fad diets list 2012

10 ways the current modern age is bad forhumanity 10. our current era of mass information couldbe a dark age in the future while most people think of our modern eraas a golden age of technology and progress, the truth is that a lot of archivists andother data storage experts are extremely worried

fad diets list 2012, about the long term storage of the currentsum of humanity’s knowledge. right now, almost everything is stored insome electronic form, and the few records that are still on paper could easily be destroyedby adverse climate conditions. they are worried that if any kind of seriousupheaval happened, whether it were more like

a climate shift, or something caused by massivewars, we could end up in a position where nearly all of our knowledge was irretrievable. many of our current electronic forms of storagewould not hold up that well in the event of a serious disaster, but even if they did,we would need to have the equipment to read them. in other words, if we don’t have the rightelectronic devices, all of that information is basically inaccessible. and if the information on how to make moreof those electronic devices resides on electronic storage we cannot read, then we will be prettymuch completely out of luck.

archivists would like to find ways to storeinformation that is more reliable and doesn’t degrade so easily over time like paper, butalso doesn’t require a lot of sophistication like electronic media. while it is good that they are at least thinkingabout it, time is running out and even if they had the technology today, shifting allof the worlds information to a new storage media would take many, many years. 9. the internet has allowed for echo chambersof radical and abhorrent ideas the internet is certainly an incredible stepin terms of communication.

you can now wake up in the western hemisphereof the world and instantly get in touch with someone on the eastern hemisphere literallywithout even getting out of bed. information now spreads at an incredibly fastrate, and most people would tell you that people are better informed than ever, dueto the internet. however, the internet communication era isnot without its downsides. mark twain once famously said that “a liecan get halfway around the world before the truth can get its pants on,” but in today’sinstant communication system, we can imagine we would have had to amend the quote to amuch more drastic degree. the internet has given people access to mostinformation in the world, but that doesn’t

necessarily mean it has made people betterat spotting untruths. to make matters worse, this ability for horriblethings to spread on the internet very quickly has led to the rise of all kinds of awfulgroups who band together in solidarity, such as pedophiles, and neo-nazis. where once these people’s abhorrent viewpointswould be rightfully shunned, now they can go online and find a community where peoplegive excuses to each other for their horrible behavior and sometimes encourage further criminalaction. some recent killers like elliot rodger anddylan roof were partly radicalized by hate groups — it cannot be said the online groupswere directly responsible, but their violent

and extremist rhetoric can help push unstablepeople over the edge. 8. the digital age of “right now” is ruiningour patience and long term planning capabilities many people have said that today’s childrenhave little or no sense of delayed gratification anymore. however, what those people don’t realizeis that it is not just the children — it’s pretty much anyone who regularly uses theinternet or mobile devices. the way the internet works today is like abright, shiny slot machine that gives you a dopamine high every time you pull that leverno matter what.

people go to the internet looking for thatinstant satisfaction — whether it is a like on their facebook status, or that next tidbitof information. people are also able to instantly order almostanything, and if they are willing to pay enough, they can get it in less than 24 hours. they can watch, listen to, or download almostany file imaginable, and there is no need to wait or even leave your room — or whateverlocation you’re currently in. while many people praise the amazing convenienceof the modern world, some worry that there are unseen negative consequences. while some will defend the ‘now’ cultureby stating that we are simply living in a

faster paced and more connected modern world,the truth is that studies have shown that not only do people of today tend to have lesssense of delayed gratification, but that this is actually detrimental in quantifiable terms. to put it fairly simply, researchers who studyinternet addiction have found that the individuals with the ailment require constant gratificationand find it much harder to plan long term. the internet may be incredibly convenientand make a lot of things very easy for us, but that isn’t necessarily a good thingin all ways. 7. basic geography skills are abandoned moreand more as gps and other devices take their

place not that many years in the past, people wereexpected to know their north, south, east and west pretty well, without even using acompass. most people were taught growing up how touse various tricks to figure these things out, but today, unless a kid is specificallyin a group like the boy scouts, they won’t have much clue how to do these things uponreaching adulthood. this is, of course, because of the rise ofdevices like the gps. people are abandoning learning skills likebasic geography because now machines can handle that task for them just fine.

it’s kind of like how the rise of calculatorshas made people worse at math, in general. while this may seem harmless, the consequenceis that as humans we become more and more dependent on machines, and we forget how todo important things without them. apart from the more probable chance of ourdevices running out of power while we are in a situation where we need to know basicnavigation, there is also the possibility that positioning satellites may not alwaysbe working properly. the exponential threat of space junk couldhave a landslide effect that could wipe out hoards of satellites if the world doesn’tquickly find a solution, so we may not always have that to rely on.

many people also don’t realize that themaps that gps systems use are often out of date, which means you may end up on a completeloop, or trying to continually follow a nonsensical route because the road was rebuilt and themap was not. in that situation, you will need to know howto interpret road signs and use basic geographical knowledge to get back on track and find yourway to your destination. 6. sedentary lifestyles and microevolution towardsuch could be calamitous in the face of real disaster it’s no secret that people around the world,and residents of the united states in particular,

are suffering a serious weight, and publichealth crisis in general. it’s not just that people are eating moreand more, or that they are eating the wrong foods; it is also that people are exercisingless and less. humans were once way more active creatures,and in a very short time span we have become incredibly sedentary creatures. many people get up, walk around the housefor a bit to get ready for work. they go to their car and sit down while theydrive to work, then they sit at their desk most of the day. they sit in the car on the way home and spendmost of the day when they get home sitting,

because they are mentally exhausted afterwork. the point of this is not to criticize theaverage person, but rather to point out that many people simply have little time or needin their day anymore for any rigorous physical activity. the increasingly fast paced world we livein has also caused people to take increasing shortcuts when it comes to meal preparation,including simply skipping prep and eating out, which has also contributed to the problem. while some scientists speculate that we willevolve over time to function better while spending most of the day slumped over electronicdevices, this could turn out to be a very

bad thing, if we even manage to evolve thatfar to begin with. if we evolve to mostly live in tandem withelectronics and then we lose most of them for any particular reason, many people wouldthen find survival very difficult. the more reliant we are on artificial means,the more danger we are in if those means ever collapse. while some people worry about artificial intelligencetaking over the world, tech leaders are more worried about us putting too much stock ina computer system or systems in general, and then watching it crash or malfunction. 5.

the amount of skilled laborers is decreasingdue to machines and assembly line systems assembly lines took off in the days of henryford, when mass production of the automobile began, and since then it has been nothingbut trouble for the skilled laborer. the truth is that while many people creditford with the invention of the automobile, he was building on the ideas of several pastinventors. his true claim to fame was always the assemblyline systems that he designed and perfected for building cars, and it quickly became allthe rage. manufacturers and businesses saw a way tohugely cut production costs while outputting tons of product, and before long everyonewas doing it.

many professionals did their best to makethe system incredibly efficient, often at the expense of the workers’ health or sanity. from the very beginning skilled laborers werecomplaining, because they rightly realized that if all the skilled components of theirjob could be broken up into pieces on a line and then each given to unskilled laborers,they would be out of a job, or at least lose tons of work. many of them were forced to take work on anassembly line doing small bits of drudge work, only working on one piece when they couldhave made the entire thing themselves. while this has helped the modern age boomto an absolutely insane expansion throughout

the globe, it has cost the world an incredibleamount of skilled laborers overall. more and more work is done piecemeal by peoplewho are only taught to do a small part of the overall product creation. while mass production methods are efficient,they may hurt humanity as we continue to have less and less people who have full knowledgeof how to build or design the things we most use — some of which are very important notjust for our convenience, but also for our survival. 4. vitamin-d deficiency due to lack of sunlighthas become a huge problem

while many people joke about being “vampires”today, due to staying up late and then sleeping in during the day, it may not be much of ajoking matter. and, to make matters worse, it affects waymore than just those people who tend to burn the midnight oil. the problem is that the average person intoday’s modern world, whether they get up in the morning or the afternoon, spends verylittle time truly outside exposed to actual sunlight. people get an insane amount of artificiallight every day, while indoors, and even while outdoors, and this light pollution can bevery detrimental to our health.

however, actual exposure to real sunlightis very limited for most people, and when they go to the beach, people often fearfullylather on sunscreen and once again fail to obtain any vitamin-d. of course, sunscreenshould be used in certain situations to avoid actual skin damage, but some people applysuch a strong sunscreen that they not only block any damage, they also avoid gettingany of the potential health benefits of sunlight exposure. having a deficiency in vitamin-d is obviouslynot good for your health, and it has become an increasingly huge problem to the pointit’s practically an epidemic. researchers have discovered that the vastmajority of children today are deficient in

vitamin-d, something that could become anincreasing problem for each new generation. children of today need to either take supplementsor ideally, go outside more often and get actual sunshine. 3. our current mass production systems wastean absolutely insane amount of food worldwide, the amount of food that is thrownaway uneaten and totally unused is absolutely staggering. the numbers themselves are hard to estimatebecause many countries report their numbers differently, or don’t do so at all, butthe best estimates suggest that if all the

wasted food that is thrown away could actuallybe properly distributed, world hunger would not be an issue at all — we would have notrouble feeding everyone. the problem is that like many things in ourmodern world, in order to feed millions of people across huge swaths of land, with anincredible sense of urgency, we have built a very assembly line system for the issue. this system is in many ways efficient in thatwe are able to get fresh food shipped across continents and feed millions of people, thousandsof miles away, but in other ways it is almost criminally inefficient. an incredible amount of food is thrown awayin europe, the united states, and other parts

of the world simply because it does not looknice enough. these are fruits that do not have actual issuesbeyond anything cosmetic, such as being too curvy, or not being red enough, or being toolumpy. truckloads and truckloads of perfectly goodfood are grown and thrown away every year for this reason. the farmers do not even try to sell them,because the grocery stores feel that customers will want the more consistent, beautiful lookingfood. for this reason, absolutely massive quantitiesare thrown straight in the trash heap. this isn’t even counting the amount of foodthat food based businesses waste on a daily,

weekly and yearly basis, or the waste fromthe combined individuals of the world. perhaps if we did not waste food so shockingly,there would be no world hunger. 2. we are forced to multitask in today’s worldand it is really bad for us in today’s word, we are constantly expectedto split our attention. while we are talking to people in person,we always have our phones, which constantly beep at us with notification after notification. people today will halfheartedly interruptthemselves to look at their phone while continuing to talk to others, and those in the groupwill act as if this is completely normal and

often do the same themselves. this constant tendency to be interrupted bycell phones has caused a huge upsurge in distracted driving to the point that many experts arenow worried that distracted driving may be a bigger threat than drunk driving. interruptions are constant and the internetitself is designed to pull our attention all over the place and then back to where we wereagain. many sites will have articles with not justa few links for source information, but dozens of links interspersed throughout brightlyhighlighting colors on almost every other word (…yeah, we get the irony in us pointingthis out).

we are almost expected to jump all over theplace without any rhyme or reason. while some people may boast how good theyare at multitasking, the truth is that researchers have found that whether forced or practiced,multitasking is really bad for your brain. it makes it hard for you to focus properly,and it hurts all tasks you are trying to do at the same time. multitasking also doesn’t really exist — atleast not the way most people think it does. the reason why it is so bad for your brainis because you can only perform one kind of task at a time, so when multitasking, yourbrain is actually just jumping back and forth from each task to the other really fast.

this stresses you out and makes it hard foryou to do anything properly. 1. our narcissistic obsession with taking selfiesnow causes more deaths a year than shark attacks as the latest evolution of the internet explodedin popularity with sites like facebook and buzzfeed, and the viral video or news storybecame a huge thing, we saw another, more irritating trend emerge. before long, people were taking “selfies”— photos that they took of themselves, usually using a mobile device of some sort, and usuallyof the upper half of themselves staring vaguely into the camera.

at first most people actually made fun ofselfies and the culture around them. those that took a lot of them were mockedfor needing attention or gratification from others, and many people found the idea thatyou can’t find someone to take the picture for you to be kind of pathetic. however, despite the mockery, the popularityof taking selfies continued to rise, and before long they became an increasingly normal partof modern life. companies now unironically sell “selfiesticks,” which are devices designed to help you hold out the camera while taking a “selfie.” while some people who don’t enjoy theirpopularity may just consider them a harmless

nuisance, selfies are actually becoming anincreasingly deadly fad. people in recent years have been taking selfiesin stranger places and more dangerous situations in order to get a really cool picture, andit can have less than desirable results. in many cases using these selfie sticks totake pictures near dangerous animals, or near cliffs or high up on tall buildings, haveled people to be mauled, or fall to a grisly deaths. while it isn’t exactly epidemic levels,enough people died from taking selfies last year that selfies have now edged out sharkattacks in yearly deaths. it is a sad reflection on society that somany people are more concerned with getting

the perfect shot of their own glorious visagethan they are of their own personal safety.