Instant Gratification and the ME Generation

Day 2,769, 06:13 • Published in Armenia Armenia • by ChievoKevin

I have been observing for a long time that the current generation’s outlook on life is very different from mine. Of course, this is a very natural situation, since every generation will bring something new to life and look at society with their own views and preconceptions.

What troubles me is not their different viewpoint, but their behaviour. With very few exceptions, the current generation has no patience, and even worse, suffers from an absolute lack of manners.
This can be seen everywhere, from football fields to on-line forums, where the slightest disagreement will result in a shouting match, then trading insults, and unless moderated, swearing without limits.

I have reached the conclusion that one of the main reasons for this different outlook between our two generations is the culture of instant gratification that we live today. Almost whatever you need is at your fingertips now, so any delay in getting what you want (not necessarily need) leads to anger.

To put things into perspective, I want to show you what we had to go through when we were teen-agers, or slightly older, technology wise.

Television: In the early 70’s there was no TV in Turkey, and was only recently established in Lebanon (Black and White). The introduction of Colour TV was a Major advance.

Sattelite TV: You’re joking, right? The first, and for a looooong time only Sattelite transmission was the Moon Landing by Neil Armstrong in 1969, and that took hours of preparation, while we looked at a blank screen, waiting.
As for direct football game transmission from the other side of the earth, keep dreaming.

Photocopying: The first photocopy machine I ever saw needed a dark room, two different sensitive papers (kept in sealed envelopes, positive and negative), took almost 5 minutes to copy, and then another 5 minutes to dry.

Calculators: Unless you count mechanical calculators, with gear and cams

not invented yet. We had to suffer the slide rule (I still keep mine, as a souvenir)

But do NOT minimise this device, despite its simple looks, it was quite expensive, and everything historical, including the Apollo rockets and the Boeing 747 were designed using these.

Computers: This was the first computer we used in University.

Well, “used” is the wrong word actually; we were shown it once at the beginning of the first semester, and then never allowed to enter the computer room again; after all, you do NOT let kids handle a million dollar machine, do you?
What we did was type our program on a special typewriter, which would punch holes in special cards

ONE card for every line of program. Once finished, put them in a small pigeon hole in the computer center, and then get your answer the next day.
YUP, I really said next day; as I said, no instant gratification at that time.
As for the Internet, e-mail, search engines, forums and such, except for the very limited ARPANet of the US Defense Department, such things had not even been dreamt about

I could go on and on about things you have which we didn’t, but after a certain point, it becomes pointless.

I want you to think about this, though. In your hands, you carry a device which has more computing power than NASA had in my time. What more do you want?
As a small point of consolation, I offer the insight that next generation’s life will be even more different. Whether we are still human at that time, or things like nanotechnology and cloning change us beyond recognition is not something I want to speculate upon