A friend of mine recently sent me the “Mystery Science Theater 3000” episode dissecting the 1951 short film “Spring Fever” that evidently was meant to teach the world the importance of springs. The plot goes something like this: A man doing the manly chore of fixing a couch gets so fed up with the springs that he wishes he never had to see another spring again. Insert the creepy cartoon “Coily the spring sprite” who grants the man his wish and then spends the next three minutes popping up whenever something the man owns doesn’t work because it has no springs. The man learns his lesson, the wish is reversed, and he spends the next half of the movie telling everyone about the importance of springs.

As hilarious as this, along with almost every other instructional movie from the 1950s is, I can’t help but wonder what the world would be like if there were little sprites to make everything easier by granting wishes or allowing us to take our wishes back.

Wanting things to be easier is a part of human nature. It’s the reason we invented the wheel, the pulley system and duct tape.

There have been recent advertising campaigns centered on “easy buttons,” having a product “so easy a caveman could do it” or using the tagline, “yeah, it’s that easy.” These campaigns indicate there is still a desire in our society to have everything easier, so those cheeky sprites would have a plethora of choices in terms of with whom to impart their wisdom.

But then there’s the lottery problem from the movie “Bruce Almighty.” In the movie, everyone in the country who prays they will win the lottery does, meaning the lottery winnings are split hundreds or thousands of different ways, and each individual only gets a small amount. So, while all these people assumed winning the lottery would make them happy, being one of many winners actually makes these people unhappy.

If everything were easy for everybody, nobody would be happy because all their achievements would be worthless.

Worth, after all, is determined by comparison. If the comparison finds everything compared to be equal, then nothing compared has worth.

This is not a statement against social equality because even if all people were socially equal (something I hope for), their worth would be determined by their contributions or potential to contribute to society.

This is also not to say that we should all go back to living in a state of nature with no technology because, even if it were possible, the pervasiveness throughout history of the wish for everything to be easy indicates that human nature would soon dictate that we would seek to create technology and leave that state.

What I am suggesting is that we should appreciate the value of achieving things the hard way.

For example, there are plenty of online templates for fake degrees or online “universities” giving people easy ways to earn degrees in half the time.

So, for all the graduating seniors who worked hard and took the time to earn a real degree from this excellent university, congratulations and best wishes on all your future endeavors.

Talia Sampson is a junior news-editorial journalism and international relations major from Moorpark, Calif. Her column appears Thursdays.