We Want To Know, And Now!
UPS and FEDEX next day air envelopes. Who invented them? People who want to know and now! And people who want others to know and now!
I have received my fair share of these envelopes filled with bad news. I don’t have enough fingers to count the number of times we lost a line for one reason or another. So I sympathize for the Chrysler and GM dealers who got their letters last week. And for those that will get their letters over the next few weeks.
No matter what, we still want to know, good news or bad. I was on my i-Phone and an alert came up that I had to update some of my downloads. I pressed "OK" and immediately the status bar pops up and slowly moved from left to right assuring me when the download will be completed.
I was crossing the street the other day and I noticed the new timers letting pedestrians know how much time they had left to cross the street. It started at "30" and even when it read "3", people were still crossing. But hey, at least we now know how many seconds we have to cross.
We need to know doctor tests now. We need to know how long it will take to reach our destination whether in the car, plane or train. I was on the new Delta plane and the pilot said over the intercom the flight will take 4 hours, 1 minute and 30 seconds. Five minutes later the lead flight attendant told us the same thing. After take off, we were told the same thing. And every 30 minutes, more updates.
We need to know who called. Can you imagine coming home and seeing the answering machine blinking and not pushing the button? When our Blackberry beeps, we need to know who it is. Mind you, I wouldn’t ever own one of those things but it amazes me when I see people who do look at and decide who is important enough to reply back.
We need to know what we got on exams. We need to know if we got accepted or won the award. We need to know the score of the Wings game when it’s played out West. We need to know what time the kids are coming home.
WE NEED TO KNOW AND NOW!
And then what do we do when we find out what we needed to know? Mostly, nothing.
Happy Tuesday!
May 19th, 2009 at 11:13 am
This describes my personality to a T! I need to know everything YESTERDAY! I’m very impatient and it sometimes gets me in trouble. I want to be the first one to know everything.
I hate being left in the dark about situations. especially in the stores….it makes us look very untrustworthy and uninformed.
May 19th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
I want to know stuff as soon as possible also, and this has made me very resourceful, however I refuse to gossip, or call other people to ask if they know anything about something that may have happened.
May 19th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
You could wait until later…..But when later does arrive, it will just be now all over again.
May 20th, 2009 at 8:07 am
”I need to know what is important , right away”, most people say. And this may be true. I really could care less about unimportant things. Sometimes is the person that announce the news that makes the news important, and sometimes is the news that makes the person finally important. Tecnology has made everything so important, so fast. How did we measure importance 25 years ago ? Please reply ASAP, as this is important
May 21st, 2009 at 1:56 am
How many people would actually be able to survive in the wilderness nowadays? Not many… with their cell phones, i-pods, all their fandangled technology, it is insane that so many are cripled to all of these things.
25-30 years ago we had none of this and now it is a confusion of technology, what the heck is an i-pod will I die if I don’t have one? Cell phones are so over-rated more for amusement than emergencies which is what they were designed for in the first place. How many people get frustrated when there is an annoying loud person talking on their cell in the middle of the store?, I don’t need to know your business.
Who cares if technology is fast,people have become so impatient, life is too short to begin with and we want to rush rush rush.
Call me old fashioned but hey I am only in my 30’s, I could easily do without all the tech of today. Because you never know when you may be forced to do without.
May 22nd, 2009 at 2:43 am
Philosophically, wanting to know good news and bad news is one thing. I agree with you that one must not hide from bad news. However, needing to know everything “right away” is another challenge, part of the malaise of our society where I would add in hyper-consumerism and an unhealthy way of life. I, too, am attached at the hip to the blackberry and am very reactive to emails. However, the trick is knowing how and when to turn it off. Personally, I love that I can read and reply to emails at any time that I wish. The key is to wish that feeling with some sort of moderation, otherwise we will live in some Pavlovian prison.
June 26th, 2009 at 8:58 pm
I have a blackberry for business and personal use. Most times I hate it because my fiance just calls me all day. Sometimes I wish that I didn’t have to carry it and the nice thing is it turns itself off and on everyday. I must admit on Sunday’s (my day off) sometimes I don’t answer it at all. Whatever’s going can wait til Monday.