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Add to FavoritesYes the average American is lazy, including me! Almost everyone I know is 'the laziest person I know'...how and why is that? Here in America we hardly have to work for anything, and what we consider 'work' rarely involves physical labor. We as a society have reached a point where sitting in front of a computer for a few hours is 'work'. You know, it used to be work when you were out in the fields growing food for a community, raising cattle, building something...when were you actively doing something that benefited the whole community or your whole family you were actually 'working'. What we do here in America is we 'crunch numbers', I'm a graphic designer so I get to sit in front of a computer for 5 to 10 hours a project...and thats 'work'. Sitting on my butt making pretty pictures is 'work'. When I get my degree and I make graphic design my career, I'll be making more than a lot of people out there who do back-breaking labor everyday. I know for a fact that I will be complaining about how 'hard' some project is or I'll complain about having to go to work someday or something stupid like that, I know I'm going to 'get lazy' once in awhile. It makes me think what a sad way to be. That is the average American attitude towards work, school, life in general.
Life is being replaced by television and video games. If you don't like games that involve shooting or killing anyone...you can play a game where you create a little human and live out their life...or you can make a pet and take care of it as if it were real. Some kids don't want to walk their dogs, or clean up the cat's litter box, some people's small rodents and fish die because they were too lazy to feed or water them properly, or clean their cages out correctly.
Laziness causes death, many people consider it silly, pointless, meaningless death because pets and animals aren't people and people are the only ones that matter...but to me it counts and it is just as bad. Some people are too lazy to drive safely, they want to get home so badly that they drive recklessly or too fast in order to beat the traffic or shave five minutes off their trip. What is the point? What is the point of risking lives; the lives of pets, other drivers, your children and family? What is the point of risking emotional states and comfort levels? What is the point in being lazy at all?
Most people will tell you, it's boring to work. Somehow sitting on your fanny doing nothing is considered fun by a large percentage of Americans. I think that's strange.
Learn more about this author, Kittie M.
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No
Webster's Dictionary defines lazy as: disinclined to exertion. When we hear the word lazy, we may picture someone who does as little as possible to get by. Someone who sits on a couch all day eating potato chips and watching reality television shows. Or maybe we picture someone we know, who we believe does not work as hard as they should.
Let us keep in mind that there are different definitions for "average." If you think the average American has some form of college degree, then how could they be lazy? Does it not take great effort to study and get the grades necessary to graduate? For many people they accomplish this while holding down a job and supporting a family at the same time.
Or maybe you view the average American as someone who works in a position that does not require a degree, like in a restaurant or a bank. Does working forty-plus hours a week over a hot grill, moving as quickly as you can to meet the demands of the hundreds of customers, and not getting a single break during an eight-plus hour shift not count as exertion? Does being a server and having to keep a smile on your face while people are rude and demanding, and forming blisters on your feet from rushing around just so you can earn the tips that are going to feed your kids count as lazy? I say no.
Someone could argue that technology has made the average American lazy. We no longer have to get up to change the channel on the television, we only have to push a button to roll up the windows of our cars, we can pop frozen food into the microwave and have dinner prepared in five minutes, and we have special robots that will sweep our floors for us.
Then I would argue, did it not take effort from the average American to create these conveniences, or to learn how to use a computer, or to adapt to so many changes? What some would consider laziness, I consider adaptation, and that takes effort from everyone. Technological conveniences were created in order to help people survive the demands of todays society in America. Surviving everyday while struggling to stay happy requires exertion, and after so much work, how could relaxing on the couch and eating potato chips count as lazy?
Learn more about this author, Saranja V..
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