Since the year 2000’s, we have continually made giant leaps and it seems we keep going further and longer in almost anything you can think of. Our life expectancy, technological advancements, and even right down to our phone sizes.

However, this ever-expansiveness seems to have stopped at our ability to think far ahead into the future and see the value in long term.

The thought randomly occurred to me while having a discussion with one of my good friends. We were talking about life in general and the topic of quality and duration came up. Then it hit me, that it seems somewhat strange that we don’t see anything past a few days or weeks even.

What has happenend with our desire to see the future?

Not like some crystal ball type of predictive future, but more like a few months, years or even a few days ahead. It’s like the actions we engage in are only imagined for the now. Then I started by asking myself a question.

Have we been conditioned to not see the forest for the trees… or is it the trees for the forest? (doing a quick Google search… yeah it’s the first one)

 

Are we really unable to see that far ahead?

I think so. I mean take dating as an example: which for millions is a challenge regardless of age, ethnicity and sexual orientation. People just fail to see long-term value in people they meet romantically. An article by Dr Jenn Mann a relationship expert says, most relationships fail to get past the 1-year mark.

 

Sure, dating apps have made us somewhat desensitized to the emotional connection of getting to know someone, but social media has already done the bulk of the desensitization.

People already hurdle abuse at each other online and hide behind profile pictures, so trying to see the human in a twitter profile can pose a challenge. Talk less of attempting to find love in a recent dating app match.

If you’ve ever tried to get know someone on a deeper level it’s way harder work than swiping right and sending a couple DM’s.

Not to digress, but can this failure to connect be a reason for us not seeing that far ahead. Perhaps. Ok let’s take a different approach.

 

Now or Never

Not everything has to be a quick flip for us and I believe capitalism has played a huge role in our demand for wanting things now and not later. In fact, our slight bias for speed over quality is part of the reason we’re at the point where we are today as a society.

Take a moment and ask yourself the question below, I’m literally going to end the paragraph here in order for you to do so.

“What are some of the longest things you have in your life?”

It could be anything. Like a shirt from high school, your house, a friend, partner, or even a career. Now briefly compare them with things you have or know which don’t last.

For each of the groups mentioned there are probably several more examples with the polar opposite duration. Even fridges and freezers aren’t as long-lasting as they used to be.

Don’t even get me started on mobile phones, I’m sure you’re aware of how long those devices last. I know for a fact my grandparents have things that they’ve had for over 20 years and they still work. Like their ever-lasting deep freezer. I’m pretty confident that the freezer is older than me.

We seem to be surrounded by this bubble of temporariness. The things all around us just don’t last, so why should we see the value in length.

Conclusion 

Now, of course, not everything needs to be lengthy and of great value. We still need some short-lived interactions and items in our lives. There isn’t really a problem there.

Then again, it is somewhat expected for us to not see into the future because the uncertainty we live in bears testament to it. Take an industry as secure as tourism and a country like Thailand. They rely on millions of people to visit their country in order to boost the economy and provide part of the government’s GDP. For some, that figure is a whopping 20%.

Overnight a whole industry was decimated. We all know why but let’s refrain from big C talk in this article, I’m on a break from it… for now. Those sort of shifts leave a scar and make us focused on what’s right in front of us instead of looking too far ahead. So maybe we just don’t want the venture too far ahead due to the uncertainty we face today.