I find this difficult to answer because I don’t like to imagine stopping progress. The world needs to evolve and change and we as humans need to know how to roll with all of the punches.
I mean of course if we could un-invent some of the evils like cigarettes and diseases like cancer that would be great.
But if we’re thinking in terms of objects/machines that have been invented, would we want to turn back time?
Inventions were made to make our lives better and easier. Did the person who invented washing machines just get so sick of going down to the river with the wash board? Did they know it would partly lead to humans eventually becoming out of shape and unhealthy.
Imagine the work of clearing land by hand, with axes and plows driven by horses, a human at the helm. The person who invented machinery like tractors probably thought he was doing the world a favour. And he was. But instead of moving our bodies to do the work, we sat on our butts in a tractor seat.
We stopped walking and we rode in cars. We stopped going all over town to shop and went to Walmart. We stopped getting up to change the channel and instead sat on the couch all evening, remote in hand. We stopped cooking and went to the McDonald’s drive through.
It’s all paradoxical. We couldn’t have stayed where we were. Evolving is normal. These changes are exciting. But it did make us lazy and more unhealthy. So now we need to exercise to try and live a long and healthy life. Prior to the 1900’s we didn’t need gym memberships. But is that necessarily a good thing?
Smart phones and social media we could do without, sure. But phones are so handy, in so many ways. The memes and reels I find on social media make me laugh. Watching the stand-up comedians while I’m dying on the elliptical makes the time go faster. Do I spend too much time on my phone and on social media apps? Probably. But really, it’s just replaced the time I used to spend watching TV.
I really think that if we could just find the balance, we’d be golden.
bloom.planted.north 
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