Today’s world… building perceptions of instant gratification

One major aspect of my life that seems to have missed the “revolution bus” is the elevators at my office… or perhaps the ones at the mall. I think they are a good lesson on the concept of waiting. Even though it doesn’t make any difference, I still end up hammering on the buttons until I see a elevator door open up for me. However, the difference it has made to me is… it increased my impatience.

And when I talk of user frustation, there is a whole list that crops up… right from the endless wait for the computer to come out of stand-by / hibernate mode when I want to get working on something important… to the water heater that takes atleast 5 minutes to dole out hot water. When we come to think about it, it’s crazy that we cannot accept those few minutes to be a reasonable time to wait. The real question is how valuable that delay time is to us in the real terms… what do we want that few minutes for? or what can we do in that time?

The whole world seems to be running like a clock in fast-forward mode. while I’m constantly amazed by the pace of today’s world and the flexibility that technology brings to our use of time, it is definitely changing our perception of the value of the minutes and seconds that make up our very existence.

What is it we’re looking to achieve…. fame in as little time as possible. Shortcuts seem to be the mantra of today. Look at the umpteen reality/talent TV shows…. blocking every channel for most part of the day… this has created such a phenomenon that ordinary public (including a rickshaw puller and a laundry man) queue up for days together in thousands just for a chance of giving an audition to the judges with no regard for whether it results in a praise or a ridicule. At best, this whole journey promises them a chance of short-term accelerated fame with no guarantee of longevity. No one really bothers about becoming the “lambi race ka ghoda”… the problem is that fame is the ultimate objective and now this has become to look like the most viable career option for the younger generation.

Come to think about it… one of the biggest paradoxes is the whole “voting” phenomenon. When we have elections coming up, there are social organizations and the Election Commission themselves who run around spending money just to get the eligible citizens to register for a vote…. and then make all means possible for them to cast their vote. If you think about all the struggles there have been in history with people fighting for that right to vote, it is just amazing that so many are now so passive about exercising that freedom. Shift frames to the TV shows… and the voting statistics seems to be breaking records every week. And lo’ exercising that vote actually costs people money. Yet we need encouragement to vote for free for something as important as deciding the political future of countries.

Can’t get crazier than this… huh!!!! We seem to have really got our priorities wrong somewhere… or maybe we have moved away from the reality. So, when it comes to thinking about our time and how we use it… it’s all about keeping it real and not surreal.