Convenience obsession

Obsession
The other day when I got off a train and wanted to walk toward stairs, there were so many people on the platform. I was a bit in a hurry but I couldn't make my way through the crowd. So I was moving an inch a second along with the people as they push me from behind. As I came near the stairs I found it was actually not stairs but an escalator that the people had been inching to. When their turn came they got on the escalator and got carried one by one silently down to the exit floor like cattle being carried to a slaughterhouse. By the time my turn came, I noticed that there were only a few people carried by the up escalator which was moving upward beside our down escalator. I felt something strange. If it were one big stairs instead of these separate up and down escalators, we could obviously walk up and down faster and freely according to any situation we encounter and would obviously not have to wait so long.
You smart readers see my point of course. We have become so much obsessed with convenience that we have to put up with any inconvenience that accompanies. The things that are supposed to simplify and facilitate our lives are highly likely to end up opposite. Then why do we crave for convenience?
The picture was taken in San Francisco USA. Many people I met in Chinatown could not speak English. They may strictly maintain their culture even after they acquired citizenship.