrease of importance of theatres. I think one could never have thought that such a wonderful thing developed by humans would be pushed out by TV.

O'k! it is not just about films, calculators and TV; but also about cars.
Yeah! The most important, useful and very necessary object. The measure of people's prosperity, especially in Russia!

It is good to use cars when you are in a hurry or late for train/airplane or when its cold weather. But by using cars people deprive themselves of the pleasure and healthy affects of walking as that is very important for health, especially when you roam with somebody, who is very close to you...in the forest...or field..., when you are absorbed in your thoughts or just talking to your fellow-traveller. And indeed you become close to nature. When some people do a leisure walk, they think of their life, problems and also try and come to a solution of their problems. Others just look around when they walk, examine houses, shops, shop-windows, people, trees, flowers, etc. The point is even if you walk along one and the same street every day, there is always something new for you; you get surprised that there are and always were some things, which were before your eyes and you never noticed it!

I am not against progress but just want to say that people must use all these inventions moderately, because these 'comfort' things make people their slaves, make people dependent on them, make people machine in themselves. People must not forget that they are LIVING-BEINGS, HUMAN-BEINGS, and they must live, create, act, think, play, feel, and communicate like true humans.

[ She is a student at State Pedagogical University, Russia. Recently, she passed all her exams at the University and has just 1 more year to go!]