Recently, I read about an interesting phenomenon. Imagine that you are offered a gold coin right now or two gold coins tomorrow. What would you pick? Most of us would pick two coins later and for good reason.
Within the animal kingdom, this ability to delay instant gratification for future satisfaction is most evolved in human beings. Some of us are even able to delay instant results for years, compared to pigeons and chickens who can only hold up for a few seconds. It all sounds like such a simple fact but think about it, really. This one thing has such huge consequences for our species.
Now imagine that this goes away. It sounds crazy but this is happening today. With the rise of social media, we as a generation are losing our attention spans. Look around you and you will find that even the advertisements today are shorter compared to the ones a decade back for this very reason. Our generation has become simply incapable of focusing for longer durations. It’s probably just nowadays when three-line tales typed in Italics over nature’s backgrounds is the utmost interaction people have with the written word, and even that is because it is ‘SHAREable’ and ‘LIKEable’ easily.
The tiny tale you shared on Facebook today might have been really good but that’s not the point. We have the wisdom worth a thousand years in a zillion books across the world and we choose to spend time on ‘Cat vs Dog’ memes. We are imposing some sort of reverse evolution on ourselves and it has to stop. Do you want to be a part of the change? Trying to enjoy the aroma of your morning coffee instead of the number of likes it fetches you can be a good start. Being lost in the moment is a much nicer alternative to being present on someone else’s social media feed.
This is so true. Instant gratification is a real issue.
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It is! š¦
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very true..Instant gratification is always not so good, even for children experts advise to teach them the value of delayed gratification.
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Agreed! It is wreaking havoc on our attention spans.
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True. A big problem with this generation
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Agreed! š
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Agreed. Attention spans are shortening every minute. And aren’t we spoilt for choice too?
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Oh yes we are!
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Agreed. The shortening attention span. Aren’t we, also, spoilt by the innumerable choices we have?
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We are, and this paradox of choice confuses us more than it serves us.
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It does, doesn’t it. We feel happier with the umpteen choices, forgetting that we have become slaves to their cold glances. I wish I could go back to the 18th century rather.
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Haha. Well I wouldn’t want that because my gender would have to succumb to lot more sexism in that time. Other than that, it would have been a good idea though š
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Agreed! Oh I would, avoiding all the sexism of that age and time, prefer sitting amidst a grove of trees read, or lead my herd of sheep over gentle slopes. I’d have no choices and I’d be happier I presume. š
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This sounds good š
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Have you seen that video of testing gratification in young kids and evaluating their rates of success later? Gratification is directly proportional to success. Choosing now what will make sense later, we really need to develop that sense.
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I haven’t seen it, so please share the link. I agree that the ability of choosing what would make sense later is a trait becoming more and more scarce these days.
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Will do
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Love this, you think like I do. Itās not social media, itās called āSocial Neediaā these days. If I ever got a FB page, Iām going to name myself Nobody, that way when I like someoneās picture, itāll say Nobody likes this picture. People are so caught up with tech, buzz, feed and gigs. I read books and people think Iām weird, they tell me to download it. You are so right, people are broke these days, canāt pay attention for nothing. Smell their coffee? Google can do it for them.š. Society needs to step back and un spoil themselves. Great post lovely.š¹š¹
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‘Society needs to step back and un spoil themselves’ So true š
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Just calling it how I see it and apparently you see the same wayšš¹
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I do š
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Thatās good. Keep writing!š¹
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š
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šš¹
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The Generation got used to with the speed at which everything’s done in the present time. I mean………
The Life has become so fast, so things like Attention or Focus are declining and we want instant gratification.
Actually this is a very wide range topic. May be I’ll write a separate post on it……
Keep up the brilliant work Neha…..
ā¤ā¤ā¤šššššš.
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Thank you š
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You’re welcome.ā¤ā¤ā¤š
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š
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A great post Neha! And itās not just your generation, itās mine too. Social media and the endorphin burst from positive feedback not only is addictive but changes the brain into an organ craving the momentary highs.
Iām having to retrain myself to relax and read books again!
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It is addictive indeed, but books are the best ā¤
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Entirely true …. I am successfully restraining my mind with one eye on WP watching the aspiring talents … like you š
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Your comments are making me so happy š š
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I can see your smile and am matching it here! Back to work now shining lustrous š
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A pleasure to see you here on my blog š
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Literally, you’ve opened my eyes with your post. This is so true that we’re focusing on the future satisfaction whereby even we’re not sure of the future.
Loved it to the core.
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So glad it resonated with you, Sumit š
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This is eye-opening and so captivating. Just the other day, my friends and I were discussing these ‘three letter tales’ or whatever, which we agreed were uber-creative but lacked in so many things. Thank you for pointing this out and I feel out generation really is lacking in so many things, patience being one.
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I agree so much, Sumedha! These quick bites of literature are definitely creative but the fact that they have become the only daily interaction with the written word poses a problem. I once wrote on ‘Petrichor’ and one specific line is coming back to my mind:
‘Just like the digital world full of clickbaits, people started putting their best, catchiest, most interesting aspect forward. Eventually, everyone and everything started having USPs while simple joys of life stopped having one.’
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This is an eye-opener.
I think this is part of the circle of life. Earlier humans had the strength to delay instant gratification for future satisfaction. Now, with the advancement in technology we have everything at our fingertips, we want instant gratification. Again a very tiny population is getting inclined towards spirituality and meditation to slow things down in their life. So we can expect to have future satisfaction at cost of instant gratification back.
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I hope so too š
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Life, for various reasons, has become focused on immediate returns or instant gratification while at the same time we fail to actually live in the moment. We create our own contradictions.
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That’s sadly true. Thanks for reading my post š
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THIS. TOUCHED. ME. DEEP.
For the last 2 years – in the summertime i give up social media. And this year, when i did it – i loved it. I feel like no need of going back. (which includes instagram basically). And this post just hit me up. this is the reason – i havent been available for things that do not matter.
Thanks for this post. ā¤
š š š š
This really made me happy!!!!!!!!!!
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Thanks for such a meaningful comment, Nishita! I am so, so glad this clicked with you ā¤
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Made me happy š
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And your reaction made me happy ā¤
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Eeeeeeeeps (that’s my version of saying ***awwww****) š
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š š
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True that..
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Thank you for reading it š
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Have read few of your posts.. So much research and information.. Thanks you for publishing all these posts.. š
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