I believe the ramifications of our “everything now” lifestyles are being felt by the youngest couple of generations. We’re rewiring the developing brains of little children to expect a constant barrage of stimulation and to anticipate that their desire for immediate gratification will be met – in spades.

When I was a child, a roadtrip meant sitting in the big backseat of a big car for hours – sometimes days – with a couple of toys and maybe a book. Now, kids can’t tolerate a 10 minute trip to school or the grocery store without popping on their earbuds or playing a videogame. DVDs have made it all possible for kids to watch the only good 12 minutes of a movie over and over again.

The mindset of Gens Y & Z (and whatever comes next after that) are affecting popular culture likewise. We may not be causing them, but we’re certainly contributing to societal ills like ADHD.

People actually think that crappy movies are good because they feature lots of cool explosions and eye-popping CGI. To heck with any substance like character development or plot. No, instead, we need lots of intense action and we need it now!

There’s not even any room left for subtlety even in food any more – you’ve got to have “flavor burst” nacho chips and energy drinks that pack the kick of 12 cups of coffee into a single large can. We can’t even wait 8 minutes to make “old fashioned” mac & cheese any more, instead relying upon microwavable mac & cheese that’s ready to shove down your kid’s gullet in less than 45 seconds. What American kid is so deprived that having to wait 8 minutes for some mac & cheese is going to be a real problem?

Instant communication capacity of cell phones means that kids no longer have to plan where they’re going to be later in the day or figure out in advance how they might get home. No need to think for themselves – just text Mom and she’ll drop everything and come to the rescue.

The Internet is but one piece of a serious set of problems that’re about to smack us in the face.

I can’t reference your casual dating example, BUT I was going to mention tech / movies. Instead of anticipating elsewhere, it’s anticipation online – the battle of who can get it up first and how quickly you can quick refresh. As in, the idea of live blogging keynotes like Steve Jobs. I know I sit there all day refreshing like a madman because I’m anticipating the next announcement and instead of waiting 24 hours for it to trickle through print news sources, it’s on Gizmodo and Engadget without seconds of coming out of Jobs’ mouth.

Same with movies. Trailers are released at specific times and there’s an anticipation – you’re waiting, but thankfully it’s not a big wait. Instead of catching a trailer on its debut during a commercial break on TV (give or take the Superbowl), not it’s a matter of waking up and checking your favorite movie site for that trailer and building anticipation of watching it. It’s just shifted from a delayed anticipation to immediate, to an instant thing. We no longer have to wait – it’s all immediate, but it’s still there…

that’s actually the topic of my own blog, meeting or exceeding people’s expectation is one way of becoming successful,