What comes next in a world where “immediately” is the norm?

We live in a world of immediacy with very little room for manouvre.

“I don’t want it later, I want it now”, cue tantrum. Chances are that if you have children or have been around children you will have heard this phrase many times.

Children are the epitome of living in the moment. We tend to put their impatience down to the idea that young children have no proper concept of time. Depending on the age, there is “yesterday” (which can be anything from yesterday to last month), there is now and if you say tomorrow or later it might as well be never.

As we become more comfortable with the concept of time, we are supposed to grow out of it. We learn patience (at least some people) and that not everything can be or is available “now”.

However, it seems that technology continues to make every effort to make everything available NOW.

Do you want a movie? For those old enough to remember, you no longer have to leave your home and go to the nearest Blockbuster (or equivalent chain) to spend 30 minutes perusing movies. Now you can simply spend those 30 minutes looking for movies at home (I see nothing has changed there) and download them immediately for your viewing pleasure.

Do you want a taxi or food? No more waiting around and guessing when your taxi or food is going to arrive. Now you can click on an app and know where the nearest taxis are or decide what to eat on the basis of which restaurant will have your food ready faster.

And then there is Amazon… Oh Amazon. It has started the most slippery slope of all.

It started with home delivery. Usually a service that was required (or available) only if you had really big items. All of a sudden you could have even small packages delivered directly to your home. Amazing, what’s not to love?

But you know what would be lovelier? That’s right, next day delivery. You no longer had to wait 2 or 3 or who knows how many days to receive your package, now you knew it was available the very next day.

And then came what I affectionately call “the gillette way”. Let me deviate for a moment. You see back in the day, Gillette was one of the first to introduce the use of a single blade with a double edge for shaving (apparently much better shaving, less risk of cutting your veins and less need for a professional barber… I’m sure they weren’t very happy).

What could make this better? The answer is simple, two magnificent blades. And you know what could make shaving even better than two blades? Of course three blades… and you know where this is going. At the time of writing, I think Gillette may be selling razors with 743* blades (*most likely a highly inaccurate number).

So back to Amazon, who following “the gillette way”, thought what would be the next logical step after next day delivery?

You guessed it, same day delivery. And since same day delivery is not the same as “now”, because who wants to wait to receive their package in the evening?

What was the only option that could top same day delivery? Obviously, one hour delivery. Will it end here? Surely the next option is immediate molecular transportation and that may still be some time away… or is it?

I’m not here to debate what makes a one hour delivery possible (that is for another article), but what concerns me is this world of “immediacy” in which we now live.

Sometimes I wonder if companies simply have looked at us, their customers, as if we were children and thought, what do they want?… their answer presumably being “well, we are not sure but we know they want it now”.

The internet and all the businesses that have developed as a result, all revolve around the same concept. That everything can and hence must be immediate.

I’m not a particularly patient person. It is something that I work on everyday and that’s without having grow up with the internet! I remember my brother and I used to go out on our bikes for hours on end and my mum had no idea where we were or what time we would be back (presumably when we got hungry).

Nowadays, people will get upset if their what’s apps’ go unreplied for more than 10 minutes.

So I find myself wondering, whether this new world order where everything is not only available but expected to be immediately available, will have an impact on generations to come.

Will they be, even less patient or more demanding? Will they feel a continuous pressure to “make it”, thinking that if they don’t reach fame or become millionaires by their early 20s that they are an utter failure?

Or will they, as has happened with so many previous generations, reject what their parents embraced? Thinking that immediate connectivity is not only harmful but terribly old fashioned, because who wants to be constantly connected to everyone and effectively live to work?

It is strange to think that smartphones have only been around for 11 years.

This means that a generation that has only ever known this world of immediacy that is “always on” and requires everything “now” is about to enter its teenage years.

I read with relief that teenagers are becoming increasingly aware of social media addiction and the psychological damage it has created. As a result they are slowly moving away from it. If this is a hint of what this generation will become, then perhaps we need to pay attention and start learning from them.