1. Family

Families in the past and now

When one looks back, they see that the image of a family has greatly changed over the centuries. In the past families used to be quite big – sometimes with ten children or even more. Extended families tried to settle close to one another and often several generations lived under one roof. Now relatives are often scattered around the world and people tend to start a family later than they used to, so, as a result, families nowadays have fewer children. Members of an extended family may have family get-togethers only on special occasions – like Christmas or Easter or Thanksgiving in America. This is sad because modern families lack unity and communication and mutual understanding and they don’t pay as much attention to one another and they probably should.

2. Society

Do people see one another?

Think about how many people you meet every day. It can be at school or at hospital, on public transport or in a supermarket, at the airport or at the cinema. It’s probably hundreds every day. Do we look at all those people? Better yet, do we actually see them? Do we pay attention to how they look and what they are thinking about or what is worrying them? It’s sad but we rarely stop while walking along the street to help somebody in trouble even if our help is desperately needed. We just pass these people without looking back, without giving them a second thought. We should, perhaps, pay more attention to what is happening around us and ask people of they are okay and give a helping hand if needed even without being asked. That’s what being a human is about.

3. Shopping

Tricks of a supermarket

Nowadays supermarkets are everywhere, you can see them even in smaller towns – let alone big cities. At first supermarkets look so inviting and convenient – just imagine – you can buy practically everything what is necessary to run your household in just one shop. Moreover, supermarkets seem to have discounts and special offers all the time so it’s a nice way to save some money as well. But if you give it a second thought, you will definitely see that supermarkets actually make you buy much more than you have initially planned on. Funnily, you don’t think if you really need what’s on special offer – it looks such a bargain! Everything in a supermarket – the music, the smells, the arrangement of goods – just make you spend your money so write a shopping list before entering a supermarket and stick to it.

4. Home

An intelligent home

Can you imagine a house of the future? Scientists claim that our future homes will be quite intelligent and will be able to look after their owners very well indeed. For instance, a fridge will remember what food you prefer and if you run out of, say, milk, it will put an order through the Internet and have it delivered to your front door. The microwave will heat your dinner just before you come home after a busy working day and the climate control system will change its modes according to the season. Your wardrobe will get information on weather forecasts from your PC and will select your clothes for tomorrow accordingly. Your washing machine will recognize itself what programme is necessary to wash your linen. So many routine tasks will be solved by domestic robots in the future leaving us much time to dream, work and enjoy life!