Social media and the internet have changed so much about how we live our lives in 2026 compared to twenty years ago which, at my age, doesn’t seem that long ago. Information is instantly available, messaging via a number of routes is easy and free, creating excellent quality photos is a piece of cake (although, not necessarily excellent composition), and you can have something delivered the same day. Where the internet and social media are concerned, we don’t really have to wait for anything. But what are the knock-on effects?
Us Gen X-ers have seen enormous progress in tech capabilities. We’ve seen the changes from (obviously) only having a stick and a potato to entertain us in the 1980s to where we are now. Absolutely everything is online: TV shows, games, libraries, news’papers’, household bills, work, your mates, takeaways, even your weekly food shop. It’d be dead easy to never go out.
Most of us with a smartphone are probably guilty (or willing, depending on your point of view) of taking the convenient way out and using JustEat or Deliveroo because we can’t be bothered cooking, or not going to a physical shop because of same-day delivery from Amazon. I did this the other day – after much pressure from my good lady to deal with a household mouse (I had ignored the little fella for quite a while in all honesty), I ordered a couple of humane mousetraps from Amazon. £11 pounds below the £20 threshold for same-day delivery, I searched for stuff I didn’t necessarily need just to get the traps that afternoon. I could have gone to the hardware shop on the way to the office. Yes, I am partly responsible, on a micro level, for the demise of the high street.
The issue of moribund town centres nationwide is well documented, and the decline will inevitably continue. But a wider observation is the issue of things being instantaneous. Immediate gratification, or resolution. What about actually waiting for things? This is also bound up with the easy access to credit (basically, debt). It’s everywhere – Amazon free instalments, PayPal pay-in-three, Klarna, buy-now-pay-later, this list goes on. No need to wait when you can have stuff now. Long gone are the days of saving up and ‘please allow 28 days for delivery’ – in fairness, that always seemed like ages and unnecessarily long. This ability to get things straight away is, admittedly, convenient for us, but mainly for big tech. “Get stuff today providing you buy some shit you don’t need”.
Communication is another area where society has changed. Pre-internet, you could talk to someone, phone them, or write a letter. Now there are so many avenues for messaging: WhatsApp, SMS, email, Messenger, TikTok, Snapchat… again, another massive list. Not only do we now expect to be able to message instantly, and free of charge, we expect an immediate reply. If we don’t get it, we get fidgety, especially if the recipient has blue-ticked. Where the hell are they?! This is definitely a generational thing. I was talking to the singer in our band a couple of weeks ago (Safehouse. We’re excellent.) about contacting venues. I’m old school and prefer to speak on the phone. Stuff gets sorted. According to her (she’s a Millennial), “Phone calls are for people over 40,” and prefers messaging. I argued that phone calls end in a resolution and an actual arrangement, or a next step, and that messaging results in loads of unfinished conversations because they’re easily ignored. Frequently, in the case of music venues. If I’ve got unfinished conversations, then so has everyone else, surely. But the draw of instant messaging, while undoubtedly great and convenient, isn’t necessarily efficient or effective all the time. How many work email conversations remain open and unresolved, or ignored and forgotten, unless you’re one of those ‘zero inbox’ virtuous types?
There are so many examples of how tech and social media have improved, and been detrimental, to society, but maybe all the things we can do instantly has led to something that extends beyond the smartphone and is now ingrained in our collective psyche.
Impatience. And, thus, intolerance.
It’s obvious to all who do, or used to, use the cesspit that is Twitter (presently known as X) that patience or tolerance aren’t a thing or even requirements. But in recent years this seems to have extended to wider society: the way we speak about migrants, political discourse, how quickly we expect the government to turn around the devastation created by the Tories, driving, customer service, clients, suppliers, phone signals… (add your own here). Even The Donald wants his war with Iran over with quickly before he gets bored.
Being Gen X, it may be just me feeling it. My Gen Z kids haven’t known things any different, and are of the ‘instant generation’, and impatient when things they think should happen quickly, don’t. How much of that is because they’re used to not having to wait for things, don’t expect to, and think they shouldn’t? They’ve never had to.
Our phones do everything that used to take time, money, planning, and effort to do or to obtain: music, TV, films, photos, shopping, communicating, banking, socialising, blah… blah… From a certain point of view, despite the convenience of the instant society, we all seem to be busier, more stressed, have less time, be more burned out, more easily distracted, and are more impatient than we used to be. Even this generation of The Kidz with their record levels of mental health issues. Anyway, it’ll all come out in the wash. Or not.
If you’re impatient to know, I ended up with 200 bin bags, some cheap pens, and a sable brown eyeliner to get over the £20 same-day delivery threshold. Just what I needed, especially the eyeliner. And, I caught the mouse on the first night. I am the great white hunter. Crunchy peanut butter on a bit of biscuit works a treat. The little chap was released in Sefton Park to be probably eaten by an owl that night. Such is the cycle of life.
