The Life of Mind
Riza Abilova Id: 20120438 ARW I, Section 4 Date: March 29, 2013 Discussion essay Second draft Does is living with less have a beneficial influence on people’s life in U. S? A person’s lifestyle is like a mirror. It shows who and what a person is, what he or she does, how he or she dress and what conditions he or she prefers. Some people are happy with a small amount of money with comfortable living while others want to earn large amounts of money and become rich. However, living with less is like having minimalist lifestyle which involves material limitations, less consumption, more space, less unnecessary possessions and so on.
Furthermore, as Graham Hill (2013) entrepreneur and founder of LifeEduited. com and TreeHugger. com reports, “I sleep better knowing I’m not using more resources than I need. I have less and enjoy more” (n. p) (as cited on www. nytimes. com). Living with less brings appreciably more satisfaction, relaxation and enjoyment. Moreover, people will not get attached to things. For one thing, people who depend on their possessions and luxury life, in many cases lose part of life that is really important. The minimalist lifestyle in U.
S is a beneficial way to allow pleasure and better health and spending less time on new technologies but on the other hand people get losing this knowledge of modern society of this country. One of the advantages of living with less in U. S is that people can take more joy and time. Living with fewer possessions is not only having joy but also is very closely related to the times and technology. The fewer possessions you have to worry about, the more time you have to spend with friends, family or in nature or beautiful places in life. Technology is incredible and infinitely developing, but occupies most of our time.
For example: social technology provides the ability to connect, communicate and also play games and others. As Albert Einstein who theoretical physicist and one of the founders of modern theoretical physics (1921) demonstrated, “It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity”. (n. p) However, one should note here that technologies can take away a large part of the time of your life. If on the one hand it can be said that it is beneficial having enjoyment and more time, the same is true for better health.
Another beneficial advantage of living with reducing possessions in the United States is that people feel less stress. Living with less material stuff allows people the ability to not worry about their obligations. Therefore, living with fewer possessions allows less worrying about obligations which includes cleaning, repairing, breaking, and obsolete of these materials. Material objects not only lead to physical fatigue but disorders like depression too. As American Psychiatric Association (2011) shows, “depression is a common and highly treatable disorder affection over 17 million American adults annually” (n. ). It is generally agreed that stress and nervous feelings brings a negative effect on disorders. With living with less stuff, you can avoid depression and aggression by obligations of items. Another way of looking to this lifestyle, it is about surplus of knowledge of new technologies. One of the unbeneficial ways of living with less is that using less modern technologies. For instance, if people stick to this way of life, and they prefer not to use the new technologies, gadgets and other things, it will be bad influence on the formation of person as a modern one.
Many people will consider as a primitive man who is absolutely nothing know, it is difficult to have a dialogue with someone who cannot understand what others mean. Likewise, as Jonas Salk who was an American medical researcher and virologist (1979) shows, “This is perhaps the most beautiful time in human history; it is really pregnant with all kinds of creative possibilities made possible by science and technology which now constitute the slave of man – if man is not enslaved by it”(n. p) . In reality, all technologies are developing that is why future without him nothing would do.
The most importantly is that being a successful person makes a big influence on the skill of modern technology not only for work but also for self-improvement. One should, however, not forget that if people have lack of knowledge of new technologies, in many cases, they can’t find perspective job to successful career. Our modern world is difficult to imagine with lack of knowledge of computer technology, and successful professional worker without this knowledge. The United States is one of the most highly developed states in the world that is why new technological hings have an important part of their life. A minimalist lifestyle offers the enormous benefits and if Americans want to take more joy and time and feel less stress, they need to start living with less. As Julie Schor who is a professor of Sociology at Boston College (2002) shows, “we need to invest more meaning into material objects to slow down the buy-use-discard cycle of U. S. consumer goods”(p45-60). This means, society of this country should really think about material possessions, whether want to buy it, whether it is beneficial or useful etc.
