<p>Excerpt: "Technology promises to make our lives easier, freeing up time for leisure pursuits. But the rapid pace of technological innovation and the split second processing capabilities of computers that can work virtually nonstop have made all of us feel rushed. We have adopted the relentless pace of the very machines that were supposed to simplify our lives, with the result that, whether at work or play, people do not feel like their lives have changed for the better."</p>
<p>Assignment: "Do changes that make our lives easier not necessarily make them better?"</p>
<p>Essay: "Although changes can make our lives easier, they do not necessarily make them better. While advancements in technology may have given people more leisure time and reduced the need for physical labor, we cannot truthfully state that they have all given us more satisfactory lives.</p>
<p>Technology has made communication quicker, faster, more powerful, and readily available at almost all times - in short, easier. Because of this proliferation of communication, people have less and less truly free time. For example, many high-level workers and executives spend hours on their cellular phones, communicating with fellow employees and bosses not only at their places of work, but their homes as well. Consequently, these individuals find themselves working more and having less real leisure time; even their free time is tainted by the omnipresent cellular phone, a continuous tether to the workplace, cheapening their leisure. And so many workers complain about this and other technological innovations - internet, email, home computers - which bring work from the job to the home; clearly, not all changes which make our lives "easier" make them better.</p>
<p>Another example of change making our lives easier but not better, can be found in the film Wall-E. In this movie, which takes place in the distant future, humans have become soft, weak, and dependent creatures who cannot fend for themselves without technology. The film implies that the technological advances which make life "easier" have continued at such a pace that these future humans live with no obligations, and consequently, experience near-perpetual boredom. These humans, having no real work to do, search endlessly for new diversions, none of which lead to the fulfillment they seek.</p>
<p>thus from everyday life to art, changes which make our life "easier" clearly do not always make it better. Despite the appeal of working less and having more leisure time, these changes often end up perverting the leisure time we already have, leading not to a better life, but a worse one."</p>
<p>Not my favorite essay, but I think I did okay. For the moment I'm trying to avoid sticking in SAT vocab for its own sake, but is that a good or bad thing? Thanks in advance :)</p>