The Pros and Cons of Living in the Modern World

Understanding what’s great and not so great about our incredibly unique time

Modern life offers so many incredible advantages that our ancestors would not believe us if we could go back in time and tell them about what we can do. We can talk into a piece of plastic and someone twenty thousand miles away can hear us instantly. We can gather thousands of years' worth of information in a few hours using search engines. We are surrounded by so many miracles that it’s so easy to take them for granted since they are everywhere.

Understanding the advantages and disadvantages of this wondrous age is very important because it gives us the perspective that we need to know what to be grateful for and what to change.

Photo by Robert V. Ruggiero on Unsplash

Advantages

For most people living in the industrialized west, some of the advantages include:

1. Unlimited clean water and food:
   In the ancient world, drinking any form of plain water was a gamble, which is why alcoholic drinks were often consumed on a daily basis. They offered less risk of disease and infection. Today we also have access to a greater variety of foods than the richest kings and emperors of old did because of refrigeration
2. Convenience beyond measure:
   We have…