Future Generations Are Getting Lazier and Lazier | What can we do about it?
Long before time, there lived a man by the name of Epicurus. A philosopher from Greece often referred to as a “hedonist”. Now, Epicurus believed that the sole purpose of all human life was to secure and to experience as much satisfaction as possible. Despite common misconception, hedonism, at least in this sense, simply meant the most pleasurable life. (and “pleasure” meant happiness NOT over-indulgence and drinking all the time). Now, to achieve this happiness, Epicurus recommended a self-disciplined life full of virtue. However, the youth of today are indulging themselves in wastes of dopamine without hard work, under-sleeping, over-eating, and not exercising enough. This, in Epicurus’ eyes, will not make them happy but quite the opposite. However before we get into varying solutions to the problem, let’s first define what is happening and why it is happening.
The Problem
The problem is that people are getting lazier than ever as a result of an availability between easy and hard things. It’s far too easy to over-consume, become undisciplined, and to become addicted. And by “addicted” I do not mean hardcore drugs, although that too is certainly a problem. I instead mean simple pleasures that feel good in the moment but soon your brain becomes hardwired to (more on that later).
(i) Chronic Disease
The rate of obesity is going up and up. According to the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention),
“From 1999 –2000 through 2017 –2018, US obesity prevalence increased from 30.5% to 42.4%. During the same time, the prevalence of severe obesity increased from 4.7% to 9.2%.”
The rate of obesity has skyrocketed in the U.S., so much so that The Commonwealth Fund tells us,
“In 1985, no state had an obesity rate higher than 15 percent. In 2016, five states had rates over 35 percent.”
As for other Chronic Diseases, diabetes has also risen exponentially, according to The Diabetes Research Institute Foundation,
“34.2 million people, or 10.5% of the U.S. population, have diabetes. An estimated 26.8 million people — or 10.2% of the population — had diagnosed diabetes. Approximately 7.3 million people have diabetes but have not yet been diagnosed (2018).”
Now, rates of chronic disease are not the only problem, so too is addiction.
(ii) Addiction
All of the following would be, by definition, an addiction:
- Pornography
- Drugs
- Video Games
- Social Media
- Alcohol
- Smoking Tobacco (and to a lesser degree weed)
Now, besides an enumerative account of what an addiction is, I think it’s best to give a definition of criterion. “An addiction is anything which unnecessarily gives dopamine/pleasure chemicals with little hard work and little to no reward (besides the feeling of dopamine of course).” Traditionally, dopamine is a chemical which is supposed to give reward for hard-work (such as sex, eating, reading, exercise, and various others), however, in this day and age people can achieve excessive amounts of dopamine without putting any of the hard-work in. This can lead to varying problems, and can easily be fixed by cutting out all the things listed above. That does NOT mean moderation, that means that you never use them again. Think about it like this, would you moderately smoke tobacco? Obviously not, because doing so does not solve for all the health crises related to smoking tobacco.
Now, what can we do about this health crisis?
The Solution
(1): Cold Showers
Cold showers, although limited in scientific enquiry, has numerous health benefits. Such as weight-loss, less acne, more motivation, and various others. HOWEVER, be cautious with cold-showers and be sure to ease-in to them. For instance, you can get a heart attack if your heart is weak. Therefore it’s best if people ease-in to it by taking a hot shower followed by a 30-second cold period (and gradually increase).
(2): Exercise
One of the best things you can do is exercise, exercise helps prevent chronic obesity, heart disease, and cancer.
(3): Good Dieting
Although there’s a lot of disagreement between scientists on what the best diet plan for humanity is, it seems as though we ought to listen to our body (with the guide of a doctor and/or authority on the matter ((the cdc, dietitians, and various others)) ) However, it seems with all the data that there is no one-size-fits-all. Rather, there is an intricate and different diet for all humans. So, it’s best if one tries out vegan diets, omnivore (mediterranean) diets, and various others. Ideally, a good diet is one which excludes all junk-food, includes heart-healthy fish, vegetables, rich in fiber, and rich in protein.
(4): Dopamine Detox
This is by far the best (if you’re looking for a better work-ethic that is). A dopamine detox is when you exclude all forms of addiction from your life, as stated earlier, such addictions would include Video Games, Pornography, Social Media, Drugs, and Alcohol, and smoking Tobacco and Weed.
FOR THE RECORD: By “dopamine detox” I only mean the avoidance of unhealthy dopamine triggers, NOT healthy triggers such as exercise, friendship, reading or writing. Although this may seem obvious because it would make a contradiction with my former points, some are ignorant and misinterpret the words “dopamine detox” to mean something it was never supposed to mean.
Now, this point is strictly intuitive, imagine not doing anything for a week. You’d surely want to engage in something productive and stimulating, such as reading, writing, working, or a hobby of some sort. And that’s the whole thing behind a dopamine detox, it makes productivity fun.
There IS evidence behind this, indeed students who took just one week off of facebook noticed depression rates go down by 17% and regained 13.3 hours of their time. If anyone is interested, they can find more information in this article, by psychiatrist Dr. Cameron Sepah.
(5): Reading
The most beneficial thing (in my opinion that is) is reading daily. Ideally, people should read for at least an hour and thirty minutes daily to four hours a day. When reading, be sure to take notes in books you read for intellectual reasons whereas if you’re reading a book for leisure (which I also recommend) you should take notes but few (as they really serve little point).
The benefits of reading are:
- Increased vocabulary
- Reduces stress
- Expands Intellect
- Fights Alzheimer’s at old-age
Ideally, go for an hour of your schedule as intellectual reading and 30 minutes of it as reading a book of your choice for leisure.
(6): Sleeping More
Another great thing people can do is sleep more. Sleeping for at least 8 hours (and ideally 9 hours a night) has the following benefits:
(7): Hobbies
No matter what your hobbies include, albeit playing an instrument, art, sports, debate, math, writing, or whatever makes you happy, you should be pursuing that rather than wastes of dopamine.
According to Oregon Counseling,
“Having a hobby can be really beneficial for our mental health. Hobbies have shown to give us lower stress, better physical health, more sleep, more social connections, improved work performance, and increased happiness.”
(8): A Rigorous Routine
Finally, we must incorporate all of these into our daily lifestyle. What I do is:
- Wake up at 6:00 AM and read for 30 minutes (leisure reading)
- Down a cup of matcha green tea with stevia
- Take a cold shower with African Black Soap
- Go to school at 7:00 AM
- Arrive home at 4:00 PM and exercise for 30 minutes (weight lifting)
- Write for 3 hours on Medium // Pursue a different hobby
- 8:00 PM read for an hour (intellectual reading)
- 9:00 PM go to sleep
How do I actually do this?
My advice would be to start off slow. There’s no need to rush because that’s sure to cause a quick and painful failure (for most people that is). I would recommend you start with the simpler activities such as exercise, dieting, cold showers, and sleeping more. The good thing about this process is that once you have one mastered it will be easier to master the next. For instance, exercise can help with sleep and sleep can help with exercise. And dieting can help with exercise, or exercise with dieting. You get the point.
I’d also recommend that anyone trying to pursue a healthier life make their own routine that works for them. I would say you can permit some social media, video games, porn, or alcohol at first however the goal is to get whomever has these issues to quit long-term because they significantly lower quality of life.
