The culture of Instant Gratification

At the end of the day, for all that we attempt to convince ourselves that humans live in a world apart, we’re still animals. We live in a flesh and blood body whose stomach demands food and water, whose genitals demand to be touched on a regular basis and whose hormones influence our behaviour in ways we’re rarely aware of.

Not only that but however sophisticated our personalities become, we’re just dying for attention. Dale Carnegie identified each person’s need to feel important as a prime target for the canny businessman. He also believed that the most significant word for everyone is their own name. Who doesn’t feel neglected when their cell phone goes a few days without ringing? Hell, even babies who aren’t given attention lose the will to live.

As we try to make sense of our lives in these interesting times, we’re vulnerable to these physical and psychological needs that take over in our weaker moments. Did we really want to eat the entire packet of chocolate biscuits? Certainly not now that we feel sick in the stomach. Did we really mean to spend 3 hours looking for porn on the internet? Not now that we feel like an utter waste of space.

Of course the modern world doesn’t make life any easier for us. Entire professions like advertising and marketing make a living by preying upon our weakness for instant gratification. Whether it’s by bright flashing lights, a billboard cleavage next to the latest car on the market or any other combination of psychological hints, these schemes only work because of our quintessential weakness. If we were in total control of ourselves the advertisers would be out of a job. We’d laugh at the notion that a new car will improve our sex life. As it is the advertisers are laughing their way to the bank.

And it doesn’t stop there. Banks convince us that the answer to our problems is yet another credit card. Fad dieters play upon our fears of appearing too fat and thus never getting laid whilst cell phone companies tell us our kids will be much safer if we can contact them at all times. Fear and desire, it would seem, are what make the economical world go round.

For most of human history we simply couldn’t over-consume. We didn’t have complex gadgets for communication and over-eating simply wasn’t an option for most people when they could barely feed themselves. When most people were poor, the main opportunities for instant gratification lay in the relatively cheap diversions of sex and alcohol – and both, of course, had often hazardous economic implications.

Now that we live in a world where there’s a surplus of products and anyone in the first world can eat their own bodyweight in cake every week, if they so choose. Around 1.6 billion people around the world are now considered overweight or obese by the World Health Organisation. Now that we can get our hands on enough food, a quarter of the world’s population just can’t stop eating. It just feels too good.

Or consider the online gaming addictions that confine new generations to their bedrooms as they find instant gratification in raiding other guilds in the World of War Craft. Far easier than making real friends and finding out who they really are and what they want.

Or just look at how often you check your email. Is it the first thing you do in the morning? Do you have alerts on your computer to tell you when your friends have signed in or you have a new message? Do you risk cancer by carrying your phone close to your body just in case you miss a call?

The latest technology to cash in on our desire for instant gratification is a service called Twitter that can be installed on your phone or computer. Essentially you give a one line report of what you’re thinking, doing or planning and your network of friends can read: ‘just got out of the shower’, ‘feeling horny’ or ‘can’t stop listening to Britney Spears’. Does anyone need to know these things? Probably not but hey, it helps pass the time.

The only resolution for this disease is to understand that it’s limits that give things meaning. However good a movie is, it needs to end at some point within the first 2 hours or so if you’re not to get completely bored and uncomfortable. Sex is great but becomes less fun if you dilute your appetite by staring at a thousand picture of naked bodies every night. Chocolate cake is tasty but you enjoy it a lot more if you don’t eat it every day.

To give meaning to our lives, it’s important to place limits. Given that you have all morning to read your email, it’s nice to take a cup of coffee and sit quietly for a few moments before taking on the world. Given that people can call you all day or leave a message, it’s really nice to be able to talk to a friend without your cell phone going off halfway through the conversation.

Otherwise we might as well all become wire headers and jack straight into our pleasure circuits.