As the pace of technology has rocketed over the past 10 to 15 years, so have our expectations as end users. It’s amazing when you stop and think, just how far we’ve come. Your phone has more processing power now, than the computers that sent men into space. Your smartphone is a truly portable computer that fits into your pocket; not some enormous room filling machine that relied on holes punched into cards and printed out ticker tape. Your desktop, or even laptop, has more power than most ‘super’ computers only 7 to 10 years ago.
The raw power of the modern CPU has meant that everything can be done quicker, with more done at the same time meaning we’re potentially more productive. Of course, no one could have predicted that you needed those extra clock cycles for all those YouTube videos you watch whilst you’re ‘number crunching’ in Excel; but combined with plentiful and relatively cheap RAM, you can really put the multi into tasking.
All that power has created a typically first world problem: Hourglass Syndrome. With incredibly high expectations, comes frustration when things don’t appear to happen instantly. Hourglass Syndrome could be defined as the interminable rage created by having to wait for events to occur on a computer, seeing the hourglass icon, or pin-wheel. You click your mouse and if it doesn’t fire up your program of choice, or execute that command you need instantly, you’re annoyed. That instantaneous expectation is only enhanced by companies Intel, promising to pump more and more power into your computers, often with higher and higher prices
