If you ask Siri a question, how quickly do you expect to receive an answer?
If you order something online, when do you want it to arrive?
If you’re watching a video on YouTube and it buffers, how long will you wait before you exit the app?
Because of how technology has evolved, even in the past 5 years, we expect things instantly. We don’t want to wait for anything and suffer from impatience. What kind of impact is this having on our everyday lives? If you have a goal, do you really believe you are willing to work for it for potentially years, or do you expect quick results?
For example, you have a holiday booked in 6 months, and you know it’s going to be hot. You’re not feeling too confident about your body so you decide to start exercising and eating better. After a week of gym classes, and cutting out chocolate, you’re feeling pretty pissed off because you look exactly the same! How is that fair after all your hard work? You give up and decide that the month before, you will do a drastic juice diet. You’ll get the results you want and don’t even need to work out. The time comes, you juice for a month and feel great for your holiday. When you come back, all your weight has been put back on and your back into old eating habits. You’re not too worried as you won’t need to get in a swimsuit again anytime soon.
Sound familiar?
Imagine if you had spent those 6 months getting into the habit of exercising and eating better. It would be the norm to you now, and you could even go on spontaneous holidays without a care in the world.
Photo by Kon Karampelas on Unsplash
Another example, would be our careers. Everybody wants to be a big time Director or CEO of a great company that brings in the big bucks. Again, how much effort are you willing to put in, in order to get that career progression and gain the experience you really need to be the big dog. The likes of Steven Bartlett dish out advice to those who admire and aspire to be like him, but people seem to forget, yes he is 26 years old, but he’s been doing this for 7 years already. He founded two of the Social Chain Groups flagship companies when he was only 22.
His success didn’t happen overnight, and neither will yours.
When we want something, we want it there and then. This is a direct link to how technology has made us lazy. Not only are we physically lazy, but mentally we are too. We don’t even attempt to remember things, as that is what Google is there for, and we have the answer at the tap of a button. Advanced technology has made us lazy, impatient, and has taken away our drive and ambition.
We all suffer from short-cut syndrome, but what is the cure?
We all need to be aware of our choices first and foremost. Let’s not allow our brains and bodies to become so lazy we eventually will never do anything for ourselves. We must remember that the time and quality of work put into something, reflects on the results.
If you wanted a tattoo, would you go to a tattoo parlour where it took 30 minutes and cost £40, or the one where it took 3 hours and costs £200? Definitely the latter, they will spend more time ensuring you are happy with the end result, more time focused on the piece of work set before them and it will be of better quality.
Technology is one of the biggest factors of why we suffer from short-cut syndrome. Whilst technology is fantastic, and it can be great to help improve productivity and learn new things, we need to make conscious decisions on when it is appropriate to use.
– Megan Wellman
- Listen to Adam Greenwood talk about the present and future of artificial intelligence here.
Photo by Josie Lopez on Unsplash