I checked the markets yesterday using my computer. Then I hit refresh and watched them drop. Hit refresh and saw them jump back up. I could have done that all day. And Fox News has every change when it happens. They’re even faster than my computer.

I was in Florida last week and called my office in Ohio, asking for a package to overnighted. I called at 4:30. The package arrived at 8:30 the next morning.

I faxed a document to a business client, got it signed and sent back to me all in the space of one minute.

This is no surprise to any of you. But I’m not going for surprise. I’m wondering if this instant information thing is bad for the country. Bad for the world.

I have a friend who said, years ago, UPS overnight and faxes were two of the worst things that ever happened. They made speed a necessary evil. During the election we knew when a candidate had said something almost the second it came out of their mouth.
3 24 hour news channels bring us news almost before it happens.

If we weren’t aware of every hiccup AIG has…every second of every day, if we weren’t being told every nanosecond that GM is in dire straights…if we didn’t have to have a contract in the next five minutes, or a Blackberry where we can text someone every second of down time…check our messages while we wait in the doctors office and , yes, check the markets every five seconds…refresh…check…refresh…

Maybe we’d slow down a little bit. Maybe the stress and craziness would subside. Maybe the frantic desire to have everything happen immediately is driving the financial crisis we’re in. Maybe it’s the reason that there are more heart attacks, more strokes, more stress than ever before.

Maybe we should all just slow down a bit. But it will never happen. I predict that the next invention in speed will be knowing something happened before it happens. I don’t know how they’ll do it, but it will be all the rage! Mark my word.