Many find it hard to keep up with the pace of things. Since we live much of our lives in realms of computation, we're prodded to match the machine.
We try and try and try to devour content as quickly as servers erase latency. But when we act like computers, fast and ceaseless, it is exhausting, demoralizing and comes at a cost.
Our online brains cannot truly handle the ever-present click, swipe, dopamine, turn to the next novelty. We've drifted into false time and we're floundering. I don't think we were built for this.
Instant gratification
Many websites, apps, streaming services etc. aim to offer you XYZ in “real time”, which really just means “instantaneously.”
Which really just means “we-desperately-want-to-give-you-what-you-want-without-a-single-moment-to-think-because-if-you-think-you-might-leave–and-your-attention-is-our-money.”
Companies don't always succeed, but their goal is clear. Any time spent buffering, waiting, etc. could be a death knell for their product / service.
The user could take their tech-induced craving for instant gratification to some other product, or worse, a competitor.
The online reality this has created is a very frenetic one.
Human time
But real time, our shared, collectively perceived time, isn't like this. Real time flows in different ways. Sometimes it actually is immediate sensory feedback.
Yet often, it draws patience out of us. Vines bloom into flowers, smiles press into wrinkles. Florescence, senescence. This is also our real time of decades and months.
So don't be afraid to step away from this screen, give up the race with computation and explore some other direction. Find comfort in your humanity and find relief in the slowness of things.
References
My mom, who wisely preaches balance and delayed gratification - useful things in a hectic world
T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets