Instant gratification is in fashion and seems to be what everyone wants, or even demands. A recent university study found that 50% of YOUTUBE users would give up on a video if it didn’t load within 10 seconds. AND, of that 50%, half would not even wait 5 seconds!

Bang! So that means, in the time you need to take 2 or 3 breaths of air, people just move on?

What is this? Do these people not remember dial-up? Probably not…

I do, and I think mobile phones are making us impatient and lazy. If you don’t get what you want now you, you start looking for something else. Tinder and Grinder give us instant love, Amazon have decided delivering tomorrow is way too long, so let’s deliver today and Uber have reduced the time I have to wait around on wet and windy street corners for a taxi.

In the real world, oak trees take years to grow, books take hours to read and it takes time to become the best in your chosen profession, but I fear we don’t seem wired to think about the long-term anymore. The truth of the matter is that, with average life expectancy growing every year, we should theoretically (given a fair chance and a bit of luck) all have longer in this life.  

If further proof were needed, Melbourne offered the perfect example this weekend…Roger Federer winning his 18th grand slam and the Williams sisters still at the top of their game; all of them growing and building up to these amazing triumphs and successes. In the long game the winner has solid knowledge, wisdom, power and patience.

Interestingly, this enhanced pace of life has also made us better appreciate gentler paced and more meaningful actions. Sometimes we just need life to slow down, to take a moment and do something different and shield ourselves from the many choices and distractions that face us.

When I get that moment of peace I am free to relax and dream. I think bigger thoughts when I am not distracted. I find I can plan and achieve more when I’m not constantly online.

For the last fifty years, we have seen people sit back and relax, enabling them to reflect on life in a much slower lane. To dream and ponder their next journey. Where? Ironically on a 500MPH plane; and with more people flying, so more are reading.

We all know the inflight magazines are going to be in the seatback pockets of those planes, and more and more people are familiarising themselves with the wonderful writers and photographers that inspire us to relax and help us dream. That certainty and familiarity brings fondness. It’s a positive media space.

So, take a step back from chasing instant wins, instant clicks and likes. And think about the huge numbers of real people who engage with that award-winning magazine every day. Think about that great story that really takes you somewhere new.

Virtual Reality is wonderful – and waiting just around the corner with its Augmented Reality chum – but I can assure you that swimming with a diving mask and swim fins in the REAL Great Barrier Reef is so much better than watching it with an oversized snorkel on your sofa.

This morning a million real people will be going somewhere on a plane and you should be talking to them, after all they want somewhere else to go to.

#wearetravelmedia

#wearestorytellers

‍