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A study by the World Health Organization reports that technological advancement has made our lives more convenient but also less active, creating a sedentary lifestyle and heightening the risk of deadly diseases because we are not getting enough exercise. Do you agree?

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This is obviously true.

For some people in Japan though, the problem is not technology but the hours that they work or the commitments they have, looking after elderly, running kids around, etc. Lots of people in Japan don't get enough time to sleep, let alone exercise.

7 ( +8 / -1 )

The funny thing about a technologically-advanced society is that instead of easing the burden of daily life on us humans, it made our lives even more complicated because everybody wants more and more, raising the bar far too high for man to cope. Man isn't built like a machine, it has lots of bugs, breaks down a lot and isn't coldly logical.

7 ( +8 / -1 )

Sad is all the clever people who have made developed societies' and cultures so technology driven and dependent. Materialist capitalism and so on don't help either. Sad, as they were not clever enough to think through the longer term and indirect effects, and they still don't.

Sadder is that people without experience of doing things without so much technology dependence tend not to think of less-technological dependence as an alternative (while we older people can and do still remember).

Effects of sedentary lifestyles, higher risk of error with higher complexity and removal of humanised flexibility with lock-step digital rigidity in data processing and so on, are all symptomatic of something going to happen one day.

Still waiting for the EMP.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

One thing technology can do is fitness tracking, data collection every time you go for a run or ride your bike. This can provide great motivation to do more, especially if you are a numbers person.

People working in physical jobs on building sites etc. can also end up with back trouble and wrecked knees, I know my own father did. Sitting down is not the only way to damage your body. If you're not careful or your luck is not in, you can also do it through exercise.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I think that it is up to the individual to get their exercise- of course, the longer working hours and the constant drop in real wages makes longer hours a reality for all of us out of necessity. That I suspect is the main culprit and not technology.

For some people in Japan though, the problem is not technology but the hours that they work or the commitments they have, looking after elderly, running kids around, etc. Lots of people in Japan don't get enough time to sleep, let alone exercise.

Excellent point.

The funny thing about a technologically-advanced society is that instead of easing the burden of daily life on us humans, it made our lives even more complicated because everybody wants more and more, raising the bar far too high for man to cope

Exactly. Life starts to become more complicated.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

No. I get as much exercise as ever while using modern technology. Unless you've started working at home instead of making a commute (in which case probably using a train or car for the most part), I don't see how this is relevant. I agree with those above that work-life balance (the lack thereof) is what's making people sick, along with diet. I doubt the amount of exercise has changed much unless people have less time to do so because they are doing too much overtime in an office.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

Tend to agree with Smith and aly, no one's forcing us not to exercise, not even technology.

Age's probably a factor though. Those of us who were born in the 70s or early 80s grew up in a -virtually- tech-free world and may be less dependent on technology. Different story for millenials.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

I say yes, I agree with the statement. But, we are still responsible for how we adjust to technology. Each of us has to take care of ourselves. And it seems that all the computer work has made it a bit harder, not to mention the entertainment associated with technology. So there. Let's get outside more. I'm talking to you, myself!

0 ( +1 / -1 )

It's made us lazy. Period. I haven't even written anything long for a long time. Everything is done on the keyboard. My knowledge of kanji now is much more passive. Recognition is there, but being able to write them down yourself is now much more difficult.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Yes, to read these things I don't have to use my two hands to hold and turn pages of newspaper.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

we are not getting enough exercise

Um... so commit the time to exercise regularly, rather than watching so much Netflix and playing video games.

Grown adults need to manage their personal lives by themselves, the WTO isn't going to turn up at Christmas and give everyone an 30 minutes per day to be spent only on exercise.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

It's made us lazy.

What you describe is what I'd call "more productive". Like you, I used to be able to write Kanji with my bare hands and a pen/pencil. 

That I haven't for years isn't because I'm lazy, but because I use more efficient means to communicate instead. 

It's the same with English too. I would suck in a spelling bee, but in the real-world I just type on a keyboard or whatever and simply delete and correct when I get the spelling wrong, in approximately 0.5 seconds. Often my own eyes will tell me that I got the spelling wrong, but I can even have a machine give me a hint that I spelt wrong depending on the tool I use.

This is not laziness, but productivity!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

It's not just physical exercise the current generation are missing. They are also missing brain exercise. Everyday I see countless people locked into their phone screens playing absolutely pointless games just wasting their lives away. I am not talking about teenagers. I am talking about adults in their 30's to 60's locked into their idiot boxes playing, smack the hamster, join the balls, virtual farmer, slots, pachinko and many more. I saw a young guy the other day holding two phones in one hand and playing different pointless games on each while going down the escalator at a train station. He had those cases with rings on them so he could hold one landscape and the other portrait. It is not cool or a trend. it is a mental illness that society will have to deal with in the near future. It's a generation of zombies!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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