Could the recent explosion in energy drinks be connected to “Nowism”? I doubt its what Christ had in mind with his advice that we “Take no thought of tomorrow”.
NOWISM – Consumers’ ingrained lust for instant gratification is being satisfied by a host of novel, important (offline and online) real-time products, services and experiences. Consumers are also feverishly contributing to the real-time content avalanche that’s building as we speak.
The power of all things ‘NOW’ can be traced back to the eternal lure of instant gratification reducing the ‘now’ to mere minutes, if not seconds.
It’s been a steady build-up:
In an age of abundance, with a reduced need for non-stop securing of the basics, and physical goods so plentiful that the status derived from them is sometimes close to nil, only consumption of the experience* and thus the now, the thrill, remains.
This focus on experiences, this living in the now, instead of in the future, this lust to collect as many experiences and stories as soon as possible, is addictive. Take travel: these days, it’s more of a basic consumer need than a luxury. It’s about detachment, fractional ownership or no ownership at all, trying out new things, escaping commitment and obligations, dropping formality, and of course collecting endless new experiences.
In the still rapidly expanding online world, instant gratification is even easier to obtain: ‘digital’ has become synonymous with ‘instant’. Furthermore, if something digital/online is too slow, too cumbersome, too poorly written, or too boring, a substitute is only a search term and a click away. And yes, this is indirectly setting consumers’ expectations for the ‘real’ world, too.
How is “Nowism” impacting you, your family, church, or community?
