Instant Gratification, Anyone?

I'm a patient person. Maybe it is because I grew up in an era in which instant gratification wasn't encouraged or ever possible very often. I think the electronic revolution has changed all that the past 20 years or so. Now people want the latest and best "right now", and those who don't have what others do feel cheated. The latest example of instant gratification is the recent iphone debacle, where a company sold an over-priced product before it was ready for sale to people who waited in lines for hours in order to pay 5 times the value of with they made themselves physically and financially uncomfortable to get. Those who were seduced so easily by the iphone are not so different from the e rest of us, because society now sends repeated messages to us in all aspects of our lives that we should be gratified NOW. patience is not only not a virtue to most, it is seen as a backward outlook (my rejection of cell phones tells me this, for I am ridiculed regularly for rejecting the technology).
What brought this issue of instant gratification to my mind was reading something by Carl Bernstein. Bernstein, who along with reporter Bob Woodward broke the Watergate scandal that helped bring down the Nixon administration asked how many reporters present were really covering a speech he was making recently, many said they were not, citing early deadlines. He then criticized reporters for rushing from event to event and not taking the time to do in-depth stories - even if they had to work off the clock. "If you're going to do in-depth stories, you're going to do them on your own time," Bernstein said. He also urged the reporters to be good listeners, rather than creators of news based on speculation rather than in depth reporting. "I think it's really the most important lesson of all," Bernstein said.
I agree with him and think that reflects the overall impatience among people today.. Even in the media that reports news today we can see the sloppiness, the impatience, as reporters and broadcasters speculate on an issue rather than waiting to verify the facts. Just look at a a newspaper, watch a TV newscast or read about issues on-line. Often most are filled with gossip, rumor or lazy reporting. Those who gives us the news are us. The mediums are sure that we are also too lazy to investigate whether we are being entertained with gossip, rumor and speculation or truly informed after verification of facts. And d sadly, they know we are sometimes more at ease with the nonsense than the real news.
I see small children today as the most impulsive and self absorbed generation of all. Maybe this will change in the future when those same kids realize their lives lack depth and understanding when lived with impatience too often. Or perhaps the materialism that drives impatience today will get worse. What do you think? Am I crazy again and just thinking to much about nothing, or is this an impatient world that is losing meaning because of it?
Hurry up with your answer! I am losing my patience.....