Look at today’s technological innovations. Look at all of the different forms of financing. To help visualize what I’m talking about, I’m going to list a few of them:
- Cell Phones
- Texting
- Movies on demand
- Credit Cards
- Payday Loans
- Vacation Loans
- Pre-prepared foods
What do they all have in common? They are all different medicines for “now” syndrome. Now syndrome is a horrible epidemic that is plaguing the world. We don’t know where it started, but it has spread quickly. People just can’t seem to wait for anything any longer.
Hurry Up, Faster
We’ve gotten into such a rush that we can’t even cook our own meals anymore! More and more, people are turning to pre-prepared meals and frozen foods to put dinner on the table. We can’t save for vacations, we’ll take out loans or put them on the credit card. We’ll finance everything from clothes to burgers on our credit cards, and we can’t make a phone call, but we’ll send a text instead.
We are so obsessed with looking wealthy that we’ll borrow against our future wages with a payday loan so we can continue paying the $100 cell phone bill, because we need the data package so we can pull up that hilarious Youtube video. It would be too much of an inconvenience to have to wait, let’s pay so we can have it now.
What Happend
The first microwave ovens were well before my time, but I can only imagine what some people’s opinions were of them. What we have today is microwaves multiplied by a trillion. We’ve become so obsessed with time and efficiency that we’re trying to make every aspect of life as compact and convenient as possible, not realizing that we’re actually truncating the good things.
Time with friends and family is being replaced with text messages, Facebook posts, quick cell phone calls, and maybe an in-depth email every once in a while. Home-made dinner is replaced by “gourmet” frozen foods which have very maternal names and sweet grandma photos printed on the front, when they were actually manufactured by a heartless machine.
Lay away has been replaced by credit cards, savings has been replaced by the emergency credit card, and the list continues on. “Now” syndrome is sweeping the world off of its feet and washing identities away with it. We’re getting to the point where we are so disassociated because of our efficiency that kids can’t spell or form proper sentences; we feel awkward when faced with the horror of an actual personal interaction rather than a digital one.
Do You Have Now Syndrome?
I think everyone has it to some extent. I think many people run into situations where they want something and they don’t want to wait, but it’s also important to draw a line where it doesn’t control you. When your wants control your cash flow, then you have a problem. When you’re pushing for something to happen now, stop and consider why the timeline is so short.
Will it do you just as much good a week or month from now? How about this: do you need this item, or are you replacing a perfectly fine alternative at home? That happens commonly with televisions. Release yourself from the grips of “now” syndrome before it takes over everything in your life.