The Instant Gratification Culture

 

Courtesy: Bucknell University

Instant gratification is the name of the game. We want feedback and we want it now, only if it is good... Is it an addiction? Some say yes... I know I am addicted to seeing what that latest notification was on my phone or checking to see if I got the email I had been expecting. We are glued to our phones constantly to see what the latest update is, even if it is the same thing that was there two minutes ago.

Because of modern technology, we are enabled to have access to anything we can imagine within seconds. This has opened so many doors for many fantastic things. Connection between one another is one of the bet things that we have because of the internet and new technology. Social Media has allowed us to see what basically everyone in the world is doing at any moment. It has also allowed people to like our photos and posts. Ww really like those likes, especially when it is on our own posts. There is nothing better than seeing those notifications light up after posting something, it gives us the sense of belonging and that people like what we do. The brain loves that and gets addicted to it. Never before have humans been able to interact in such a direct and instant way as we can interact now. 

That feeling of instant gratification that we get from people liking our posts may not be as gratifying as we think it is. To read more about that click here.

Instagram is one of my favorite apps and it has instant gratification written all over it. It is so easy to like a photo that you see, just double tap and boom its liked. Post a photo and within seconds you can have lots of people liking that photo. Turn on your notifications and your phone will let you know when someone liked the photo and it will even tell you who it was, how fantastic is that? 

At some point perhaps our brains will learn to adapt to the instant gratification that social media has and maybe we will even get bored of it after being exposed to so much on the web. For now we will enjoy the ride of waiting for those notifications on our phones. 

Here is Simon Sinek, an author and motivational speaker, explaining the addiction of Social Media.