Why wait?

Instant gratification sums up the world we live in today. Waiting is a thing of the past. Waiting is somewhere hanging out with jheri curls and virginity past 18. The wonders of technology have removed the need for patience. For the right money just about everything is available in a short amount of time. Reactions to current events occur almost simultaneously with the event. I think that this obsession with instant everything has taken away from our lives. So busy worrying about everything but what we are doing.

Really, what is the rush? Are our lives that busy? Do we need to know everything right now? Think back to life before cell phones? the internet? internet on cell phones? You know, back when people weren't constantly connected. Were things that bad then? Back when enjoying where we were and who we were with was enough. I remember the library. Doing reports and research there. Checking out books to read. Days when being a reporter was a skill rather than a hobby anyone with a computer can do. Now we get news from all kinds of skewed sources. All of it reported with an agenda. Hell, we date through the internet now. Best place to find love. Email, chat, text, and tweets seem to have replaced long walks and conversation, or handwritten love letters and notes. A nice home cooked meal? Forget it. We have fast food and microwave everything. I'm sure eating that way is oh so healthy. There isn't enough time to cook a nice meal anymore cause everyone has jobs and busy lives to lead.

The instant gratification has gotten so bad that it has spread to our government. Heard the saying Rome wasn't built in a day? Now I see media report stories that create panic or public outrage, or at least a "reported" outrage which in effect does create a wider spread and more real outrage. This helps their ratings. Fine, but now Congress and everyone who wants to be someone tries to get face time reacting to every event. They now rush legislation through or try to in response to the craze. Some of the largest and most powerful legislation to ever come through and we rush it? Important decisions that one rushes probably won't turn out well. Haste makes waste. Thanks for that one mom. But it seems everything is headed in the same direction. Got to have it now. So what we don't have the money. It makes sense to spend money we don't have on things we don't need because we want it right now. Don't we try and teach young kids things don't work that way? Bye bye layaway, credit cards are way better.

Television is on phones, on demand, over the internet, and on slingbox. You should never miss a thing today. Television on the cell phone? Is that really needed? Nope, but it is convenient and why not have everything we want at our fingertips. Surely that doesn't set any kind of bad habits.

I know I fall victim to many of these luxuries but I'm not nearly as bad as some. Sometimes I just wish we could slow the world back down. Savor our experiences. Soak in the simple pleasures of life. Realize that ten minutes really isn't that long of a time, and that the difference between that and five minutes won't kill you in regards to anything. But alas, we have already become accustomed to instant gratification in all aspects of our lives. Can we ever go back?