Major Boothroyd

I read an interesting blog entry about queuing the other day which was quite thought-provoking. In the past year or so I've found myself getting annoyed standing in queues, even though I've always considered myself a patient person. This might just be me getting grumpier as I get older, or it may be a reflection on the society we live in currently.

Take Sky Sports News for example, a TV channel I watch often, mainly because the women on it are outstanding (yes, I'm shallow, deal with it). With this channel, and others like it, news is instant. To watch it, the viewer demands information, right then, right now, and when we get bored with that news, we need something else! Doesn't matter what - anything! It's got to the stage with that channel that if a Luton Town reserve player signed a contract extension it would probably be the yellow scrolling "Breaking News" bar along the bottom of the screen. We, the viewer, seem to crave an instant fix, regardless of how boring and insignificant it is.

It's the same for me, right now, sitting at my laptop. Once I finish typing this (which will be a while, as I'm rambling) I will have open: My Blogger dashboard, TweetDeck, MSN Messenger, Gmail, Facebook, and my Uni email. (and in a few hours time I'll have the baseball on, at which point my computer will explode) The reason for all this is that I'm a victim of this "instant society" - if I get an email, I want to read it straight away. If someone comments on this blog entry, I want to read the comment straight away. Tim Lovejoy's tweeted?! I want to read it, NOW! Instant! Instant! Instant!

I'm starting to think this is what makes me irritable and frustrated when I'm standing in the queue in Greggs and the lady in front of me is dithering (great word), and all I want to do is pay for my greasy lunchtime snack and exit ASAP. Society nowadays doesn't seem to want to wait, for anything, even for a second. I've become a victim of that, and it saddens me.