Written by Tristan Lueck.
Photo from Pixabay.
My mall at home recently installed its very first set of automatic doors. In the entire mall there is only one. And because of that people are losing even that tiny spark of human connection. Automatic doors are replacing manual ones all over. And what do people do? They go out of their way to use as little effort as possible. They would rather have a door open for them, than use the ones they must open themselves. That everyday bit of human interaction is lost. It is easier and simpler and ridiculous.
Today, everything happens with wave of a hand or a simple tap of the finger. With one touch I can count my calories, arrange a doctor’s visit or even find out the latest news in Norway. Everything is, quite literally, at the tip of our fingers. But while we may be able to grasp the world, we are losing our grip on our patience.
Because it’s so easy now, the ability to access news from all over the world seems almost less impressive than it really is. With one flick I can change from reading an article about the nuclear crisis in Korea to one about how smart phones will soon be able to drive our cars for us. Everything now sits in the palm of our hand, and because of that we forget look up from the screen to see things in real time.
Instant gratification is something that plagues society today, yet it’s not something that is all bad all the time. Sure, patience is something of a rare commodity, but in our world it may not be entirely needed. I can order a pizza and have it delivered to me in less than 20 minutes. This rules out the need to wait, but it also makes me less likely to cook my own pizza at home. It means I will be eating a greasy pizza from Papa John’s instead of healthy, home-cooked one with veggies and fresher ingredients.
Fast pizza may not be all that important, but being able to locate the nearest emergency room or look up video tutorials on how to perform CPR or the Heimlich maneuver certainly is. Some countries, like England and Australia for example, are even allowing people to text the police in an emergency where a phone call would be dangerous.
Easy access to police and doctors and information may make all this instant gratification worthwhile. But how long do we have to wait before we end up like the fat people from Pixar’s “Wall-E” who do everything from their floating chairs? How long before we stop appreciating a night out at our favorite restaurant or going to the movies, choosing instead to order in and stream at home? Soon we will get to the point where our quasi-virtual realities complete with smartphones and tablets and computers seem more important and enjoyable than actual reality.
Movies are trying to blast this message all over. Not just “Wall-E,” but also “Gamer,” where everyone lives their lives through an avatar. Or even take a look at “Warm Bodies,” where it is implied that the constant use of cell phones is what truly generates the zombie virus. The ideas are endless, but they are all based in the same idea. Technology is driving us to distraction and distraction is driving us further and further into ourselves.
Society has gotten to the point where we demand speedy results for everything. Film, that same medium that sometimes preaches against the instant gratification we crave, is a prime example of the problem. Today more than 33 million people stream Netflix movies at home instead of going to the theater or the local rental store. Games and apps are other examples. More people today would rather play a video game than work their way through a novel or magazine. Soon patience will be nothing more than a memory, like certain words that are lost with time.
I fear that technology and instant gratification are also driving people away from each other. We are becoming more and more dependent on technology and less dependent on people. I don’t think it will be too long before the events in “Wall-E,” besides perhaps the robot love story, become reality.