The Personal Impact Of The Instant Gratification Effect On My Life

In 2008, I began playing travel basketball. The practices were long and my parents usually dropped me off and then came to get me after practice was over. This, however, did not always work because practice might end early, and I would have to search for a phone to use. This forced my parents to reluctantly decide it was time for my first cell phone. For four years, I bought and recharged my minutes until I finally received a smartphone for my fifteenth birthday. The idea of being able to contact anyone or access social media at any time appealed to me and as anyone would expect, I assumed my life would be one hundred percent easier. But, it has become increasingly apparent to me that having the internet at my fingertips does not warrant an

I love to take photographs of sunsets and nature in general; this is generally only satisfying to myself. However, with my phone, I can take a photograph of a sunset and instantly post this photo to social media and receive feedback. When people see my picture they can “like” it and I receive notifications. In moderation, such a device would be an awesome outlet for my amateur photograph skills; it’s an instantaneous process that requires little to no effort on my part. While this seems like a beneficial aspect, it really only sets me up for disappointment in future endeavors. In the real world, there is no such thing as instant gratification and relying on my phone as a source of false pride in my work will only fail me later on. This effect also affects the way that I start and carry out romantic relationships. Instead of asking a girl for her home number and awkwardly asking her parents if she is home and available, I can ask for her cell phone number or snapchat username, and again, she can instantly reply. This instant gratification takes all of the work out of a relationship and decreases the quality of the relationship. It can create a relationship devoid of any real feelings and allows these relationships to become detached from the people involved. Both aspects of this effect have detrimental long term consequences that are directly related to increased cell phone