The Age of Instant Expectation

Technology has accelerated our sense of time. Smartphones, social media, and instant messaging have conditioned us to expect immediate responses. The “seen” checkmark or the typing bubble creates a psychological demand: answer now or risk disapproval.

In politics, this impatience manifests in chants of protest: “What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!” The urgency is understandable, but it risks collapsing the distinction between justice done swiftly and justice done rightly.

Investigations into corruption or misconduct take months, sometimes years, because evidence, due process, and law demand patience. Yet the public, conditioned by instant gratification, grows restless and suspicious when results are not immediate.

The Anxiety of Refresh

This impatience is not confined to politics.

It permeates family life and personal communication. Many of us check the news multiple times a day, our text messages, e-mails, social media accounts, refreshing our screens, waiting for an answer. This behavior leads to unhealthy anxiety. It takes away from putting down our phones, going outside, and enjoying nature itself.

There was a time when I was young when there were no cell phones, no Internet, and the phone in our house had no answering machine. Yet we managed to live well. Family and friends managed to communicate without living in the level of anxiety that people live with today. Technology has brought wonders into our world, but it has also brought what I believe is a poor way of living. We forget to appreciate what is around us. We forget to be grateful for the simplest things in life because we are consumed with instant results.

Patience as Roses: Roots, Thorns, Bloom

The metaphor of patience as roses offers a counter-narrative to the culture of immediacy. Roses remind us that waiting is not passive but active. Their roots symbolize discipline, the unseen foundation that sustains growth. Their thorns symbolize the frustration of delay, the sting of uncertainty, but also the integrity of the process. Their bloom symbolizes the reward of patience: beauty, clarity, and gratitude. Just as roses cannot be forced to bloom faster, justice, truth, and wisdom cannot be rushed without distortion. The elders who taught me this lesson understood that patience is not weakness but strength.

Technology’s Double Edge

Technology has given us wonders — connection, knowledge, speed — but it has also reshaped our expectations in ways that erode gratitude. A delayed text feels like neglect. A slow email feels like disrespect. Silence, once normal, is now interpreted as indifference. Gratitude for simple things—sunlight, conversation, nature—gets buried under the demand for instant replies. The double edge of technology is that it connects us while also consuming us. It offers us tools for stewardship but tempts us into anxiety. The challenge is not to reject technology but to reclaim patience within it.

Gratitude vs. Consumption

Gratitude requires slowing down. Roses do not bloom faster because we demand it; they bloom because we wait. In the past, a home phone without an answering machine meant you missed calls, but life went on. Today, every ping feels urgent, every delay feels like failure. This shift has transformed gratitude into consumption. We consume information, communication, justice as if they were products to be delivered instantly. But gratitude is not consumption. It is recognition. It is the act of seeing what is already present rather than demanding what is not yet given. To restore gratitude, we must restore patience.

The chant of immediacy—“What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!”—captures the urgency of our age. But perhaps we need a new refrain: “What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? When it is true.” 

This flips the script. Justice is not about speed but about fidelity to truth. Patience is not passivity but strength. Gratitude is not consumption but recognition.

Technology may tempt us into anxiety, but wisdom reminds us that roses bloom only in their season. The elders were right: patience is roses. In an age of instant expectation, we must rediscover the beauty of waiting, the strength of stewardship, and the gratitude that comes not from immediacy but from endurance.

Image: Pixabay / Pixabay License