Longevity vs Short-Term Success: My Generation’s Gift & Our Curse
My generation struggles with patience. Including me. Here’s why it is our biggest fault, and our key to the future.
I am from the 90s. I grew up watching Hey Arnold and Dragon Ball Z. I have not known life without a microwave. The Internet has become one of the biggest influences of my life. I have experienced it all, from Netscape Navigator to the all-knowing Google Search bar. I think my generation was the first to grow up during the period when this idea of “instant gratification” became a tangible thing. I’ve had 100s of TV channels since elementary school. I’ve had a camera on my phone since high school and been able to capture any moment at the touch of a finger. Since I was a child, technology has given me the misconception that I can have it all at a whim. Yet, this is so very far from the truth.
As I have gotten older; found my soul mate, graduated from college, stepped onto the bottom of the corporate ladder; I have gained a deeper insight into who I am and why. The 90s was a period filled with a lot of growth and change, for both the world and myself. As a product of this period, I see that many of the technologies I grew up with have affected my thought-process and mindset as an adult. One of the most important areas I see affected is my capacity for patience.
As an adult, I have come to understand the concepts of longevity vs. short-term success. Both require patience, but at different degrees. To experience longevity one must have patience for years. Short-term success requires days, hours or even seconds. I believe that growing up with technologies such as microwaves or the Internet has wired my brain to expect things I want to happen as fast as it takes to cook a batch of pizza rolls or perform a Google Search. I see how this road towards “instant gratification” is not conducive to longevity or my legacy.
While I obviously see the negatives to living life looking for instant gratification, our society has come to enjoy many of the benefits that this type of thinking can bring. Social media sites like Twitter and Facebook have brought about the instant sharing of information and ideas. News is now shared instantly to millions of people at once. Think of the events during the Arab Spring up to now without the ability to share posts and videos instantly. I think there is an interesting dichotomy between instant gratification on a personal level and a societal level. It has given us great tools as a people, but I think it is holding us back from reaching our full potential as individuals.
It has been one of the defining moments of my journey to come to understand this idea of longevity. The idea is to string together many short-term successes towards one goal. I think my generation has too much ADD. We string together many short-term successes towards many different goals and then get frustrated when we feel stagnant. We need to realize that if we can attach our need for instant gratification to the small things then we will be able to truly change the world.
Our need for instant gratification is our gift and our curse. It has focused our efforts towards technology and helping our world move forward, but I think the evolution of our consciousness has stalled because we fail to see how the small things can give us absolute gratification over time. I believe in my generation as much as I believe in myself. I ultimately think our need for instant gratification will force us to change our mindset so that we can build a lasting legacy for generations to come.
