The way of 24 hour society

In the past, people knew when to sleep and wake up; usually when it gets dark and when there is light, respectively. That happened since most people required light to do activities in everyday life. As it got dark there was nothing people could do. Then, people started to adapt in order to be able to live in the changing society. People once changed the way they live after the Industrial Revolution, and then again in the Digital Revolution. The two revolutions result in a better world, which support the people around the world. However, the modern society has changed in different ways. A 24-hour society is a society that is active all day long. Since the starting of the 24-hour society, people’s lives have changed continually every day. Some might insist that 24-hour society benefits economy of that city. In my perspective, I believe there are more issues than benefits there are from this society. Despite the fact according to the article “Working Hours” which states that “In the last 150 years working hours have decreased substantially, particularly in today’s richest countries. ” (Charlie), there are still problems occurring to population in today’s society. The 24-hour society must be pointed at for worsening people’s lives even if they work in a shorter period of time. The 24-hour society causes many harmful effects mainly to people including health issues, social issues and environmental issues. The 24-hour society damages human’s physical health by interfering body’s functions. The article “The 24-hour Society” claims that “Shift work can cause people’s circadian rhythms (the ‘body clock’ governing processes such as the sleep/wake cycle) to conflict with their daily schedule. This is the main cause of adverse health and safety impacts from shift work. ” (Parliamentary Office) To clarify, the society makes people to unable to manipulate time properly, which changes the body’s biological clock. For example, working at night disrupts the body since it’s normally a time to sleep. Long-term shift workers have major impacts on health. It increases over 40% risk of having cardiovascular diseases, which results from the meal taken in ‘biological night’. It may also cause gastrointestinal disorder due to late eating and appetite disturbance. Not only physical health is affected by the interference in circadian rhythm, psychological health problems also arise from it. The main problem is stressed, as people need to think more at night because brain functions better during daytime. People have less inspiration when working at night, so they are likely to have mental fatigue. Mental fatigue reduces the ability to do work, as a result people get even more stressed. In addition, mental fatigue from working at night makes individuals to have worse decisions, which may cause accidents when driving at night. Social problems also happen because of this type of society. It can affect marital life since more people decide to work at night, and there is less time for individuals to stay with their families. Studies show that American men married less than 5 years, with children, show shift work increases the risk of separation or divorce by six times. This can cause a serious economics even more in the future. Children whose parents are separated or divorced are the ones that should be concerned. Divorcing can affect children to face problems at school such as bullying, consequently they might not grow up properly. Then, there are less people in the future who can further develop the country. It also affects single mothers to work even harder to be able to raise her children. The stress from this problem may also raise the number of committing suicide. Environmental problem is a big concern from the 24-hour society. From the article “Night-Shift Work Is on the Rise Globally – and It’s a New Wellness Problem”, it suggested that “Nowadays, almost 20 percent of EU workers are working nights, compared to an average of about 10 percent 10 or 15 years ago. ”, and it also states that “The trend is similar around most of the world. In the UK, the number of night-shift workers has risen by more than 250, 000 in the past five years. ” (Thierry). As many more workers coming out to work at the night time in addition to ordinary daytime workers, more vehicles are required to meet the needs. This for sure will release more pollutions into the surrounding. More shops, restaurants and businesses open at night will lead to more energy consumption, then more fossil fuels are burned, and again it emits pollutions including greenhouse gases and dust particles. This will result in a slowing down of the country development since government also needs to worry about the environment if there are too much pollutions. The 24-hour society is a society that never sleeps, and it is alive the whole day. This kind of society is expanding into many cities in rural areas. It promotes the economic to bet better in a short time and in a smaller area, but in a long-term result, it creates more problem that may become a permanent problem. People are the ones who are the most affected from this society. People’s health is significantly damaged from working at night. Heart diseases, intestinal diseases, diabetes and obesity are increased in risks as human’s biological clock is interfered. Big Social problems may arise in the future from the rising of the divorcing rate. Environmental issues are also an important aspect to be considered from the 24-hour society. Both the government and population should think wisely, and they are the ones who decide which way they want the country to be. Government and population should be aware of spreading this society, and they should prevent the future problem to occur. People should reconsider whether to work at night while government must manage the society. Government needs to establish policies to control, for example a policy to control the limitation of working time or promote more daytime jobs. Hence, the country that is temporary or permanently developed depends on them, and they should choose before it is too late.