I no longer have the capacity to wait.
Whenever I am in a line or waiting for others to meet with me, I have
to get out my phone or iPad and start clicking away. Even when I have
neither device, I fiddle with the pen in my pocket and think of things
to write on my hand or scraps of paper around me. I can’t just wait. Is it a lack of imagination or an abundance of things to do. Is my
attention so diverted that I can no longer just observe without
constantly commenting. The instinct to tweet or respond to external
stimulation is ever present. Even now, as I wait in a 30 minute line for frozen yogurt, I have to
be thinking this concept through. I’m not watching the cute children
in front of me. I’m trying not to listen to the teenage kids behind me
speak about whether or not operatic is a word. Waiting has become nothing more than a game. In fact, there are entire
companies built upon waiting. Take Line Snob, for example. It is a
location based system to alert others for how long the wait will be.
It is a way to socialize with other people waiting in the same line
without having to actually talk to them. It is a sickness, but I’m not sure that it is one I can be cured of. I
like the distraction. I like being overly productive and tagging the
world around me. And yet, I wonder if my children will ever know what
waiting without entertainment will be like? Will partience mean the
same thing to them as it did to me? Ooh, I’m to the head of the line now. What flavors should I get?
to get out my phone or iPad and start clicking away. Even when I have
neither device, I fiddle with the pen in my pocket and think of things
to write on my hand or scraps of paper around me. I can’t just wait. Is it a lack of imagination or an abundance of things to do. Is my
attention so diverted that I can no longer just observe without
constantly commenting. The instinct to tweet or respond to external
stimulation is ever present. Even now, as I wait in a 30 minute line for frozen yogurt, I have to
be thinking this concept through. I’m not watching the cute children
in front of me. I’m trying not to listen to the teenage kids behind me
speak about whether or not operatic is a word. Waiting has become nothing more than a game. In fact, there are entire
companies built upon waiting. Take Line Snob, for example. It is a
location based system to alert others for how long the wait will be.
It is a way to socialize with other people waiting in the same line
without having to actually talk to them. It is a sickness, but I’m not sure that it is one I can be cured of. I
like the distraction. I like being overly productive and tagging the
world around me. And yet, I wonder if my children will ever know what
waiting without entertainment will be like? Will partience mean the
same thing to them as it did to me? Ooh, I’m to the head of the line now. What flavors should I get?
