Now that we’re well into the new century, it’s easy to look back on the past hundred years with a little bit of clarity. If I could define the 20th century I would say that it was a time of acquiring stuff. The western world was building up its infrastructure. But I think the challenge of the 21st century will be learning to do without.
Now that we have learned how to store and access information digitally, there isn’t as much need for bulky machinery and tools.
We don’t need a big television set. We need a thin screen on the wall that takes up almost no room.
We don’t need a filing cabinet. We just need a computer with lots of hard drive space.
We don’t need a fax machine. We just need a fax to email account.
We’re seeing this paradigm shift affecting everything both pragmatically and aesthetically.
Suddenly it makes sense to be environmentally friendly because we’re realizing as a collective society that having more stuff isn’t necessarily better. If anything it makes our lives feel cluttered. And in the case of the environment, more stuff is making us sick.
We’re seeing architecturally that everything is being designed to make maximum use of space. We don’t have to have a big house. We just need a house that feels big through good design.
The old adage is ringing true. Less is better.
Relevant Tags:conservation, doing without., environmentalism, fax to email