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Let's Talk Instant Gratification in Regards to Media.

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 (Edited)

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.

A Goon in a Gaggle of 'em

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You could have just posted three words.

"Do you masturbate?"

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I can't get no, gratification.

Most of the buildings of my childhood are demolished or too far away, most of my relatives are dead or moved to places even more isolated than where I live and the few friends who aren't too knee deep in nappies to hang are too knee deep in mortgage repayments to break away from work.

Much of the television shows of my childhood are wiped or for contractual reasons unable to be made available to buy or broadcast.

Even the well of childhood music is tainted with the biographical details of Jimmy Savile, Jonathan King and Gary Glitter.

And then we get to Lucasfilm.

The second film I ever saw at the cinema is Star Wars (1977), the first film I discovered for myself despite the advertising was Raiders Of The Lost Ark (1981).

I can instantly reach for my VHS copy of Raiders or my GOUT incarnation of Star Wars but the knowledge that I'm watching this 'legacy software' on 'legacy hardware' doesn't sate my feeling of nostalgia, in aggravates it.

 

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Bkev, an excellent topic, and one I will comment on at length (you've been warned) as soon as I can get to a proper keyboard (tablet at the moment). 

Forum Moderator
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In all seriousness, I love the instant availability of media, old and new.  I do find myself wishing I had more time for it, maybe moreso because there's so much more to explore now...

Oh carp, now I'm sad!  Damn you kev!!!

 

;-)

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TV's Frink said:


You could have just posted three words.

"Do you masturbate?"

That's actually not even a bad answer, even though you were joking. It doesn't quite have to do as much with aesthetic resonance, but certainly a part of instant gratification thanks to the web.

A Goon in a Gaggle of 'em

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^ Well said.

The blue elephant in the room.

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My feelings are that I think we end up taking the power at our fingertips for granted. The instant gratification allows us to get lost in a mentally comfortable place. It is astounding that we can instantly connect with any unknown human on this planet. We have the ability to spread our ideas across the globe and create projects that would have been otherwise impossible. These things can be based on our passion, nostalgia, and gratification...but very few people get past the gratification part. We use digital media in the most obvious and simple of ways.

This site is a great example of what can be done. The instant gratification allows the fan editors, book writers, and others the resources and audience for their projects. Not all of us have the skills for these projects but I think there is plenty for people to do if only we thought more creatively.

There is such huge potential to not only be instantly gratified but to benefit from it, at least by giving back to others. Think about how much has been facilitated by sites like kickstarter and other sites devoted to various passions. A question to explore is how do we get beyond merely watching a video, reading a blog, commenting in a forum, what can we do?

The blue elephant in the room.

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^An interesting perspective. "What now?" is a very positive way to look at this in terms of on a global scale. Definitely not the answer I was expecting, but a welcome one. I was coming from a more personal perspective, though. Hell, even home video is kind of part of what I'm talking about.

A Goon in a Gaggle of 'em

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I don't really feel like I have too much connection with stuff in my past; but that's not to say that I won't watch a cartoon or movie or something I remember from my childhood.

Basically, I was going to write what Mrebo did; the ability to find the knowledge or show or item you're looking for instantly can be a "trap" of sorts if you find yourself getting sucked into it, but it's also a huge boon if used correctly, I was thinking the other day how, even as close to now as the 90's, if you wanted to learn about something the only real option was to find a book about it, but now we can just type a word in and find a billion sources instantly.

I think it all comes down to how you use the tools around you that defines whether it has a positive impact or a negative one, because a hammer is just a hammer, a gun is just a gun, the internet is just the internet until a person comes along and gives it a purpose.

Keep Circulating the Tapes.

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Once I conquer, destroy, and recreate the multiverse in my own image, everything this thread pertains to will be rendered moot.

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I propose an OT.com contest...

“Grow up. These are my Disney's movies, not yours.”

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“Grow up. These are my Disney's movies, not yours.”

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I was going to joke about OT.COM having a beauty pageant so I went off to Google to see if there were any amusing GIFs along those lines and all I got was a wall of pictures of toddlers caked in make-up.

So no instant gratification there, instant nausea though.

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No, this is Minnie Driver.

.

..

...

....

Now I'm out.

“Grow up. These are my Disney's movies, not yours.”

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oh god not him why

A Goon in a Gaggle of 'em

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I never consumed a whole lot of media as a kid, nor have I had much desire to go back and visit that media which was close to me during childhood. The three Star Wars films were my favorite throughout childhood, but I've let those go too, out of the frustration of not being able to get the real things. I guess I revisit certain video games from time to time, so I can relate as far as roms are concerned. As a kid staring at the shelves and shelves of games at my local used game store and carefully comparing the price tags with the several month's worth of allowance money burning a whole in my pocket; never would I have dreamed that one day I'd simply be able to sit down at a computer, type in a few search words, and within minutes be playing any one of those games. Crazy stuff.

The parts of my childhood I'd truly like to revisit are places. I spent a lot more time outside adventuring than I ever did in front of TV screen watching or playing games. I'd love to be able to go back to the giant old tree and pond I used to spent hours at with my buddies in my preteen years. I'd give almost anything to see that place again, compare it with my memories, look on it with adult eyes, or just have my memories jogged about all the things that took place there. But last time I visited my home town, I found it was long gone, torn down, filled in, flattened out. Now home to a Mormon church building, so it goes. So many other places I'd like to revisit that have been forever swallowed by time.

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Why did you destroy CP3S' childhood, D_E?

Why?

Keep Circulating the Tapes.

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Kev,  my thoughts will be two parts.  One will address the topic, one will address you within it.

1. No doubt, your generation has instant, full access to everything that you've grown up on media-wise. Certainly more than my generation could even have imagined at your age.  If we dug something, we watched it as much as possible and then moved on (movies, cartoons, etc). 

I don't think instant access to everything has made your generation immature or slower to grow up.  At least not by default. It certainly hasn't had that effect on you - this topic is a perfect example.  I think people are who they are.  If they're immature they'll find a way to delay responsibility one way or another. If it's watching cartoons for six hours straight, they will.  If it's following their mom around the house and asking her to cut the crust off their PB&J sandwich or do their laundry like she did when they were children, they will.

The real difference to me, and it's considerable, is that we couldn't experience our comfort & escape on-demand.  I watched Speed Racer and Bugs Bunny every chance I could, but I still had to wait for the hour or so that they were being broadcast, on which ever days.  Because of that, my generation spend most of our time outdoors interacting with other people and using our imaginations.

That's where your generation is radically different than mine.  There seems to be a new type of person emerging - the true First World as you so eloquently put it.  Being able to retreat to the computer and live within their escape at-will, has created a generation of kids who seem unable to interact with other people.  They've become so used to the pretend world on a screen at their desk, that when faced with the vast & real one on the other side of their door, they don't know how to function within it.

It's not retarding their maturity, it's retarding their sociability. Growing up on a computer is creating a generation of Sheldon Coopers.  Great for a thirty minute comedy, terrible for reality.  The Facebook creator is a great example.  Entrepreneur and billionaire at 21, train wreck in an interview.  Find his original 60 Minutes interview and give it a look.  He's out of his element sitting across from an actual person.  He has the craziest flop sweat I've ever seen. 

It will be interesting to see how your generation develops.

 

2. One of the more interesting aspects of being on this board the past ten years, for me at least, has been watching you come of age. Your posts have always been somewhat advanced for what I image teenagers are like in their grasp of the world.  That said;  not having any teenage friends, I don't really have a control for the comparison.

Here's where I wanted to transition away from the topic and instead address how you see it. However, I want to first be absolutely clear on this - this is not a criticism of you personally.  In fact, I'm one of your biggest fans.  It's an observation and a realization that you can't have yet. You can't imagine it, you can't learn it, nor can you fully understand it.  It is, however, every bit as important to your topic as the subject itself is.  I'll use some of your post as an explanation, along with an anecdote from my own past.

People like me, who grew up during....

I can return to them as solace: a reminder of what once was...

this ease of revisiting childhood.....

On the last day of my senior year, I was 18 years old.  As you all know, that's a huge do-nothing day as you go to each class for the last time.  In my literature class, Miss Buscemi went around the room asking us what we planned to do after high school.

I knew what I wanted to do and had been working on it in my head for months.  I wanted to write a book about all my crazy high school experiences and friends.  When I told her, her response wasn't what I expected.  Her words, verbatim - "Write about what? - you're 18 - you're life hasn't even started yet."

That stung. "She has no idea all that I've done and seen", I thought to myself. "She just doesn't understand".

Man, talk about being off the mark.  Was I ever.  I couldn't possibly have grasped the concept of my life just beginning.  I couldn't grasp what she'd already experienced. 

Kev, that's where you are now.  You have no idea of "what once was" - yet.  But you will, and this topic of yours will be wildly different for you by then. I don't know what will become of all of us, but I hope I'm around to see what you think of things after you're well into your journey. 

Again, my thoughts are not at all meant to sting the way my teacher's did me and I hope they didn't.  You just reminded me of myself - 33 years ago - and made me smile at the remarkable similarity. 

This topic is a perfect example of why I wish we all lived within an hour or so of each other.  We could have a yearly gathering, for an evening with the libations of our choice, and sit around pondering the journey so far and solving the world's problems (if only we could get the world to listen to us).

;-)

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