The Psychology of Today's Young People
"We want it all-we want it now."
This simple sentence sums up one of the more prominent characteristic of younger generation today. In everything be it text messages, online purchasing, delivery, forms of entertainment, likes to social media updates or rapid academic and professional achievement, today's youth expects instant gratification. For them, delayed results are often viewed with frustration, boredom, anxiety or the irresistible urge to move on to something else more stimulating.
Is today's youth genuinely becoming less patient? Or is the contemporary world "teaching" them that life must happen instantaneously?
From a psychological standpoint, this question needs to be addressed in a far more complex manner than merely pointing blame at technology or youth in general.
The Psychology of Instant Gratification
Patience is not a standalone virtue. It is intricately connected with self-control, emotional regulation, delayed gratification and tolerance to uncertainty. Psychology defines delayed gratification as the willingness to give up immediate rewards in favor of greater, later rewards.
Today's young generation is being conditioned to have instant rewards through the sheer accessibility of them. Nudges and messages popping up instantly, start buttons with a touch that instantly give a prompt, search-bars that reply instantaneously, or streaming interfaces where the viewing begins without any buffering at all.
Through continuous association between digital stimuli and quick reward and pleasure the youth begin to develop a sense of entitlement for faster output, hence delaying gratifications seems to require far too much effort when its opposite – immediate reward – promises much less struggle and quick stimulation. The brain begins to learn to equate immediacy with satisfaction and pleasure. Thus the activities that require protracted work such as reading a thick book, learning a complex skill, working your way to career success, or nurturing meaningful relationship and emotional well-being seems too difficult and unfulfilling as compared to a quick instant success that digital platform readily avail and thus youth’s innate self-control and deferred gratification capacity may fail to kick in.
Social Media and the Culture of Comparison
Psychologically, social media has played an even more vital part. Constant visibility of selected achievements, relationships, traveling adventures, successes in a certain field, glamorous life and career of others gives young generation the sense that they are constantly lagging in their own life's game. They might develop this thinking:
"if he/she can do it so fast and be successful so early why am i stuck doing what I have been doing for quite some time? And failing to achieve a rapid sense of success."
This constant psychological comparison lowers their threshold of tolerance when it comes to gradually working hard, because the notion of success is now defined as something achievable in a short period of time and this psychologically fosters intolerance, dissatisfaction and impatience when it doesn't happen.
Fear Of Missing Out: FOMO
Another critical factor contributing to the development of impatience and mental instability among the young population is FOMO-Fear Of Missing Out. They live under the fear of not being present, not being aware or part of the buzz/happening elsewhere at any moment. Hence it becomes extremely difficult to remain immobile in one place/position and resist a million notifications popping on their screen, and to do nothing other than wait in the face of boring nothingness.
This is often viewed as productive work by youngsters since a few moments without stimulation seem tedious and unproductive-something that delays their life journey's progression.
In psychology however tolerating boredom to the greatest extent it seems to be a sign of healthy minds and strong psyche. Boredom fosters reflection, imagination and a chance for discovery.
Is Technology the Villain?
Not essentially. The nature of technology is amoral and, thus, not inherently responsible for youngsters' developing lack of patience. The critical issue lies more in our usage of it, and the degree to which we can control its access and utility.
Technology provides learning, communication opportunities, entertainment and can save a great deal of time.
Where technology goes wrong is the point where it's mere convenience evolves to a point of entitlement, hence making our impatient young ones develop expectation where the whole system be in sync with them at instant. Life is not a smart phone, thus: human relationships take time, learning, developing trust, achieving maturity and success, etc are all slow processes. When young generation expects their life to run with "digital speed" that the digital media shows them- impatience is only natural.
Role of Parenting and Education
However parents and education plays a crucial part too. Most of our parental generation try to shield their wards from difficulties and frustrations that life may toss upon them. They readily take on challenges or provide direct solutions often precluding the kids from learning the skill to problem-solving in a disciplined way.
Though well-intentioned, this leads to frustration tolerance's diminished capacity.
Likewise, even our educational system focuses highly on rapid output rather than on perseverance and learning, emphasizing the score or performance rather than the method or a long-term goal. Kids need to develop the ability to fail, wait for results, or get through difficult tasks without demanding immediate reward.
Patience isn't Passive waiting
Psychologically important: patience is NOTpassive waiting. Patience is active regulation of emotion, and it's about the discipline to continue working toward an objective and dealing with the urge to quit or react prematurely despite the presence of psychological frustration and uncertainty and an inherent desire for instant relief. In essence, a patient child is a resilient one.
As we tell our young generation," I may not have a result that meets my expectations today, but I can continue working toward it for future growth and benefits."
How parents and teachers can assist youngsters develop their patience skills.
- Model and encourage delaying gratification*. Not everything will be served instantly.
- Ease back on constant digital stimulation. Days without screens help children’s brains accustomed to having quiet or being bored.
- Build emotional regulation skills. Children have to understand that anger, anxiety or frustration isn't something to be acted upon instantly, but named.
- Praise effort, not only outcomes. When sustained effort, over task avoidance, is celebrated, children learn that it's as good as achieving.
- Foster healthy failure. Being allowed to make a mistake doesn’t have to mean rescuers rushing to clean up their mess; constructive failure often teach patience, resilience and problem-solving.
- Develop long-term plans. Learning an instrument, preparing a research project, mastering a skill or completing study to a competitive examination teach children the ability to apply sustained effort.
- Practice patience yourself. Youngsters observe their behavior, not just listen to it, so attentive adults can become excellent patience teachers.
Role of Teachers
Patience becomes a valuable development for children by teachers specifically.
A classroom shouldn’t exclusively foster high academical achievements but rather that develop independent thinkers, good listeners and a balanced handling of conflict, while working through tasks over time.
Long-term tasks are part of students’ involvement. Teachers will need tasks requiring students to focus and concentrate for extended periods of time such as: reflective tasks, learning by doing, reading, and a discussion group project.
Teachers' goals ought to be of fostering "deep learning" to attain "instant responses".
Teaching youngsters to not blame a lack of discipline nor a poor, failed background or situation to grow but rather with careful consideration:
Criticizing modern youths over this is an easy route, but in truth, every generation is a reflection of the time in which it lives, and today’s young population are being brought up at the speed of light, in a global village like the world. The fact they get impatient at not finding something as they wait for instant results could be their mere answer to society.
So, as opposed to wondering 'why are children today impatient,' why not try 'how can today's generation stop this behavior for our future'. It is by nurturing their ability for emotional intelligence, education and meaningful relationships.
Conclusion
Patience isn’t an outdated, classical character trait. At the turn of the century, patience could rather be counted as one of future’s psychological assets. Instant answers can be acquired through technology, but an education will need some time. One search query can be answered in a blink, but one knowledge requires duration. One virtual friend connection happens instantly, but real relationships entail patience and success comes fast but success over time can only be gained with a patient stance.
Children have to be taught how to delay immediate responses; they have to reflect, be patient, persevere and wait for what is meant to occur. The real achievement comes with working to gain what we want and value as truly cherished at all.
Blog By:
Dr. Shipra Gupta
Principal
Biyani Girls B.Ed. College,Jaipur