Electricity

Today I realized how dependent on electricity our society really is. I had known that our world requires it, but never had I realized just how far the extent our dependence is.

This realization came about during a power outage in our area. At the time the power shut off, it was sunset and many of the lights of the neighborhood were just turning on. My family quickly realized that unless we did our work by candlelight, progress had to be halted for the day. Our solution to the problem: go to sleep and set our cell phone alarms the time the electricity was estimated to come back on.

It was then I realized that our society simply stops functioning with the lack of power. Our factories shut down, our heat and air-conditioning shut down, and some people's lives shut down without the life support that electricity provides. Some people cannot even entertain themselves without a computer, television, or video game device. We send ourselves into our own off-mode of sleep. My own mother grew up with almost no electricity, but somehow she too became dependent on it.

Though electricity provides an almost infinite number of positive possibilities in the world, I feel that we should take note on just how dependent we are.