Instant Gratification.

“We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War’s a spiritual war… our Great Depression is our lives. We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won’t. And we’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very pissed off.” - Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club

My favourite quite from my favourite movie.

How beautifully yet in a frightening way, Chuck has managed to write the meaning of our lives in a single paragraph.

From the beginning of our lives we have been exposed to these screens on which we will probably spend 90% of our life if not more and on those screens majorly advertisement and every fucking industry is selling an idea, that we are bound to live a great life ( the great life which the society chose by the way, not us) and how easily we can manage to reach that level in our life.

If it was that easy, how come everybody isn’t doing that already?

And I think my generation commonly known as the GEN Z is the one most pleased by instant gratification as we have been raised by technology.

Want to binge watch a show, Netflix and chill. Want a new phone instantly, Amazon delivery by by 9 p.m. . Want to know what your friends are up to , instagram or any other social media site.

We do not remember a time without microwaves, iPhones, instant hot water, Facebook, Myspace, you name it - we got it. We live in a day and age where you do not have to leave your home for ANYTHING. If you want the newest, coolest restaurant’s sandwich delivered to your front door, the app Zomato has you covered (not to mention, they have competitors, so you’ve got options). Through your fingertips you have access to all the world’s information - so why even use a book, right?

You get the point right?

GEN Z doesn’t believe in the concept of patience.

“Patience is bitter, but it’s fruit is sweet.”— apopular proverb in India.

But how can we get rid of this instant feeling of satisfaction which is basically emptiness in the long term which has wrecked the humane part of us?

Not all instant gratification is bad. There’s nothing wrong with wanting or needing things, experiences, or products in a timely manner. It’s important to balance our desires with a realistic sense of timing and patience. By itself, though, instant gratification isn’t a negative thing. But with things like LOSE 7 KGs IN SEVEN DAYS and BE A MILLIONAIRE BY TWENTY JUST USING THIS SIMPLE TRICK are essentially stripping us of this important characteristic, i.e. patience, which is highly important in our lives.

I mean if we look into it all these companies are making big bucks just because we want everything right now. They are here basically because of the driving force that compels human beings to gratify their needs, wants, and urges. These needs, wants, and urges can be as basic as the need to breathe, eat, or drink. But they can be as complex as the “need” for an iPhone x or some other cool new product.

Instant gratification has become the heart of every industry.unsplash

I myself have succumbed to this and am not really proud of that but this is a big issue and is being avoided because in all Instant gratification is making our lives simpler and better. With the fact that our parents wants us to give everything and will give us anything if we ask them is worsening our future.

Take for example, a kid who is given everything from necessities to luxuries without even lifting a finger and when that kid enters the real world when he has to work for everything and is not given a vacation at Hawaii by simply asking for it will destroy him.

Instant gratification may seem like a boon to humanity right now because it gives us pleasure but we should look at the big picture here.

If you want to know about how I tried to fight the short term satisfaction of instant gratification, check out another piece of mine. It’s about an experiment I did on getting bored. Yeah sounds weird I know. Give me your take on instant gratification in the comments section.

My 30 Days of Getting Bored.

Thanks for reading. 😀

Check out my profile for more. Abhed

Instant Gratification. was originally published in Hacker Noon on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.