A Culture of Delay?

Davextreme recently posted a couple articles (one real, one fake) that more than anything highlighted some of the trouble that Blockbuster seems to be having, seemingly at the hands of Netflix (don't click on the news links if you hate spoilers, but go to the posted article instead). It strikes me as odd that Blockbuster, who seems to be in every nook and cranny I look these days, is having trouble due to something that provides the same service, only with a shipping time delay. Yeah, that conclusion is faulty, but Netflix's popularity can't be denied.

Have we grown accustomed to some amount of delay? The internet has always been abuzz with the idea of "instant gratification." It's like the real world, only faster! I no longer need to go to the store to pick up a CD. I no longer need to even go to the front door to read the news! My friends are at my finger tips (if they're online). And my (e-)mail comes at me instant and direct, updated minute-to-minute.

Yet while Steve Jobs and Morgan Freeman (yeah, I think it's weird, too) negotiate through the mine field of studio rights and Walmart objections in their attempts to provide us with direct download movies, we're happily updating our movie queues and online shopping carts. It seems like more and more people are turning to the internet for online shopping. Even my parents! (Well, not my parents, but other people's parents.) No one has a problem with Tivo, whose most convenient benefit comes with a necessary postponement in your fun (that 30 minute buffer).

Maybe we've gotten used to this delayed gratification -- at least when it comes to certain things. Maybe we've gotten better at planning ahead. Maybe with so much instant access to all the other aspects of out lives, we can stand to wait a day or two for that order from Amazon. Maybe "science" needs to get its butt in gear and finally provide us teleportation. Or maybe we're just lazy. A culture of delay? Guess we'll just have to wait and see what history has to say.