Today I’m going to focus on the application of instant gratification to movies, television shows, and primarily, Netflix.
As a child I remember the sheer excitement of going to Blockbuster to pick out a movie. It was always so difficult to decide which movie to rent; Did I want a funny one or a scary one? A light-hearted one or a serious one? I could only choose one, and I just did not know which one to choose.
With the advent of companies like Netflix, people now had a huge assortment of movies and shows at their fingertips. Long gone were the days of having to rewind a VHS tape that someone had forgotten to rewind before returning to the store, and having to clean the fingerprints off DVDs. At the click of a button, one can watch essentially whatever they please whenever they please.
Although Netflix has a wonderful business model, I wonder…isn’t this mode of entertainment just fueling our need for instant gratification? Even the movies that aren’t available to be streamed are difficult to wait for. How dare they make us wait a whole TWO days?! And this doesn’t even begin to discuss the monster they are creating for younger children. Children don’t understand how to wait for their entertainment anymore because they have it right on the computer or streaming through the Xbox. Seeing a new movie has lost a lot of its excitement.
Instead of being able to choose only one movie, now children have hundreds upon thousands of movies and shows right at their fingertips. Do you think this will pose problems for them in terms of patience and appreciation in the long run?
4 comments:
I think that this proves that the patience of people today is only going to get shorter. Between online streaming and pirated movies, it shows how impatient people have become when it comes to movies.
I do agree with you. I used to have so much fun going to Blockbuster with my mom and dad. It was so cool to know that I got to pick out my own movie. It was also fun to go back up to Blockbuster and turn in the movie through the drop box. Sometimes it is just the little things in life.
I agree that in today's society we can get most things at a click of a button. This is especially true with T.V. episodes or movies. I do think children are completely unaware of how it used to be. My god brother is 5 and since he started watching T.V. he did not have to watch commercials because his parents had DVR. I think this could pose a problem in the long run with patience because the small things like T.V. and movies can be watched whenever without commercials.
I think this is a very interesting point. Instant gratification is something that everybody wants, even we who remember renting a VHS (which those before us could argue we had it a lot easier then than they did before). And while it may be true that kids may grow up more impatient because they can skip commercials and instantly download movies... I'm not sure how much that will translate into other aspects of their life. Technology will keep advancing- I don't anticipate our having to revert back to VHS and kids having to learn to search for a movie and wait in line all the time- so each generation will just get used to things they way they are. Humans, by nature, learn to adjust. People who would have to travel for months on the Oregon Trail and lost all their family members to dysentery had a ton more patience than I do, but I don't need that kind of patience for my daily living. Now it'll take a few years for the concept and appreciation of patience to set in on children, but that's just a given with any generation. People either learn or they don't, but that's there own thing and not really technology.
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