Hey folks,
I'd like to take this moment to ask you to take the following seriously. To expect it would be overestimating everyone's self control (normally my own included), so I'll just try and make it a humble request. Thank you for understanding.

I guess it's best to start with a concept: aesthetic resonance. My poetry professor recently spent a whole period trying to explain this concept, as it's quit a difficult one to truly put into words; I'll do my best here. Aesthetic resonance is the idea of words ,imagery, or what have you that can bring to mind certain feelings. Perhaps not specific memories, but the feelings associated with them. He was referring to written word when he described this. In fact, he might have even meant new experiences - like reading a beautiful piece for the first time. In this context, I do not. In my life, I think I've been... obsessed with that concept. I find myself always revisiting cartoons I once cherished to find those feelings I once had, whatever they are. That's the beauty of it: it's more than can be put into words. Not just emotion, but not quite a physical experience. It's recall, but more than a flashback to times long gone (though I have those as well.)

Tonight, I had a few drinks. OK, so I might have downed a whole bottle of wine. Whatever. What I have to say is so much more important than the mindset that brought it on. In the age of digital media, we have reached a crossroads. A serious one. People like me, who grew up during its infancy, now have access to practically everything on the pop culture spectrum that they grew up on. I can find pretty much any cartoon/any television show that I feel had a significant impact on me as a person online. And, in moments like now - where I'm a little down - I can return to them as solace: a reminder of what once was. The innocence I once had, how much this one life lesson mattered, whatever etc. I think it's kind of put me in a bit of a standstill in terms of growing up. This "instant gratification" - this ease of revisiting childhood - might actually have prevented me from properly growing up. Or maybe I've just got first world problems, take your pick.

How so? I've found I'm always looking for that aesthetic resonance. I have been for a long time. Hell, six years ago (I was 13) I wrote a monologue about all the people I missed who were once ever present in my life. I was looking for something I thought I had lost. However, when those people didn't work out... I turned to another solution: things I shared in common with the other kids lucky enough to have cable TV. And, unlike before where you might have had to look for something new to get whatever this... feeling you're looking for ... is, it's easy to find on the internet. Again - a simple look on youtube is all it might take to return me to whatever state of mind I keep looking for. This is on a personal level, of course, so I understand if you... uh, don't understand.

I wanted to write a lot more but I'm finding myself lacking the motivation. This is very similar to how I don't really finish things... video games, assignments, etc. Maybe it's because I want to be able to return to that feeling of discovery or whatever when I'm working on whatever project it is. I dunno. But why work when there's instant gratification available at the tip of my fingers? I guess that's what I'm getting at here. Have I strayed from explaining instant gratification? Not really, no. Thanks to it, nostalgia can be more than just a longing for the past. It's become a way of life for some people... look around on the 'net. I don't even have to point out where to go, it's true. You'll probably find a younger me in a few of those places.

Now, I turn this back on you. This question is for anyone, young and old. How do YOU feel about instant gratification? Has media made it too easy? Is our future screwed because of it? Will the manchild become the norm?

Discuss if you feel so inclined. I'm hoping you will, but I wouldn't blame you for looking down on me for thinking like this.