On an ABC news telecast of March 1 they did a segment on the fact that people are becoming more impatient in our society. They have done research. How long will people wait for an answer? They wait (at most) 250 milliseconds. If they don't get what they want by then, they move on.
I guess this is inevitable. With the instant communications of Twitter, Facebook, cellphones, etc. I guess people just expect instant response. It's not enough anymore to simply have a cellphone. You need a 4G network that is faster! You can't just have old school computer dial ups to connect to the internet. You must have DSL or cable or high speed connections beyond imagination.
The convenience of getting what you want "now" is obvious. But instant gratification is a bit like enjoying a fallen snowflake. It's not always satisfying or lasting. The old adage, "Be careful what you wish for" comes to mind here. Yes, we can get things fast, but is fast always best? Or even necessary?
I have noticed that my son's generation (18-25) are not very good at waiting for anything....unless it's to stand in line for a favorite concert or for the latest Ipad. Setting up the age-old "allowance" for my son when he was younger didn't work as well as I had hoped. If he got $10 a week, the thing he wanted most was $60. He couldn't save and wait for six weeks. It was too hard. He'd inevitably spend money when he had money. His patience was very limited.
The biggest negative to being impatient is that one doesn't always get what they really want and yet their sense of entitlement often grows. I have seen young 20-somethings who will not settle for any car less than a BMW or fully-loaded Audi, yet they won't work the low paying job and save towards that goal. They need it now. They want it now. Yet they seldom get it. And they don't understand why.
I am no expert in relationships nor do I have many insights into them, but I wonder if those 30, 40 or 50 year wedding anniversaries may become extremely rare in the future. I wonder that if a relationship doesn't jell immediately if people will have the patience to let the relationship prosper and develop.
Patience is indeed a virtue. It's hard for some people to just let life unfold at it's own pace instead of trying to force it, but sometimes the wait pays off. I will admit that I can be impatient about many things. But I wasn't impatient for my son to grow up. As a matter of fact, I waited at least thirty years of my adulthood to become a parent, thus proving the other classic adage "Good things come to those who wait"!
