Later in the chapter Professor Strate refers to Rifkin and his idea of the 'new nanosecond culture'. He says, "We have come to expect the instantaneous, so that it no longer excites us... When sitting at a computer terminal, delays of a few seconds seem interminable and five minutes is an eternity. Hyperspeed breeds impatience, haste, and intolerance, both online and in the real world." (p.367) We, as young adults have become accustomed to having everything at our fingertips and getting information instantaneously. This mindset has earned the title of "instant gratification generation". An interesting example of this is the Fordham internet situation. Fordham students can frequently be heard complaining about the "slow internet". If we can't get to a webpage within 10 seconds we freak out and complain about the slow connection. The popularity of smartphones also illustrates how people need the convenience of information anytime, anywhere.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Instant Gratification Generation
In Chapter 22, Professor Strate talks about J. David Bolter as one of the few people to make the connection between the clock as a close ancestor of the computer rather than the steam engine. The chapter has a quote from Bolter which says, "...Men and women began to work, eat, and sleep by the clock, and as soon as they decided to regulate their actions by this arbitrary measurer of time, the clock was transformed from an expression of civic pride into a necessity of urban life. The computer too has changed from a luxury to a necessity for modern business and government." (p.363)
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Good examples. The label of instant gratification has been applied to earlier generations, by the way, including my own, and attributed to television.
ReplyDeleteI really like the first quote you've used. It's hard to really imagine a life without clocks everywhere we go. It really does guide our every day life. It must have been a drastic change during the time of transition to clocks as there must have been social changes in addition to the changes of labor.
ReplyDeleteI thought that it was interesting how you brought up Fordham students and their approach to the internet. I work for Fordham IT in a dorm, and I can't begin to tell you the number of complaints I've had in regards to the internet. Although some students have had legitimate problems, most of the time, the page takes 10 seconds to load as opposed to 3. Has our generation really become that spoiled?
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