Human #1 approaches the door and goes for the automatic opener. When the door doesn’t swing wide, the human tries again to no avail. Upon the third failed attempt, the human reluctantly opens the door himself and continues on.

Human #2 approaches the door. Unfortunately, the aforesaid scenario repeats itself. After some observation sitting in the entrance of Montgomery Mall, rather than just open the door, I found that many Homo sapiens will rely on technology to do the strenuous labor for them.

The first door that people gravitate towards in the row of doors at the entrance of the mall is the automatic door. Technology simply fuels our tendency to be lazy on a regular basis.

Take another example. Those moving walkways at the airport? They’re supposed to be used to propel travelers faster throughout the airport if they’re about to miss their flight. For some, the walkways serve an actual purpose. More often than not, you see people hanging out on them, moving at an even slower pace than those who opted to walk.

This laziness simply amplifies when the human finds him or herself at the Metro. Upon sighting the escalators that are on the fritz, the human grumbles. When the escalators are actually functioning properly, the ratio of people to escalator greatly exceeds that of the people to cement stairs. So to even out this ratio, shouldn’t we suck it up and just take the old-fashioned route? People tend to just get lazy and stand on the escalators as they rise from the dark depths of the Metro toward the blinding light of the outside world.

You might ask, but if these sacred stairwells and hallowed walkways are in existence, why would we NOT take advantage of their holiness? They’re just begging us to move at a snail’s pace, run backwards and even just sit down and enjoy the ride. Why does life have to be so rushed anyway?

The United States has become so fast- paced that people never really stop and smell the roses. Like in the Washington Post article “Pearls Before Breakfast,” staff writer Gene Weingarten observed how even placing widely acclaimed violinist Joshua Bell in a Metro entrance was not enough to make people stop and listen. Despite playing classical masterpieces perfectly with a violin case at his feet, Bell could barely get a few people to take notice and slow down their busy lives.

If a classical musician cannot even get people at the Metro zipping past him to appreciate good music, then there is definitely a problem with our fast-paced lifestyle. But ultimately the choice to change is up to you. Either continue your ways or make the switch. It all depends on how you look at it.