“We live in an age when unnecessary things are our only necessities.”

Quote by Oscar Wilde

So I have been preparing to take the PRAXIS tomorrow and have been taking practice tests online. For the writing portion this was the topic I was given on my practice test today. The multiple choice portion of the test they grade for free but these SOB's wanted me to pay $29 to get my writing graded. So instead of paying them I thought I would let you all judge me today. Here is the response I gave:

This statement could not be more true in today's society. We live in a world where "things" rule our lives. And to make matters worse these "things" are completely unnecessary.

It is no longer acceptable to simply have a phone in your home, you must now keep one on your person at all times. The same is true with Internet access, it seems you now need it with you at all times in order to function. It is also now seemingly necessary to have 250 television channels instead of only 60. While, sadly, the reality of what is truly necessary is completely lost on us. We have turned some of the little extras in our life into full-blown requirements for daily living.

 Our consumer-minded society has taught us that anything we desire must be a need. We need to remind our children the difference between the things they want and they things that they require. By reading of extreme poverty in The Grapes of Wrath, you are quickly brought back to reality. The things that we see as necessary in our society are simply perks. The basics of what we need to live can be found outside our front door, if we dare get off of the couch. 

How often do we go to dinner and see a family of people not speaking to one another or even glancing up at the waiter because they are too distracted by their cell phones? Recently, I witnessed a grown man and his father having dinner together while the son played "Words with Friends" on his Ipad he had brought into the restaurant with him. We seem to be spending quality time with things instead of people. We are so distracted by what a celebrity is tweeting that we may not notice the status of our children's education or a friend in need of help.

It is easy to get caught up in "keeping up with the Jones'" but if we begin to require less perhaps we could become the Jones' that everyone wants to be like. There is something to be said for living a simple life. It would not be a perfect life but it would be less stressful, more fulfilling, and probably more rewarding. Therefore, it's important to think about what "unnecessary necessity" we could begin to live without.

Ta-da and that was a half-hearted effort because I was hungry and Ike was pestering me to take him to the dog park. Here's hoping I do a little better on the real thing tomorrow and don't get so distracted and completely off topic.