science is a murderer

to live is not merely to breathe, walk, grow and eat.

author’s notes

i’m been really lazy to write anything lately, so i decided to post the essay i wrote for a school assignment. the task was to write an article either about “how science helped me improve my life” or “why science ruined my life”.

i’ve edited and added to parts of the article to improve the prose and better fit my current writing style. this article probably won’t feel as raw as my other works, but i hope you still enjoy reading this as much as i did while writing it.

image from pinterest

how i died

no, i’m not writing this from my grave. i am alive. i breathe, walk, talk and do whatever the average human being does. yet, in some way, i am dead. there is only one culprit, science.

science is useful, right?

it is an undeniable fact that science is helpful. it teaches us how many hours of sleep we need, how to manage our health, how to handle our mental health and the proper diet. on paper, it’s amazing.

however, for me, it gets overwhelming. i began tracking my sleep, monitoring my emotions and analyzing minor symptoms as if i were a test subject. simple actions which were once relaxing are turned into numbers and measurements.

what science taught me

science encourages questions, analysis and critical thinking. when this is applied to my own life, it leave little room for living and takes the joy out of living. every mood, every action, everything becomes a problem i need to solve, a problem i need to manage perfectly. suddenly, i feel that every aspect of my life is lacking, in some way or another.

i spend hours on the internet researching how to optimise my life. How to get glow up — backed-up by Science. How to sleep 8 hours every single night — Science-backed. What you should be eating in a day — Science-approved. i don’t know how many hours i’ve lost to consuming media telling me what to do, what to eat, how much i should weigh, how i should look. (maybe i should start tracking those hours too…)

the education system

science and evidence-based education are built upon tests, assignments and measurable results. assignments are tracked, tests are compared and every effort is calculated. learning, which is supposed to be filled with curiosity and a genuine joy for exploration, is turned into a cut-throat competition and and constant evaluation.

well, here we are

and yet, science isn’t evil. it saves millions of lives, makes new discoveries and solves countless of mysteries. but when it dominates life, humans are turned into mere numbers, metrics and digits drawn on charts.

the scientific definition of living is an organism which fulfills all 7 characteristics of the acronym MRS. GREN. by this definition, i am alive. i breathe, walk, grow and eat. this definition, while biologically accurate, is incomplete. to live is not merely to breathe, walk, grow and eat. to live is to wonder, experience, make mistakes and enjoy life. and while science gives us the tools to improve our lives, sometimes, it makes me forget how to live.

to those who know me in real life, no. no you don’t.

enjoyed this post? feel free to check out my other works!

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