We can get almost anything delivered to our door in hours. We can swipe to date, click to buy, stream any movie ever made. Convenience is the organizing principle of modern life. But convenience, it turns out, is making us miserable.
The philosopher Albert Borgmann called this the “device paradigm.” We replace rich, engaged practices with push-button consumption. Instead of cooking a meal with family (a practice involving skill, cooperation, tradition), we microwave something alone. We get the commodity (food) but lose everything else.
Here’s what convenience costs us. First, it atrophies our skills. We become helpless, dependent on systems we don’t understand. Second, it eliminates friction, and friction is often where meaning lives. The effort of planning a trip, the delayed gratification of saving for something, the patience required to learn an instrument are all forms of friction that build character.
Third, convenience isolates us. Every technology that lets you do something alone is a technology that makes it less likely you’ll do it with others. Why ask your neighbor for help when there’s an app for that?
I’m not saying we should abandon modern life and live in the woods (though Thoreau tried that and wrote a pretty good book about it). I’m saying we should be more selective. Some friction is good. Some inconvenience enriches life rather than impoverishing it.
What if you cooked one meal a week from scratch? What if you walked somewhere instead of driving? What if you fixed something instead of replacing it?
The good life isn’t the easiest life. Sometimes it’s the one with just enough difficulty to make you feel alive.