Instant Gratification - by Oluseyi Vandy

We all have heard this word at one point or the other, especially associated with the internet era. I remember reading about it in self-help books, but I can now verify in real time that all the things said about it were exactly as advertised. If anything, it is more dangerous than talked about. What is instant gratification? It is the immediate fulfilment of a person's needs or desires. It comes with a lot of impulsive and sometimes irrational acts that can leave observers wondering about the person's ability to make decisions. It also can cause a lack of trust and belief in someone, because the people who live this lifestyle hate things associated with the word stress as they search for the quickest hacks to get what they want. It's like eating a half-cooked meal. Yes, you may feed your hunger at the moment, but your stomach may have words with you later in the day. We can see the fruits of instant gratification as it has birthed a lot of mediocrity in society. We see a lot of creatives display bland creations which are just the same things recycled with different faces or voices. We see it in the music, movies, and fashion industries. They even gave it a new name fast fashion. It has people asking "What happened to quality?" Well, it was traded for speed. The Internet age fell in love with speed and forgot that nothing of value happens overnight. Not relationships, iconic structures, skills, development, or success. Yes, there are some rare cases, but even those may not last long because there is a lack of depth and experience to recreate the formula. So what we have is a lot of mediocre or flash-in-the-pan individuals looking to milk as much out of their time in the literal 15 seconds of fame they get. As much as I support an industrious mindset, the problem that doesn't go away is when a foundation isn't firm, it falls. We should understand and remember that whenever we build or create something, it is not just for ourselves, we do it so that the coming generations have something to build upon, marvel at and then strive to surpass. As it is presently, we set the bar so low that anyone can kick it accidentally if they walk without watching where they are going. This is why we have a lot of saturated areas because people stumble into success that many believe making it can't be so difficult, all you need is a phone, a microphone and a light.  We used to have people who dedicated years of their lives building themselves to be experts, people who could be relied on, people everyone trusted and respected when they spoke. Now? Everyone believes their opinions hold weight and importance, even when they have no information or experience whatsoever. What does that leave us with? Charlatans who manipulate and mislead people because attention is an intoxicating drug that very few have the strength to resist. People whose pride will not let them publicly admit to being wrong except short of beating them to concussion with the blunt truth and evidence. We then wonder why the world is the way it is, it is because the bar to selecting competence is subterranean low.

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