Commentary

Instant gratification

May 1, 2025   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

Did you ever notice the longest minute of the day is when you place something in the microwave and you stand there staring at the electronic timer counting down the 60 seconds so you can retrieve your bran muffin heated to just the right temperature?

Modern Western society has become a place where everyone expects instant gratification –– no waiting.

It’s not necessarily a bad thing. Technology has advanced modern living to a point where things happen a lot faster than they used to.

A trip to the bank to make a deposit or withdrawal used to be a tedious undertaking. There was always a long line-up and for some reason, everyone spoke in hushed tones. As a kid, I remember going to the bank with my mom. I would sit in one of the old-school oak chairs while she stood in line waiting for that moment when the teller would say, “Next.” It was a horrifying and tiresome experience for a six-year-old to sit in that hard wooden chair and be afraid of making a noise that would disrupt the entire process.

Now, if there is one person ahead of you at the instant teller, it’s not a long wait. The instant teller turns the entire banking experience into a one-minute, or less, exchange, and you don’t even have to wish the machine to ‘have a good day.’

I had a reason to actually go into my bank branch a couple of weeks ago. It was empty. The teller mentioned she hadn’t seen me in a year.

After our business was concluded, she laughed and said, ‘See you next year!’

Your home computer provides instant gratification. Click on a website, and a couple of seconds later, you have the information you need.

If your computer falters for any reason and you don’t get that information the instant you ask for it, it’s a long wait staring at that screen.

In reality, it may be only a few seconds, but it’s a very frustrating few seconds. 

I saw a very interesting documentary a few years ago where some scientists tried to explain how time is relevant to different living things. Some creatures experience time at a different rate than others.

This, the documentary explained, is why a common house fly manages to escape your rolled-up newspaper while a snail crossing on the sidewalk hasn’t got a chance if you decide to step on it.

To the house fly, that rolled-up newspaper is coming at him at a speed a lot slower than you see it – the fly has time to react and get out of the way. Considering a house fly only lives for a month or so, their sped-up sense of time may mean they think they are living a lot longer than they really are.

A sense of time changes for people as well. Time speeds up as you get older. When you’re a child, a half-hour seems like a long period of time, especially when you’re in math class or doing something you have little interest in.

By the time you’re middle age, that half-hour is taken up in no time at all as you grab a coffee in the morning and turn the key in the car to get on your way, and you realize it’s been 30 minutes since you poured the coffee into your travel mug.

I think for people who live to be 100, a day must be like hearing the alarm clock ring, then realizing a few minutes later, it’s dark and time to hit the sack.

Our modern sense of instant gratification is really apparent if you like to watch the videos that may come across your Facebook page.

When YouTube first started, it was at the same time that video cameras became more affordable, so it was an obvious platform to explore. People posted videos of just about everything, from historic events to family birthday parties, it was all there for the world to see.

However, some people didn’t get the concept of editing. Sometimes a video would show way too much before the actual event occurred.

Now that everyone’s cellphone can record video, there is a video that captures pretty much everything from around the world.

Now I get videos that will contain short segments of around five seconds. No waiting for the action.

If you want to see 30 funny videos of people falling down icy stairs, wham, bam, there you go – 30 videos in 1.5 minutes. Instant gratification.

However, there are some things that will never speed up.

Some of the best things in life are done as slowly as possible. 

Readers Comments (0)