[Republished here by permission of the authors from their “Lifestyle Tips for Over 50s,” affiliated with their website “Passionate Retirees,” August 18, 2018.]
| “Mr Jones, you have no option but to have this surgery” |
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One of the most profound features of daily life today is that we have so many options in our lives. In fact, in many ways, we have been spoiled to expect a plethora of choices. Mr Jones probably had no choice but surgery in the 1950’s. Even in the 1960’s our choices in life were quite limited.
Let’s take a stroll down memory lane. If you had prostate or breast cancer in the fifties, there was only one choice: surgery. In the decade of the 1950’s the survival rate for these cancers was less than 50%; today it is more than 90%.
For those with breast cancer there is still surgery, but often only a small lump is removed, not the whole breast, and there are alternatives such as radiation and very targeted chemotherapy with fewer side effects.
Today with prostate cancer there are also more options, and with prostate enlargement, there are some six or seven new technologies, with more new ones coming on board each year. It is hard to keep up with the changes.
In the field of ophthalmology, technology has restored people’s vision that would have only been dreamed of fifty years ago.
Another area that is so striking is the uptake of technology in the media and entertainment industry. We went from three television network channels in the 1950’s to an absolute plethora of cable channels, Netflix, and the ability to access entertainment virtually anywhere on the planet with our mobile devices. In the home, we now have automated tools that can turn your TV on, raise your blinds, start your coffee maker, or open your garage. The options are endless.
Isn’t this all terrific? Would you want to go back to that world of the 1950’s? Well, of course not. Perhaps some would, but most of us appreciate what we have today, especially in the area of health. Procedures such as hip and knee replacements allow people to continue living productive lives well into their senior years.
We do, however, have to ask ourselves the question whether all these choices are really a good thing. Everything in life has both benefits and drawbacks. Often we only see the positives and shut off the negatives. Most people would be hard pressed to see a downside to enhanced health from procedures that have extended our ability to live longer lives. When it comes to technology, though, some contrarian voices are speaking out about some dangers.
An ex-Google employee, Tristan Harris, has spoken out about how tech companies hijack the brain of children using what he termed “brain hacking,” which stimulates the use of devices with constant messaging and notifications. The end result is the addiction to technological tools. Of course, we have heard about internet addiction, but did we really think the companies would be so sinister with our young people?
One final thing about choices. When we have too many options, we can become frozen, where there is too much evaluation, so a state of analysis paralysis sets in. A recent example was when we had representatives from various solar companies come out to talk about solar energy for our home. We were bombarded with so many options, from components to price structure, that in the end we shut down and decided to put it on the back shelf for a while, to be revisited at a later date.
Options are a great thing, but beware: they can become so overwhelming that they overtake our lives.
| Copyright © 2018 by Dr. Ely Lazar & Dr. Adele Thomas |
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