Instant Gratification

This was a thought triggered while writing the post on the type writer.

More specifically when I wrote about how it took three days to a week for a letter to be sent out, this even after we shifted from typewriters to computers..... that was just the accepted norm.

In fact I remember the culture shock I had when I joined Google.

Google has this concept called TAT (turn around time), and it was one of the critical performance parameters, applied at all levels. TAT measured how quickly one went from one step to another, be it putting up a proposal, creating a presentation, or responding to an email. I had to adapt to a TAT which went from 'x number of days' into 'x number of hours'. It was a deep shift.

And that was ten years ago.

Today that shift has spread into all facets of life.

Diksha and I are driving someplace, there's a song playing, and before I can finish wondering whose voice........Diksha's shazam will have the answer.

My mom's reminiscing about old time water cans and how it was so much more fun to water plants, and I place that order on Amazon........ within minutes, specific colour, specific size, all delivered at home in a day.

If there's a middle of the night craving for a cream stone willy wonka, all one does is open swiggy....

Friends sitting around, and there's a quote one is trying to recall....well...no points for guessing.

Amazon, Netflix, GPS, Big basket, Dunzo, Ola, Myntra.....and the likes have all enabled a high level of instant gratification.

We all have several such instances in our lives......yet, yet we will grudge this generation their tuning into instant gratification. Process and effort have their space.......but then so does immediacy and access. We will try and teach them the value of patience, of waiting, without pausing to contextualize......and what's worse....be judgmental in the bargain.

Who really are the ones not tuned in here????