Traditionally, residents lived in villages with spacious outdoor activity space, but nowadays a soaring number of youngsters prefer to settle down in urban areas, especially in metropolises like New York, Shanghai, London and Beijing. This phenomenon has evoked both positive and negative outcomes.
On the one hand, there are some disadvantages for people living in houses with limited outdoor space. Firstly, the well-being of citizens is the main concern as small space for people to exercise may affect mental health. For example, the suicide rate in Seoul is much higher than rural areas in South Korea because there are seldom landscapes in this concrete jungle modern city give people a sense of desperate. Secondly, crowded communities without enough outdoor entertainment space may lead to an unhealthy lifestyle, resulting in chronic disease and obesity. The proliferating service industry has proved the fact that citizens is getting more and more lazier. They avoid meeting acquaintances in their free time outside, therefore, they decrease the frequency to go outside resulting from limited outdoor activity fields. Thus, obesity and a series of diseases coming that increase the burden of governments on medical system.
On the other hand, the reasons behind this phenomenon reflect the positive aspects of development. First and foremost, the soaring number of city dwellers mirrors that there are more job opportunities and higher income compared to rural areas, otherwise, the majority of people prefer to work in their hometown. Additionally, the crowds provide a sufficient labour force for the construction of infrastructure and sift talents who can make breakthrough outcomes, propelling the development of cities.
In conclusion, although there are both blessings and curses, I believe the drawbacks outshine the merits because the advantages mentioned above can be achieved through other options which are probably harmless, or at least less harmful to the mental and physical health of individuals.