The Ubiquity of Marshmallow Test
if it's easy is it even worth it?
Writing this post to cure mid-week blues. I know I know, I promised to write bi-weekly and I broke the chain. It was getting really difficult to get ‘out of the box’ ideas when I am sitting all day in a box isolated from the outer world. It’s good for the skin though- no pollution, healthy diet and what not!
Several non-fiction books talk about the Marshmallow experiment. Tl;dr the experiment measured how well children could delay immediate gratification to receive greater rewards in the future—an ability that predicts success later in life. How would a modern day Marshmallow test work I wonder. Our gadgets being the marshmallows here, ofcourse.
Sometimes I find myself droomscrolling through several art videos on Reels instead of actually working on my art. The micro format content is ruling the internet. When I was a kid, I used to hide my artwork until I thought it was close to complete but there days there are so many Work in progress pictures, aesthetically pleasing videos that I have started to question the purpose of it all. The cumulative instant gratification of everyone uploading these videos is leading to multiplication of same idea, same art forms just juxtaposed from different angles with different props. So when this keeps multiplying, there will come a point when what your finished product is like won’t matter at all. Everybody would be creating the same thing. The difference then would be how you experience your own process of art creation. You are making the art for yourself expressing what you can’t otherwise. Allow me to plugin Tim Minchin’s song 15 minutes here:
with lyrics that go like this :
In the future, everyone
Everyone will have Their 15 minutes
15 minutes of shame
15 minutes where they
Are unforgivable.
These 15 mins are now just a few seconds. That’s the time you take to left swipe a tinder match or swipe next for another video. The song has a reference to Andy Warhol’s statement “ In the future, everybody will be world famous for 15 minutes”.
Several references have been made to this quote in songs ( one by David Bowie as well!) and these broadly distil down to two interpretations :
In the future, due to the ubiquity and ease of access of internet, anyone and everyone can get famous. Those who want to showcase their talent have got enough resources or platforms to do so.
The time for fame is limited because there is an abundance of performers and content creators; the audience would have a limited time & concentration.
Tim Minchin’s song gives the statement a third reference- the cancel culture. This power that technology has given us to simply block anyone whose ideas don’t match with ours is a mixed bag of boon and curse. The attention span ( which has often been touted to suit the needs of marketeers, the Goldfish Myth), adds fuel to the fire as we tend to judge everyone so quickly. We do judge a book by its cover.
So yeah, there’s that urge to resist instant gratification, urge to create and be found. I had stopped creating because it all felt so redundant but then I realised that there is one way to still keep creating & not feel overwhelmed. Finding a niche area of work. Niche talent- something that can’t be copied, something that’s just your own. Adding one more song/ story by Tim :
It is so unique and bizzare but that doesn’t matter as long as everyone is having fun, right? So maybe, instead of adding to the multiplication, one should look at ways to create a unique identity?
I’ll leave it here for now. The marshmallows are waiting, so here I go and click on the Publish button.
Thank you
Shelley
Nice