Maggie Mee Generation
(Disclaimer: This entry is solely based on the imagination, thoughts and reflection of the writer. It bears no relations, or is nor an advertisement campaign by Maggie Mee, or any 2-minute Instant Noodle Claims, or any of the affiliates of the Bouncy Noodles.)

You must be wondering if this is another of my food review of secret recipe to a perfect instant noodles. Or some Mun's-best-remembered-for blog entry. Nah, not tonight.

Maggie-Mee best describes Singapore's youths of today. It is not only because instant noodles are the only thing most of us can cook, but we (the term 'we' refers to 'youths' in this entry) are also a generation of Singaporeans who live in this instant world of great convenience. Technology has advanced and enabled us to move so much faster, thus self-gratification must be instant, anything that needs us to wait for more than 5 minutes, is too long a wait.

We live in a culture where things move so fast, and it gets faster. A good example would be, say, our internet connection. I have a 14.4K modem sitting in my house (Yes it came from Jurassic Park). I have surfed the Internet with that some years back. It got faster, and I upgraded to a 56K modem. The need for instantaneous reaction andd responses while I surf and do my assignments, justifies why I log on with a 512K Internet access. Nah, its just that many of us cannot wait for our webpages to load. Why!? Are you working with Singapore Stocks Exchange!! Or Wall Street?!

And justify it with saying that a 56K connection makes us spend more time straining our eyes on the computer, the 56K connection is too slow, and my time is very precious, alot of assignments, and then 'I need to go down town you know?!' speech by youths emphasizing their importance and busy schedule.

When we send an SMS, it must reach the other party in 5 minutes. Anything more, 2 phone calls would be made. One to the recepient of the SMS relaying our message. The other to the Servicer Provider yelling at them about service quality and poor, incapable provision of such, and of course, not forgetting to end the call with '..and I am a paying customer, you know?! And I expect to get what I deserve!!'

Not like this isn't bad enough. Our expectations of such instantaneous service brings out the monster in us. If we checked-out at the counter quick and neat, do we smile or thank? When we get what we want, how often do we behave like our dollar paid for it includes the appreciation service people deserve? Well, soon price tags would have it printed on it, 'Prices incl. GST & Customer's Appreciation'.

We don't seem to be able to wait and appreciate. If our MRT doors doesn't close within 25 seconds, we figid in our seats, or check our watches. When it does, it would never occur to us that it is someone's work causing it to move.

And I am guilty of these too.

If we are thinking of becoming a gracious society, I think we have to start with eradication instant noodles from our diet. The need to realise that nothing much comes easy, instant and always to our preferred flavor.

Trust me, if you turn on your tap later, and water doesn't flow immediately, you'd twist it more.