Things worth waiting for

We want to see a movie and—ta-dum!—we download it. We’re craving strawberries; they’re available, even in winter. We want to see our friends across the world: Skype! We hardly have any time to savor anticipation anymore. Journalist Lisette Thooft asks how we can bring that feeling back into our lives.

Today it’s all very fast and convenient. But maybe we’re losing an important quality: the pleasure of delayed gratification. Being able to wait for something you want is good for you, say the psychologists. In the infamous Stanford marshmallow study of the late ’60s and early ’70s, children were given a marshmallow that they were told they could eat right away, but that if they could wait fifteen minutes, they would get two marshmallows. Less than a third of the children could summon up the patience to wait for the second marshmallow. Years later, a follow-up study showed that those kids who controlled themselves to get the greater pleasure later did better on all fronts: they got better grades at school, and they were more capable, healthier and happier.