Engineered for Impatience?

[1still_waters]

As I child I remember "older" people making comments on how the newer generation lacked patience. They seemed to be ranting about fast food, and microwaves. Big deal, we liked fast-food and heating our coffee up in a minute. I didn't see these as major behavior flaws.

Now as an adult I have perceptions about observed impatience in people. Of course I feel my perceptions are valid. Why? Because I see impatience influencing a majority of behaviors.

So many things are accomplished by the click of a button. Things that used to take more time. I've had people upset because I took more than two hours to respond to them in a text/email. TWO HOURS! (This post isn't a rant about those specific situations. That was given as an illustration.)

Are we being engineered to be impatient?
As a Christian, what are you doing to prevent this influence?

Some verses (NASB)

1 Cor 13 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant,

1 Thes 5 We urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone.

 

[biscuit]

Are we being engineered to be impatient?

I believe we are and everyone is different. But I believe we can curb this behavior with Christ or limit it effects.

As a Christian, what are you doing to prevent this influence?

I believe our upbringing will determine the patient factor. Grew up in intense poverty and never really got what I wanted growing up, so I had to be patient to get it. Now as a Christian and somewhat financial secure, I am very grateful to get the slightest gain in life, and thank the Lord many times when I get a gain in life. I really felt a "force" was guiding me through those tough times even though I wasn't religious or saved. Therefore, I really don't have a problem with impatience because I generally have been waiting most of my life to get what I want. I am now just more appreciative of the things I get when I do wait. The bible verse below explains it perfectly:

"The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth." (Lamentations 3:25-27)

 

[Lynx]

Impatience... I thought that's what chocolate was for, to engineer impatience.

Seriously though - I have read that in Japan if a school child does not respond to a friend's text message within half an hour he is teased mercilessly at school the next day.

 

[Rachel20]

It's interesting you used the term engineering.


Some time back in the 2004, when the search engine and the internet was really exploding, Google had launched it's own mail service Gmail which was a competitor to Yahoo Mail.

Yahoo and perhaps Hotmail had been enjoying a sizeable market share and Google's mail service seemed like a poor cousin to these giants.

But Google soon caught up.

Though this isn't a documented thing and I certainly won't be able to back this up, but I along with a few other people believe this was partly due to Google being smart enough to realize that customers were impatient.

Before AJAX as a technology picked up, the login pages for most internet clients would load and an impatient person would simply hurriedly type out their email address and password.

However as soon as the page completely loaded, if you were typing out your password, your cursor would again blink out to your user name (onload event) and so if you weren't careful, you'd end up typing your password for all to see.

(password text fields are hidden)

I thought it was a major security flaw and enough reason to switch over to Google. Google did not develop AJAX but what they did was smartly code their webpage to take care of this "impatient" person.

Yahoo was too slow to change and wake up.

That was enough for quite a number of people to migrate to Google.


This is just an example but personally too, while expecting a service, I expect it to be prompt, efficient and precise.

The growth of technology and easy access has made us impatient, but I don't see it as a bad thing. Necessity isn't what drive us as much as convenience.


As far as being patient with people, I believe that is different. However if someone doesn't respond to a text or mail in time, I don't see it as reason to get angry but I can understand if someone does.

Not responding soon enough to a person, can leave them rejected and can also see them move on to different things, just saying.

 

[seoulsearch]

Excellent observation, Still.

I mentioned in chat once how my Dad had gone through a 5-hour back operation, and I wonder if, by the time my generation reaches senior age, will we even be able to find anyone who even has the ability to concentrate that long on such complex procedures? One person in the room replied, "We have people who can play a video game for days without stopping. I don't think we need to worry about finding people who can focus for that long!"

I humbly beg to differ. Staying focused on something we find entertaining isn't the same as staying focused on, let's say, 4 years of medical school in addition to all the basic educational requirements, along with the diligence it will take to pass all the necessary exams, state boards, licensing, etc.

I've worked nearly all my life in retail situations and have found that the most impatient (in my opinion) are those who feel the most entitled. It doesn't matter where the entitlement comes from, but if they believe they are owed something, whether it be financial assistance or the respect of other people, they expect everything THEIR way and RIGHT NOW. I've seen it on both ends of the spectrum--people on government aid who cuss us (meaning the people I work with and myself) out for not having their favorite brand of beer (that they're spending their government assistance on) and seniors who own 4 houses but will cuss you out because you can't have their new curtains shipped to them any sooner than within the next TWO WHOLE days.

I'm certainly NOT saying that everyone on assistance is abusing the system or that all seniors are rich snobs--but how people in every category perceive things seems to make a huge difference. Those who see what they received or have as a blessing and accept it with humility seem to have a lot more patience.

We live in a society where now, more than ever, time is money. If something isn't working, you scrap it and move on to something that works even faster. If it's not going to bring in the dollars, you ditch it and move on to something more profitable. Never mind that it might be an affordable drug that could save countless lives. If a person doesn't answer you in an hour, you go back to the online dating site and find someone who replies right away. One of my own frustrations in stepping further and further into the field of psychology was learning that it was expected that you would be able to give a full diagnosis of a patient in ONE session because their insurance would only pay for, let's say, 6 sessions. This person has an entire lifetime of experiences, how in the world could I possibly give you a list of who they are in terms of supposed disorders within 30 minutes to an hour? And how in the hee haw could any of my work make a difference in their lives with only 5 more meetings allowed? I give kudos to the people out there who ARE able to do this, but I knew I couldn't.

And of course, I'm just as guilty as anyone. One of the reasons I don't really cook anymore is because I just want something RIGHT NOW, even it's often frozen vegetables or oatmeal. I do try to actively work at being more patient--and my best example would probably be my long-term friendships, one of which has survived the ups and downs of life for 35 years (we met in kindergarten. )

But in every other aspect of life, "time is money" seems to be the ruling though. And the underlying theme of this seems to be, "No one has the time to be patient."

Which brings about another question... The Bible says that "Love is patient."

If no one has the time or interest in developing patience, will any of us truly be able to love?

 

[Calmador]

As I child I remember "older" people making comments on how the newer generation lacked patience. They seemed to be ranting about fast food, and microwaves. Big deal, we liked fast-food and heating our coffee up in a minute. I didn't see these as major behavior flaws.

Now as an adult I have perceptions about observed impatience in people. Of course I feel my perceptions are valid. Why? Because I see impatience influencing a majority of behaviors.

So many things are accomplished by the click of a button. Things that used to take more time. I've had people upset because I took more than two hours to respond to them in a text/email. TWO HOURS! (This post isn't a rant about those specific situations. That was given as an illustration.)

Are we being engineered to be impatient?
As a Christian, what are you doing to prevent this influence?

Some verses (NASB)

1 Cor 13 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant,

1 Thes 5 We urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone.

I think maybe its partly how easily technology has made life... which gives people a better oppertunity for sin in general. And its partly the moral decline in culture that accepts immorality more so then before.

I think we should stick to basic virtues that God teaches us... don't get anxious... do everything gladly... be hard working etc. etc.

 

[Roh_Chris]

Are we being engineered to be impatient?

The use of the word "engineered" is brilliant. The paraphrase of your question would be 'Are we being built to be impatient?'

The answer to that is No. By default (as in, by birth), we are not meant to be impatient. Hey, we lived in our mothers' wombs for 9 months. No matter how much we kicked or cried, we had to stay there for 9 months. So, by birth, we are taught to be patient and we are wired that way.

However, after our birth, we are conditioned by society. We learn that things are not as slow as it was in our mothers' wombs. We are taught that time is money. If something takes too long, we are told to move on to a faster alternative. I can give you numerous examples -
- Why go through all the tedious work of preparing your ingredients and then cooking your meal when you now have instant meals?
- How many people can watch an entire duration of a game of World Chess Championship?
- How do kids respond to the word "wait"? Do they really wait or do they throw tantrums or move on to something else?
- Don't we look for the shortest/quickest check-out counter while getting our groceries billed?

The examples are many. We have reached an age where everybody is impatient. Patience, by far, is a virtue and is hard to find in our present generation. While we were all born with the virtue of patience, we have lost it somewhere during our life's journey. I think the future generations will be more and more impatient.

As a Christian, what are you doing to prevent this influence?

The Bible has always taught us to be patient. When the Israelites were frantic about the Egyptians pursuing them before the Red Sea, God told them to "Be still". When the disciples were worried that their ship would sink, Jesus was fast asleep. As Christians, we need to realise that our times are in God's hands. Whatever happens to us, will happen only with his knowledge. Unless He permits it, it will not happen to us no matter how much we pray or cry or worry. I think this is the only way we can learn to be more patient.