Why We Love Fast Food, Short Videos, and Instant Entertainment
After a long day at the office or looking after the kids, there is something overwhelmingly tempting about a fried chicken dinner. There’s just something about that combination of secret spices and hot chicken that makes KFC a moment of instant satisfaction. It’s hot food for the family and saves you the stress of all the prep work. That’s the glory of fast food.
However, the concept is not limited to just food delivery. We live in a time that prioritises speed. We want things instantly, and if we must wait, even just a few minutes, we find it unbearable. Hot fried chicken is comfort food, but it’s also about the speed. This growing need for speed is rapidly changing the way we experience the world.
The KFC Effect: Why Fast-Food Wins
Fast food like KFC isn’t gourmet dining, but it doesn’t pretend to be. It delivers something much better. Hot food, without the wait. You place an order before you even arrive. It’s waiting for you when you get there, and you can dive straight in before you even get home. After an eight-hour shift and the stress of school runs, saving an hour of cooking time for some hot chicken is always a winning idea.
The reward is not just one of convenience. It triggers our brains to release dopamine, the happy hormone. It’s a psychological reaction that fast food chains have learned to master. Time is a precious commodity, and brands like KFC understand that this is a powerful motivator. They provide hot food, but what they really give us is time, and that is their biggest selling point of all.
Short Videos and the Scroll Culture
Look at how people consume content on their phones. Most apps serve up content in bite-sized amounts. TikTok and Instagram reels dominate social media, while YouTube shorts are shared with reckless abandon. Visual content is broken into segments between 15 and 60 seconds. Content like this takes no commitment and no meaningful time investment. A quick burst of something funny or something informative, and it’s done and onto the next post.
While television shows and movies are very different, even long-form content is finding ways to shorten its presentation. Netflix introduced the skip-intro button, demonstrating that a 90-second intro is now too long for people to watch. This is backed up by the fact that globally, it is pressed 136 million times a day. The irony is that the feature was born from the idea of letting people jump backwards to re-watch a key moment they had missed.
When sites have endless scroll enabled and we are bombarded with content options, our brains are being conditioned to want to move around and seek out novelty quickly. The intent of entertainment is moving away from being measured by enjoyment and relaxation and towards consumption and quantity.
The Instant Everything Economy
Across the spectrum of living, we are systematically eliminating the need to wait, and with it killing the concept of patience. Amazon can deliver packages the same day. Woollies has groceries with you inside an hour. Text messages and emails have replaced letters. Even now, the concept of emails is slow, with replies expected as quickly as the message arrives.
Why listen to the radio for your favourite song to come on when you can just search for it online? Why wait to be excited by a moment when you can just go take it? The pleasure of waiting and the joy of arrival are no longer considerations in the name of speed and efficiency.
Even the dating world runs on a quick profile view, a picture or two and a swipe left or right. Courtship is falling by the wayside. No more waiting for chance encounters or plucking up the courage to talk to the person you like.
We have not just sped up life but completely redesigned the way it functions.
The Psychology Behind the Rush
Our brains are hardwired to seek out quick rewards over long-term gratification. Historically, instant success meant greater chances of survival, whether it was hunting, seeking shelter or avoiding conflict. Our urge for a quick win was not created by modern technology, but it has been capitalised on.
We not only seek out the fastest anticipation-reward cycle but also demand it, and we complain when it is not fast enough or when we feel it could be quicker. When so many areas of life offer instant gratification, it’s unsurprising that it becomes an expectation rather than a luxury. The result is that anything else is instantly frustrating.
Quick Thrills Across the Tasman
Australians and Kiwis are no strangers to the desire for a speedy existence. Fast food chains are thriving in both countries, with more people taking pleasure from quantity over quality. The same social media trends and attention-holding bursts of digital entertainment hold both nations’ attention hostage. The digital world is smaller than ever with people from all over the globe united by the shared desire for speed and convenience.
New Zealanders are finding quick excitement beyond just dining. Newly launched online casinos for NZ players offer fast sign-up and immediate play, removing traditional barriers to entertainment. The promise of speed removes barriers because ultimately, speed sells.
The Speed Question: Better or Just Different?
There are arguments on both sides about the impact our desire for optimization and speed has on our lives. Some say we miss out on the build-up, the slow reveal and the excitement of the journey. Others argue that the speed is time saved from areas that don’t matter, and they are now able to get more out of the experiences that truly do matter.
Both may be true. It could just be the continued evolution of our species. Previous generations traded the horse and cart for the car, telegrams for the telephone and radio for television. Each generation introduces their own life upgrades. We have always wanted things quickly, and this hasn’t changed and seems as though it never will. The real question we need to consider is if we really want things to keep moving this fast or if we are simply taking advantage of it because it is there?
