Tthe conveniences of modern life are nothing short of amazing. As I write this, my phone is wirelessly streaming some of the greatest hits from the 1700s (Bach, if you must know) to my portable speaker. I can use that same device to get a car to pick me up, have food delivered to my house, or start chatting with someone on a dating app in seconds. To people of even the recent past, this technology would be, to quote Arthur C Clarke’s third lawindistinguishable from magic.
The fact that we as a culture seek and celebrate such shortcuts is understandable. They take a lot of the boredom out of life, make it easier to have fun and save us time and energy. That said, most people can see that convenience has a darker side.
Before we get into that, it’s important to understand why convenience is so enticing in the first place. We often resist doing the very things we need to do to make progress; whether it’s our taxes, the report due next week, or a workout. Behind every well-intentioned plan lurks this dreaded feeling of inertia. Why is this resistance – and our corresponding appetite for comfort – such an integral part of our makeup?
Here, insights from evolutionary psychology (especially the idea of ”evolutionary mismatch”) can help. Evolutionary mismatch is the idea that we evolved for a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, and that while our circumstances have changed drastically, our brains and bodies have not. It says that our instincts are often terribly incompatible with our environment.
Looking at the problem through this lens, some built-in lethargy and the desire for shortcuts make a lot of sense. For hunter-gatherers, food, and therefore energy, was scarce and inconsistently available. Early humans were also vulnerable to things like harsh weather and predators. Surviving meant not using our energy flagrantly or irresponsibly.
Resistance was a necessary counterbalance to the intense flurry of activity that punctuated hunter-gatherer life: foraging in the rain, or running to escape a dangerous animal. This is why we keep asking, “Should I really do this? Shouldn’t I save my energy?” The people who tended to stay sheltered during a snowstorm, when the prospect of obtaining food, were more likely to live and pass their genes on to the next generation. And since those guys are our ancestors, we inherited that attitude.
Since that time, of course, innovation has radically changed things. We have bent technology and our environments at least in part to serve our natural instinct to conserve energy. The question is: what can we lose if we follow our tendency to prioritize comfort and convenience? Few people would argue with the fact that, for example, washing machines, trains and telephones have freed us to live more fulfilling and creative lives. As I said at the beginning, more advanced technologies undoubtedly have their pleasures and opportunities as well. But there’s evidence to suggest that modern-day hyperconvenience can also make our lives more difficult, not less.
Take for example the increase in depression and anxiety that some have linked to smartphones and social media. Likewise, the explosion of metabolic problems over the past few decades can be directly attributed to sedentary lifestyles and a reliance on convenient, calorie-dense but nutrient-poor foods. Levels of loneliness have become so problematic that since 2018 the UK has had a “Minister for Loneliness”. Such solitude, it can be argued, simply wouldn’t be possible without the technologies, from communications to home entertainment, that allow people to live such separate lives in the first place.
In my work as a psychotherapist, I have seen how leaning too heavily on a coping mechanism can reinforce the problem it was intended to alleviate. The sense of security you get from staying home can make you more anxious about going out later. The relief of avoiding an awkward conversation with your spouse makes that conversation even harder to have later. Using a dating app to avoid the awkwardness of flirting only weakens your social skills over time. Constantly choosing the convenient path reduces your ability to deal with inevitable problems. And, from an evolutionary perspective, some discomfort is as essential to our survival as rest and relaxation. Our ancestors survived not simply by being lazy, but by a combination of playing it safe and judicious risk-taking: for example, through the pain and effort of leaving a familiar home to reap the rewards of a place closer to sources of food and better protected from the elements.
Modern hyperconvenience is a kind of deal with the devil. It’s seductive because it appeals to our instincts, but it secretly drains us. This made it easier to get by, but in many ways more difficult to actually succeed. Human flourishing and happiness is not just about existence, but also depends on growth, dynamic problem solving and solidarity through hardship.
Much of my work with my younger clients was not focused on deep psychological conflict or the impact of trauma, but on approaching the basic tasks of life, such as making friends, dealing with work stress or going to new places. What they repeatedly tell me is that the discomfort of such tasks feels overwhelming, and their worlds shrink as a result.
Ideally, today’s conveniences should serve as the support systems that help us move toward worthwhile goals, whether it’s exercising for better health, building a career, raising a family, creating a work of art, or teaching and mentoring other. Achieving these goals always involves some kind of discomfort, but it is this difficulty itself that shapes and develops our character.
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In the technological world that has shaped us, we sometimes have to make a conscious effort to act against our instincts. As a culture, we need to remember—and remind our young—that while comfort feels good in the moment, our ability to adapt and overcome challenges is also part of our evolutionary heritage, and central to the adventure of life.
Dr Alex Curmi is a psychiatrist, psychotherapist and presenter of The thinking mind podcast.
Further reading
Good reasons for bad feelings: Insights from the Frontier of Evolutionary Psychiatry by Randolph M Nesse (Penguin, £10.99)
behave yourself: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst by Robert Sapolsky (Vintage, £12.99)
The anxious generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt (Allen Lane, £25)
