When I was a teenager, seeing the latest film would mean waiting for it come out on VHS (later DVD) and hiring it from the local video shop. We could rarely afford trips to the cinema. Once the film was released you had to hope that you were first in the queue to get your hands on the film before someone else in the neighbourhood hired it (then having to wait a few more days before it was eventually handed back).
No longer the case for billions of people. Now, as soon as a film is released to the public, you simply log on to your favourite video app such as Netflix or Amazon Prime, and watch the film instantly.
Then there’s the issue of shopping. No longer do kids spend hours reading through the tech and toy sections of the Argos catalogue: next day (and even same day) delivery means they can have what they want almost as soon as they decide they want it.
I call this the On-Demand Generation.
No time to wait
Entire generations of children and young adults now believe that they can have whatever they want whenever they want it. And it shows.
I first noticed this with my kids. Young people now do the vast majority of their viewing through streaming services, in particular, YouTube. Until recently, Youtube videos had little or no advertising during the program. One day, I was watching live TV with my daughter and the commercial break came on. “Fast forward the adverts, Daddy!” she exclaimed. When I told her this wasn’t possible and tried to explain that it was live TV, she just looked puzzled.
She really struggled to understand the concept of having the wait through 3 minutes of adverts before she could watch the next part of the TV show.
I also noticed similar behaviour with my son. Now 15, he has grown up in a time when he can get his hands of pretty much anything within 24 hours, delivered straight to our front door. Some shops even offer same-day delivery.
Tell him he might have to wait a few days for an item to arrive and the frustration is highly visible as the online parcel tracker is refreshed every 5 minutes.
People are so impatient that they actually need to know exactly where their parcel is currently located in the delivery network. Postman Pat would have a heart attack!
Patience is a virtue – or is it?
This led me to thinking I was a bad parent, that I had allowed my children to become part of this fast-consumer-and-on-demand generation, and I didn’t like what I was seeing.
So I started observing other children and quickly realised that they are, in the main, all behaving the same. And it’s not just teenagers, it’s adults too. It seems that there is an entire section of society who just don’t know how to wait for things.
For example, I run a small business which requires customers to book an appointment on a certain date for their vehicle to be repaired or serviced. Increasingly, I will have customers call up and expect their car to be fixed on the very same day. When I politely explain that we are fully booked that day and they will need to make an appointment, I often receive a very cold and disappointed groan, followed by “but I really need it done today” (often followed by further attempts to convince me that I must be wrong and can’t possibly be that busy). Even the concept of appointment booking seems to be lost on some.
No cash? Just stick it on credit! 😕
Then there is the issue of funding these purchases.
Before credit cards and loans there was an old fashion way of buying what you couldn’t afford. It was called saving money. The concept was simple – you put aside a little bit of money each week until you could afford to buy the new jeans you wanted or the latest Brother Beyond LP (yes, I really did save money to buy one of those).
Not anymore.
Not only can you get accepted for credit cards in less than 10 minutes, you’ll now often be offered credit as check out your online shopping basket with the latest pair of Nike and Superdry hoodies. Credit suppliers such as Klarna are now available on the websites of almost every major name, and despite recently coming under fire for some of their practices, it seems this latest way of buying online is here to stay. Even PayPal are joining in.
Of course, you can’t blame companies for offering these services, after all, they’re only responding to consumer demand. But there is a huge risk of people getting saddled with debt that they simply can’t get out of. Being unable to save for a new car can literally leave people homeless (don’t even get me started on the latest con – the Personal Contract Plan (PCP)).
And the idea of living to your means – the concept of actually buying what you can sensibly afford – is now considered old fashioned.
On demand Food
We’re all getting bigger (guilty) and it’s not helped by the plethora of fast-food outlets available. Why wait for a healthy cooked meal to be cooked when you can drive though a McDonalds or Burger King? Pay a few quid and within minutes you’re passed a burger and chips from a little window. And if burgers aren’t you think then fear not: there’s plenty of hot sausage rolls, sugary chocolate bars and sugary drinks available to snack on at a moments notice.
Oh. Did somebody say ‘Just Eat’?
The On-Demand Generation can’t stand to be told ‘No’.
This brings me on to the next issue with the On-Demand Generation.
They simple can’t stand to be told NO. The whole concept of wanting something and being told they can’t have it seems alien to them. If they want it, they expect it, and being declined this expectation simply doesn’t compute.
It’s almost as though the word ‘no’ has become offensive in these times of excessive positivity and wokeness, where saying any negative has almost become an insult.
Snowflakes, anyone? ❄
I digress, so I’ll try to get back to the subject.
The point is this: the On Demand Generation have little or no patience and we are in danger of breeding entire generations of people who simply don’t know how to wait.
Learning how to wait is important for many reasons, including:
- Items have a higher value when they are anticipated for a few days or weeks and are more likely to be treasured
- It can help to instil the importance of earning and saving money to buy things
- It’s character building
- It helps to build intelligence – ask any sportsperson or businessperson how they use patience to ‘strike and the right time’
Oh well, rant over, for now…
Businessman, camping enthusiast, Formula One fan and Real Ale drinker.
