How instant gratification is hurting Gen Z in small and big ways
We live in a world where everything is competing for our attention all the time. And instead of understanding that we can only focus on one thing at a time, we divide our attention to all the things going on. We love multi-tasking.
You can blame it on quick delivery times, online dating apps, polished social media posts, and edited quick clips on TikTok/Reels/Shorts/Snapchat for our brain’s wanting to take the route of least resistance.
But, this is hurting us so badly in the things we all know deliver the most reward, but take the most time and trial and error to gain.
Relationships
Career
Personal wins
Mental and physical health
Learning something new
These are the things that take the most time and experimentation to figure out and define for each of us on what we want. It requires us to choose, not to have unlimited access to information and choices without ever choosing what to invest in.
I have found for myself that choosing something and sticking with it based on what I know is good for me is helpful. And this is helpful to know when to quit too.
For example, since COVID, I have started making tiktok videos. They haven’t ever been consistent, but I always have fun making them and the act of creating something and sending it out is an action that reflects how I operate in my daily life too.
While I make these tiktok videos, of course I have the thought that I wish one of these videos would go viral so I can get paid to make videos like my favorite content creators. I haven’t had much success with any video blowing up, but I have consistently gotten more views and likes on my videos. But, above that, it has boosted my confidence and self-assurance. Although I am discouraged by not getting high views or likes, it doesn’t prevent me fully to stop making videos all together. But, it doesn’t fully motivate me to consistently post videos either.
And, its not because I don’t think I can be content creator that could make money off of videos. It is that I know what is required to push the gas pedal at full speed to make that dream a reality and I know in myself that I am not willing to sacrifice things in my life to devote it all to that job.
But, I see myself still wanting to get clips of things in my life, show the process or something, or just have a take that I want to share.
How does this relate to instant gratification?
The takeaway from my TikTok example is I get satisfaction from making videos because of the progress and growth I have seen in myself over time and in my increased engagement of posts.
The indicator of success does not have to be a certain number of views or a paycheck. It is about progress realized by you.
And all the instant gratification we just get on a daily basis trains us to experience self-doubt, uncertainty, failures, rejections, constructive criticism, lifestyle compromises, and more as a sign we should stop trying.
But all of these experiences are part of building resilience and satisfaction for ourselves to achieve happier-ness (thanks Arthur Brooks for coining this term) . There is no short cut for it that won’t bite you in the butt later. But we all know that.
We just have an illusion from what we see online and the shallow relationships we keep that no one experiences these feelings when they are trying something new.
Everyone must be qualified and confident the whole time when they are challenging themselves in their career, mental and physical health, relationships to others, and relationships to themselves, right? Nope, keep and grow relationships with people that share more than what meets the eye and you will hear stories of self-doubt and fear from them when they are embarking on new change too.
Let me know if you like this style of writing or if it stories like these deserve to be more organized and thought through more! (Trying something new here 😄)
