Are we in an instant gratification society now?
According to UrbanDictionary.com it means 1)immediate satisfaction; the quick attainability of happiness or of contentness.
Yep, that sounds about right!
Food is now instant, you can take something from box to microwave and have a “meal” in matter of a minute rather than cook from scratch. We have instant coffee, instant potatoes, fast food, etc.
We can get emails within seconds rather than wait for snail mail for days or more.
Those with Blackberries, iPhones, Gphones, etc. you can get Facebook and Twitter updates no matter where you are and in a millisecond.
We have express overnight mail and priority mail now to speed up the process of snail mail. However, even then apparently people still want that instant gratification, but yet at the same time complain about the price of shipping. Yes, stamps are .44 at this time and priority flat rate box is almost $5.00. Yet show me how you can get from say Florida to Alaska to deliver a package for $5.00 or less! Show me how you can get your letter from point A to point B for less than .44
People are complaining about the cost of shipping yet, I know I can’t physically get my letter or package anywhere myself for less than what USPS charges.
What does that have to do with instant gratification you may ask?
Recently I sold a lot of things on eBay and through my Affordable Mineral Makeup company and people were less than friendly when they didn’t get their items almost instantly!
Some eBay items were listed as being shipped via Parcel Post (because of weight/size of item it’d have cost more than most would want to ship if offered via Priority Mail) and yet the same people who complain that they do not want to pay priority shipping do still want priority arrival time. Parcel post takes longer to deliver…you know the saying “you get what you pay for”, if you want faster delivery…pay for priority! One should not expect to get a parcel post package in 3 days (unless you’re local to the originating zip code), so there really isn’t any need to email the seller reaming them out about what’s taking so long. Additionally, are we so lazy that when provided with tracking information rather than copy/paste that into USPS track/confirm we’d instead spend more time emailing a nasty email to seller because somehow that’s going to make the package you wanted shipped “cheaper” to get there faster?
Orders being shipped out of country obviously take longer and especially during the holiday season. However, try to explain that to some who find it much easier to ream the seller out and demand answers as to where their order is. Yet, the time they invested in sending emails they could have easily spent tracking the item to see where it is or contacting their customs and postal services with tracking information to find out exactly what the status is. Is it unrealistic to think a package going from one country overseas to another may take awhile?
When there appears to be a problem with an item that is insured are we so lazy that instead of filing an insurance claim with the carrier, we make excuses and try to pass it off on someone else? The issue could be resolved simply by spending few minutes with the carrier, file the insurance claim and get your money back but instead one will spend a lot more time sending nasty emails rather than do the required act of filing a claim with the carrier, although there are companies that can help you deal with insurances as InsurancePartnership.org, so we don’t have to do the work ourselves. That goes against the instant gratification concept to a degree and just equates to being lazy or not wanting to have to do something themselves to resolve their own problem. That person wants someone else to give them instant gratification and handle the issue for them, rather than them taking their misguided ranting cussing emails and instead spending that time dealing one on one with carrier to resolve the issue.
I know I sponsor 3 children via Compassion International and it takes approximately 2 months for communication with the children. Our letters have to go to the main department, then to the country where the child is, then a translator has to translate the letter, then deliver to the child. Is that an unreasonable amount of time? I don’t think so. Yes, I’d like them to get my mail sooner as I’d like to receive theirs back sooner and know what they’ve been doing, but is that reasonable or even feasible? No!
Life isn’t about instant gratification and if one expects that they should receive it in all matters, they’re in for disappointment.
How can a society that exists on instant mashed potatoes, packaged cake mixes, frozen dinners, and instant cameras teach patience to its young? ~Paul Sweeney