The Instant Gratification Effect

Society is becoming more impatient

Wanna hear a fun fact?

When the first computer came out, it took 35 whole minutes to turn on. Yeah, that’s right, 35 whole minutes.

People would patiently wait after turning on their computer’s power button, for 35 darn minutes.

Wanna hear another fun fact? The fact above was a complete lie. But admit it, YOU WERE STUNNED.

But what made you seem stunned?

Your short as heck attention span.

With the source of the internet, people are becoming increasingly lazier and simple-minded. It only takes a second to answer a question you’ve had on your mind and has become a great resource for wasting time. Technology has become quick enough, down to the milliseconds.

Back then, people had to wait a large amount of time to take a picture or call their friend. Nowadays, with a press of a button, a moment can be captured. Or with a press of a SAVED contact number, you can call your friend; technology has made people’s lives convenient yet lazy.

Instantaneous.

With all the internet’s great benefits in our daily lives, there’s a whole lot of negatives to it as well. Sleep problems, lack of creativity, low academic performance, time-waster, and much more. But the most harmful negative effect that fuels the other bad effects is the Instant Gratification Effect (IGE).

The Instant Gratification Effect (IGE)

What is the Instant Gratification Effect?

The IGE is the experience of satisfaction without delay. It’s essentially “I want this, and now I have it”, waiting is tough.

Not every instant gratification moment is bad. Wanting things right this instant in a convenient manner is not at all bad. But when these moments start to happen too often, there’s a negative side effect.

The Instant Gratification Effect and The Internet

The IGE happens constantly through the internet.

It turned our existence to behind the screens and has reformed the time it takes for us to be happy. Our communication, news, shopping, entertainment, everything in our daily lives has become instantaneous because of the internet.

But because the internet is moving so fast, it makes everything else in our lives seem…

slow, dull, uninteresting.

We're getting bored of our lives because after those instant gratification moments happen in an instant, it’s affecting our long-term moments such as our careers and relationships. The big things in our lives seem to move too slowly. Sticking to long-term goals has become an increasingly hard challenge and we start to drift back to our instant gratification moments, the only parts of our days that give us satisfaction.

It’s why TikTok succeeded. 10–60 second short videos, endless hours of content, Tiktok is the foundation of many young children’s impatience.

The constant Instant Gratification moments through the internet made our minds become used to this notion, eager to find more. You scroll through Youtube, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, to watch media content you hate.

Remember the days when you were a child, you could watch a caterpillar squirm itself across a tree branch for hours on end. When was the last time that something like that ever happened?

The moment you first saw what the internet was, you kept going back.

To deeper understand the instant gratification effect, there is a common process that happens every time an instant gratification chance comes about.

The Ticking Clock

This is you and you're stuck inside a very large clock.

There are 3 hands to this large clock; the hour hand, the minute hand, and the second hand. The hour and minute hand tell the time, how long you've been stuck inside the clock.

But what’s that there? Right where your standing?

It seems to be a very complex puzzle.

That complex puzzle is your long-term goal. Your dream to become a professional swimmer, to get into Harvard, or to become a teacher; any kind of long-term goal you have, you need to solve that puzzle to achieve it.

Wow, that’s easy, just solve the puzzle and achieve your goals? Heck no, the puzzle is super complicated with many twists and turns. With enough hard work and time, the puzzle will be solved.

But, there’s a fun distraction inside your clock, the second hand.

The second hand is quickly ticking, every minute taking a full turn. I like to call it the Upside Down Slide.

The Upside Down Slide

Yay, you’re at the top! That was fun!

Aw man.

Again? Aren’t you hurt?

So what’s the problem here? Even after that shameful fall of disappointment, you want to ride the slide again, and again, and again.

It’s so fun to go up the Upside Down Slide, like as fun as those moving sidewalks at airports. Fun and addicting.

With that impulsive behaviour, there’s a crap ton of long-term effects that start to show if we use the slide too often.

1. It becomes a habit

Every time you pointlessly go on your phone there’s this ladder you have to climb.

From the start, the ladder is tough and doubtful to climb. With the ladder’s traps and tricks up its sleeve, it’s tricky to get uphold of your phone. But after many times of going up the ladder, it becomes easier and easier. You know all its booby traps and deceiving tricks. You can just climb the ladder without even thinking twice. And because it’s that easy after those countless tries, there's no hesitation, you constantly check your phone.

Then you start to naturally run up the ladder to check your phone. Did anything new come up since ten minutes ago? It’s like a moth to a flame, you’re the dumb moth.

2. You lose your motivation

Your long-term goals start to disappear when the IGE regularly comes about. Because the IGE always has such an easily attainable reward waiting for you, your long-term goals start to fade away. Patience will start to become a serious problem and short-term gratification will get in the way of what’s most important.

3. It’s not that fun anymore

You disappointingly climb back down the ladder. You wonder why you rode the Upside Down Slide. You hate how you just checked your phone. This feeling of instant gratification doesn’t last if it’s stimulated too often.

But why? Isn’t it instant gratification? Always happy?

Nope. Your brain is a greedy monster. Your greedy monster has had enough of the instant gratification and now wants instant better gratification. Much more happiness in the same short amount of time.

But you can’t do that, you can’t repeatedly provide your greedy monster even better gratification.

It just doesn’t work.

The Puzzle

With all these horrifying long-term effects in mind, how do you work on the puzzle?

As it turns out, while the Upside Down Slide is making its turn, you have the chance to skip the ride. You want to achieve your goals? Tuck in your belly, and stay still.

Good! We can’t keep delaying our goals forever, sometimes we have to skip the slide and break out a work session. The thing is, you start to feel good when this happens. Even if it’s boring to try to solve the puzzle, you feel great that you did. It’s important to stay away from negative IGE moments, the Upside Down Slide. Well yeah, you could take a break or two on the slide, but never forever.

Unfortunately, a lot of people tend to ride the Upside Down Slide for too long. They constantly take the chance of the Instant Gratification moment, especially with the rise of the internet.

Sad, isn’t it. How pathetic.

Work on your damn puzzle.

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