We are a people of instant gratification. We revel in it. It runs our lives from sun up to sun down. In the current generation it has become an unspoken understanding that faster is always better. We want it when we want it.
It is a mentality that extends to all areas of our lives, from government to religion to how we raise our children.
I feel it imbedding itself within my own Type A personality, scrawled across my planner in neat one hour increments, in every compulsive move I make.
I need to know why the heck those poor people are lost on that island and who those freaking "others" are, now. I just want Pam and Jim to stop dancing around each other at the office and get together, now. I need this endlessly long search for my personal identity, my purpose, to end now.
Some days I just want to press pause.
To breathe. To think. To write. To consider the next step before it is here, before any more precious time is wasted.
Perhaps it comes down to time. The search to preserve it, to slow it down, to cram in all we can while we can. It may be why, as a society, we're in such a rush. We want to have the answers to everything right away, in short, to be privy to the future.
The search for knowledge in every sector of the community increases exponentially with each new discovery. It stems from an innate human desire to become better than we are, to seek cures and make life easier.
But what exactly are we racing towards? Old age? This great American race is a predicament that pervades all areas of our lives, spiraling us towards an ultimate end we're not even sure exists.
As individuals and American citizens we feel anxious, hurried for answers. And what is the purpose of this hurrying, if only to keep up in an increasingly competitive capitalist world. A little bit of competition keeps the world moving, but not if it's moving towards a Big Brother like end, an apocalyptic finish.
Our desire for more could be the cause of our ultimate destruction, simply because we aren't content with what we have.
The technological age of instant gratification is leading us toward unhappiness, toward a perpetual feeling of discontent. Nothing can ever satiate our desire for more - and it must be quicker, faster and easier.
Simply sitting and enjoying things like "nature" are entirely too boring for our highly sensitized selves. We need increasingly more stimulation. Movies must have better special effects. Learning anatomy from a textbook is mundane compared to a virtual tour on the Internet. Even communication must be instant, by cell phone, email or AIM.
In college, majors that are a "sure thing" upon graduation are esteemed over general degrees. Working one's way up the ladder to a private office and hefty salary could take years.
We look down on people who aren't working hard enough, who have simply accepted their mediocrity. It's their own fault if they're stuck working at a dead end job or are on welfare. They seem to have given up on Western society's race toward individual perfection all together.
The diet industry is booming, advertisers need only mention the product will provide "instant weight loss" and it will fly off the shelves. TV programs like "Lost" and "CSI" dominate the ratings because they leave people wanting more, and we can't stand not knowing.
We stuff ourselves with food, preferably something prepared as quickly as possible, no matter the nutrient content. Traffic maddens us. We charge material items, a new flat screen TV with all works, because we can. Why wait?
Teenagers don't wait until they're 21 to drink, and a purely virginal bride and groom are difficult to find. The semester always feels like a race to the end, to write the next column, to take the next test. Friends of mine feel helpless as they wait the agonizing few months to hear from graduate schools, as if they have no control over their future.
The effects of the "instant" generation are spilling over into our individual characters as well. We seek control not only of our own lives, but of others, in an "I'm right, you're wrong" state of mind. It prevents us from being open to new ideas, to other ways of life.
Psychologist Sigmund Freud might say that our "id" has taken over, we seek our own pleasure above all else. We're inpatient. We complain when food isn't served fast enough, when our shipment doesn't arrive on time. Marriages fail because we can no longer compromise. Disagreements become "irreconcilable differences" on the divorce papers.
As students we are on the search to be somebody, to make a difference, but what does that mean? Do any of us know how? We tell ourselves we are content even if it isn't true. There is something missing, but we're not sure what.
A resolution must come slowly. With every breath we take. Learning to, as obnoxious as it may sound, appreciate. To be happy with what is.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
