Instant gratification
in stant |ˈinstənt|adjective1 happening or coming immediately : the offense justified instant dismissal.

Today I found myself thinking about the word “instant”

“You come down here right this instant!” A mother yells to her children who are playing upstairs.

Why does everything today have to be based around speed? I mean, if you think about it, we as a society have been conditioned to believe that faster is better. If you type in this world on google, the autofill comes up with instant hot water heater, instant win sweepstakes, & instant messenger. Oh let us not forget what it says right under the search bar after pressing enter, About 215,000,000 results (0.21 seconds). that is faster than the blink of an eye. We get results instantly. Before I go any further, I just want to clarify that I am not here to complain about the internet & technology, because how else would I be able to post this so everyone can see it? I am here to talk about how I think advances in technology and speed have drastically made an effect on human lives.

Impulse, we all do things on impulse these days. For example, an item on eBay ends in 58 seconds, you think to yourself “That is so cheap! I have been looking for this!” and click the buy it now button, only to realize that shipping and handling was triple the asking price and you are now legally required to pay that person. You only wanted to spend the amount you saw, the list price, but if you had taken the time to think about what you were doing and observe every detail, you wouldn’t find yourself in a situation like that. You would of seen that the shipping and handling was in fact how much the item was listed for and that the bid price was merely a trap to get your attention.

Impulse, text messages are written messages between mobile phones exchanged over a network. They can be sent and received within a matter of seconds. The thing about text messages is that both the sender and receiver know that you will see what it says. There is even an option on some cell phones that allows you to see that the message has been successfully delivered to the persons phone. There is no way around it, if a person confronts you over a text message you better have a back up plan because there is no way of talking yourself out it.

You know, the one good thing about television shows is that they actually show people interacting face to face and engaging in conversation. No matter what show you watch, we always see scenes of a friend going over to another friends house and saying things like: “Hey man, just stopping by to see if you were coming out with us tonight”, or “I just came by because you seem upset with me this morning in class”. It’s cheesy, I know, but it is also unrealistic. How many of your friends do you know that would drive all the way over to your house just to ask you these simple kinds of questions? The kinds of questions that you could get the answer to instantly if you just texted, called, or instant messaged them? Let me remind you that cell phones are a great way to keep in touch and keep you safe, but they have also given us reason to not engage in face to face time with our friends, family, and co-workers. If anything, it will teach our younger generation to avoid all personal contact if possible and that anything you need to get answered can be done by the comfort of your blackberry or personal computer.

I just wish that we could find a balance between technology and our relationships.  I wish that it would not be considered rude just stopping by a friends house unless you called or texted first.  I wish that when you said you were coming to pick up somebody for dinner that they would just be waiting outside for you instead of saying “text me when you’re here & i’ll come down.”

What do you guys think?