When Professor Susan Greenfield warned last month of the damaging effects of new technologies on childhood, my first instinct was to dismiss it as another hand-wringing exercise. On one point, though, where she complains of the dangers of instant gratification, she might be right. I’m not even sure the problem is confined to children. One trait I notice in myself as a result of using computers is a growing impatience with the real world.
The millions of us who spend hours each day working or playing with technology have become dangerously at home in an environment where everything happens at a pace we choose. Like the Roman centurion in Luke’s gospel who can ‘say unto this man, “Go” and he goeth; to another, “Come,” and he cometh’, we click ‘Send’ and the email goeth, or ‘Search’ and the answer googleth. Just as army officers become irascible in retirement, unable to cope in a world where they are no longer unquestioningly obeyed, so it is with computer users: we find ourselves drumming our fingers impatiently at the most inconsequential delays of everyday life. The problem is worse in the young: one teenager quoted in a research study complained that ‘The trouble with McDonald’s is it’s far too slow.’ I now get grumpy at Starbucks if someone in the queue orders a frappuccino; I get mildly anxious when away from a PC because I don’t like having to wait more than three seconds to find out some minor fact — just now I had to go online to check the spelling of frappuccino.
I miss the self-discipline of the pre-digital world, too. When presentations and papers needed to be prepared in advance, people learned to prioritise work instead of meddling with everything until the last moment.
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