Now! Now! Now!
Microwave
E-mail
Instagram
FaceBook
Fast Food
No Prep
Easy
5 Minute Tooth Whitening
Overnight
Instant
No Waiting
Digital
Pre-Cooked
Jump Drive
Hot Spot
Click
DVR
Blue Ray
Amazon 1-Click
These are just some of the words we have grown up on the past thirty years. Many of these terms are barely five years old. Our culture has become swift and efficient.
People used to have to wait for things. Remember?
Banks were closed on weekends, not to mention by 4:00 p.m. on weekdays. (Hence the term "banker's hours"). Vegetables and popcorn were made on the stove because microwaves weren't invented yet. You took your film to a store for pictures to be developed and waited. If you paid extra, you could even get them in an hour. The only instant type of coffee were these ground crumbles you sprinkled in boiling water. It tasted like dirt, but it was instant.
To communicate faster than a letter in the mail, people sent telegrams. Urgent money needs were sent via cable. Important materials were overnighted to designated locations, or faxed. When you wanted to send a card, you purchased it from a store and put a stamp on the envelope.
Speaking of stores, in order to buy something, that is where you went. The only pre-cooked food in a grocery story was behind the deli counter and sold by the pound. Or, you could go down the frozen aisle and pick out some TV dinners that went in the oven for only 22 minutes.
If you needed to do some research, you went to a building called a library and looked up your topics in a card catalog - one typed card per publication. If they didn't have the item you needed, you filed a request and waited for it to arrive.
Small screen programming could only be viewed on a television that once offered 5 channels at most, and if you missed the show when it originally aired, you might be lucky to catch it over summer re-runs. TV stations ended the programming day by showing the American flag and playing the Star Spangled Banner. If you turned your TV on in the middle of the night, you saw a test pattern.
Now we can do or watch anything we want any time of the day or night, any day of the week.
In many ways, technology has been a blessing. I love being able to Google information and get the answer within milliseconds. It is also cool to create my own music playlists and rewind live TV or record shows to watch later. Staying out of the mall and shopping online is also a benefit I enjoy. I'm sure there are more examples, but my point is made.
With this blessing comes the unspoken message that we don't have to wait for anything anymore.
We have created a culture of impatience. People don't value one another face-to-face because they can do it remotely through social media instead. Fingers tap impatiently, feet do the same. Hurry, hurry, hurry. Why? Because we can.
I pray no one ever figures out a way to rush a pregnancy or a diet. These are just two examples of things not only well worth the wait, but require the time to be developed. You could add to this list, I'm sure. But these are two things I know most people wish were over faster so they could embrace the "results". :)
Fast is good, sometimes. And sometimes, remembering that time is what it takes is even better.
Fast Food
No Prep
Easy
5 Minute Tooth Whitening
Overnight
Instant
No Waiting
Digital
Pre-Cooked
Jump Drive
Hot Spot
Click
DVR
Blue Ray
Amazon 1-Click
These are just some of the words we have grown up on the past thirty years. Many of these terms are barely five years old. Our culture has become swift and efficient.
People used to have to wait for things. Remember?
Banks were closed on weekends, not to mention by 4:00 p.m. on weekdays. (Hence the term "banker's hours"). Vegetables and popcorn were made on the stove because microwaves weren't invented yet. You took your film to a store for pictures to be developed and waited. If you paid extra, you could even get them in an hour. The only instant type of coffee were these ground crumbles you sprinkled in boiling water. It tasted like dirt, but it was instant.
To communicate faster than a letter in the mail, people sent telegrams. Urgent money needs were sent via cable. Important materials were overnighted to designated locations, or faxed. When you wanted to send a card, you purchased it from a store and put a stamp on the envelope.
Speaking of stores, in order to buy something, that is where you went. The only pre-cooked food in a grocery story was behind the deli counter and sold by the pound. Or, you could go down the frozen aisle and pick out some TV dinners that went in the oven for only 22 minutes.
If you needed to do some research, you went to a building called a library and looked up your topics in a card catalog - one typed card per publication. If they didn't have the item you needed, you filed a request and waited for it to arrive.
Small screen programming could only be viewed on a television that once offered 5 channels at most, and if you missed the show when it originally aired, you might be lucky to catch it over summer re-runs. TV stations ended the programming day by showing the American flag and playing the Star Spangled Banner. If you turned your TV on in the middle of the night, you saw a test pattern.
Now we can do or watch anything we want any time of the day or night, any day of the week.
In many ways, technology has been a blessing. I love being able to Google information and get the answer within milliseconds. It is also cool to create my own music playlists and rewind live TV or record shows to watch later. Staying out of the mall and shopping online is also a benefit I enjoy. I'm sure there are more examples, but my point is made.
With this blessing comes the unspoken message that we don't have to wait for anything anymore.
We have created a culture of impatience. People don't value one another face-to-face because they can do it remotely through social media instead. Fingers tap impatiently, feet do the same. Hurry, hurry, hurry. Why? Because we can.
I pray no one ever figures out a way to rush a pregnancy or a diet. These are just two examples of things not only well worth the wait, but require the time to be developed. You could add to this list, I'm sure. But these are two things I know most people wish were over faster so they could embrace the "results". :)
Fast is good, sometimes. And sometimes, remembering that time is what it takes is even better.
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