Grant Tabler
Ian Reilly
AHSS 1060 Mass Communication
November 10, 2009
We live in an age of digitization. On a daily basis we are assaulted by a flurry of high tech, solutions to all our problems. Usually the message is a simple one; buy our product to better yourself. However, recently there seems to be more products boasting the ability to make your life easier, happier, and better, with little effort on your part. In this respect, society seems to have lost its way, though not just because of technological advancements. Our need to have everything done automatically has led to an instant gratification market. We want things done quickly and easily with as little input from the user as possible, we have become increasingly dependent on automatic solutions, and I believe this has become especially prevalent because of new technology and available media.
With advances in technology, people are able to buy “miracle” products that don’t require any hard work or change in their behaviour. Instead, people can become thin and sexy without all that troublesome diet and exercise business. This is the essence of the instant gratification market. The instant gratification market is predicated on the idea that businesses are able to make large quantities of money by giving people “something for nothing”. In reality however, it is more of a nothing for something relationship. For, although the consumer sees the process as getting results without effort. What is really happening is the business is giving a temporary solution, and getting money out of it. This is only a temporary solution because it is too easy; it does not require the person to change their negative behaviours.