Should we be Living Life Slower?

http://www.ted.com/talks/carl_honore_praises_slowness.html

Again another awesome video.

Short Summary:

Western Culture's fast pace is hazardous to health, productivity and, most importantly, quality of life. There's a movement however looking to put the brakes on this lifestyle and reap the benefits of slowing down.

I think the talk hits its topic out of the park when it points out how "slow" is a negative trait in our society because it's so true. Filling out job applications recently, I found myself constantly answering questions such as, "How fast do you complete your tasks compared to your peers?" I think the strangest one was one from McDonalds and it was something along the lines of, "How do act when you are under great stress?" There were two answers with one being "I work faster to complete my tasks." and "I work slower, but I'm more focused." I stared at them for the longest time because even though the latter was likely more like me, I couldn't decide whether or not that was a bad thing...

With the constant stress of balancing school, work, relationships and extra-curriculars with countless deadlines we can clearly see the idea we're a society revolving around speed isn't much of a stretch. Though it's an interesting theory that slowing down would benefit our lives (and I agree with it), I'm just not sure that it's possible to slow down in a society that's moving so fast. I mean there are some choices we can consciously make, such as learning to say "no" to certain things, but it's not like I can just pass by my exercise science project with the excuse that I've made a new lifestyle choice.

Really Mrs. Stover. I saw it on the internet.

I understand what he's trying to say and he's right. For me, I know that some of the best times I've ever had were when I had lost all concept of time and was just in the moment with people I care about. What the talk is trying to point out is that these precious moments don't have to be as few and far between as we make them out to be. As the speaker pointed out, all we have to do is slow down a little, put away the cellphone, close facebook and take a look around. Suddenly little things in our daily routines seem much more prominent, like the man's realization about the bonding he could have with his child while reading.

I agree that we can increase productivity, and such with slowing down, but I don't believe that's completely feasible in our society today without a huge behavioural shift. I do believe that we can slow down certain aspects of our lives however and still reap the benefits. The greatest benefit of it I feel is using that downtime to really establish and strenthen the relationships in our lives. We take a lot of people for granted in our daily routines and many of them won't be around forever. It's only by taking a minute to realize just how much they mean to us and making sure they know it.

Never stop questioning.