"You often see with young people, if their friend doesn't text them back immediately, they take it as a relational slight and are worried about what's wrong. So we just expect this instant responsiveness from the world. And when something's not going well or something's difficult, that butts up against the reality that the world is not actually revolving around us."
"When we have to suffer or wait, patience can actually be this superpower, and instead of suffering, we can wait calmly and appropriately when we face difficult circumstances. Our technologies have changed our expectations about how the world should work. We start to expect that other people or our bodies can react just as quickly as our smartphones and all of our other devices that we have in our life."
A culture of instant gratification, fueled by smartphones and on-demand services, has raised expectations for immediate responsiveness from others and from personal bodies and minds. This mismatch between technological speed and human reaction creates frustration when delays occur. Patience functions as a bridging virtue that enables calm waiting during suffering or difficulty, supports emotional regulation, and facilitates persistence toward goals. Empirical findings indicate that patience improves goal pursuit and satisfaction with progress. Laboratory methods ask participants to list personal goals and report their ability to remain regulated while pursuing those goals in the face of obstacles.
Read at Big Think
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