Sedentary Me

      <source: http://merewyn.us/sedentary-series-of-abstract-figures/>

      In "A Plea for the Physical", Kate Braid's essay, living with physical activeness is recommended by the author. She especially emphasizes the importance of communication through real body motion, not just communicating in cyber world. She also encourages readers to be physically active and exercise more. However, I am living a very sedentary life, the one that contradicts her opinion in every ways.

      Sedentariness plays too much significant role in my life. I can't get out of it. I always try to be little bit more comfortable, and I want things to be little bit more convenient. For example, after I moved to an apartment in Wesbrook Mall, I got out of the habit of walking. Before I moved, I lived fairly near to the village, so when I went to the village for a McDonald's meal or a bowl of chow mien, I always walked. However, after I moved, I had to walk a lot to go to the village. So, whenever I had to go to the village, I started taking a bus. It didn't matter to me that it actually took more time for me to take a bus and get off at the village than walking. Walking for that distance without anything to motivate me was very annoying job. Now, you will say I'm too lazy and not exercised. The truth is, I am. As I stopped to exercise after finishing P.E. 10 course, I slowly became lazier and lazier and it finally came to this: a person who cannot, or rather will not, walk for more than 20 minutes. As I exercised less and less, the laziness and sedentariness in me grew.

      If you say laziness for exercising is a push factor, the pull factor of becoming sedentary was the recent significant development of internet and electronic devices. It will not be a false statement to categorize a teen's life with three steps: Rest - School/Education - Internet. Rest here, is defined to include sleeping, eating, and all the other things that one do which is not related to some form of education and electronic devices. Now, many will find this is actually true, especially those people who are always online on Facebook whenever I log on. (No offence :D) With bombardment of entertainments such as games, TV shows, dramas, movies, social networking, and etc, internet users seldom get bored. For me, after using tons of internet for about 4 to 5 hours, I get out of the cyber world due to boredom and tiredness. After getting out of the computer, I chat with my friend via Facebook message or Kakaotalk. This hugely addictive internet became part of our lives from being a syndrome. Moreover, it became the chain that would keep us from escaping the recent "sedentarism" boom.

      Even though I have awareness of the negative effects of being a sedentary person, I still pursue to be one. It is not matter of preference to me. I always preferred to live more physically, but in reality, I lack the will to maintain the state. After writing few paragraphs about living sedentary life, I made up my mind to do physical activities with my friends. Actually, for many days my friends have asked me to exercise with them. I always refused due to busy schedule and other excuses. However, now that I feel the urgent need of more exercise, I decided to exercise with my friends by playing soccer, going swimming, and walking more. Maybe after few months, my life will change significantly, in a positive way.