Life in the fast lane 'speeds up'

This Article is taken from:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6614643.stm

This article is very intriguing. What are the effects of this "swift walking" behavior to our society? Modern era demands total commitment of a person in order to follow the pace of this community that has been increased lately. Are humans evolved to work more effectively? But basically, life itself that causes humans to do this habit. One very major factor is technology. Communication has shortened distance and time. Live broadcasts give to us the recent news happening at real-time. As everything speeds up due to technology (esp. communication), society must cope with it so that the world won't left them. This "instant" technology has driven us to think that everything must happen right away. Let's focus to Singapore. Singapore as the fastest cities must have some factors that have influenced it. Of course as a metropolitan city, residents in Singapore is tied with rush hours (for father), shopping lists (for mother), and also tons of homework (for the child). For addition the stress of work, family routine, etc; can make the situation even worse. This destructive habit is shown by fast-walking as a general symptom. The mind of people in Singapore recently has been shifted to task - oriented. Their purpose of life is to finish their task as quickly as possible, so that they may have additional time to finish their other task. The problem gets worse if they didn't spend enough time for their spiritual needs. What about family time? Break? Going out? Not only these behaviors could have bad impact to our health, but also to our personality and mind as well.

This habit tends to happen in the "urban society" and "developed countries". The sign is that this habit usually happens in the community where time takes charge. Because people are being controlled by time, people can’t enjoy their life and pursuit happiness. People tend to their works and finish it. They have forgotten that the main objective in life is to be happy, not wealth or status. Let’s look at those countries. Middle East is the slowest. Where Middle East is rather undeveloped region (except Qatar, Uni Emirates Arab, and Saudi Arabia), people control time instead. They don’t have high goals that need to be fulfilled. They enjoy their life, and later benefited from it. Middle East has low GNP (Gross National Product), but it does have high GNH (Gross National Happiness).

The development is getting faster, and the working rate is getting more efficient. If we think about the consequences, walk quickly gives lots of bad impacts also. It clearly depicts that us are inconsiderate, time-minded, and also unhappy people. If we can change this, make people to become more relax, the world would be a better and happy place. But, it’s impossible. The only thing that we can do is to prevent this behavior for getting worse. Becoming a happy and relax person, start by walking slowly. Enjoy your life, and time that has passed away