DNA Story on Nowism, Twitter and the Real Time Web

Posted on 02. Jan, 2010 by gaurav in Media

I was quoted recently in a DNA story on how the popularity of Twitter and the real-time web are a reflection of our desire to want everything now: a trend Malvika Tegta calls “nowism”.

In the email interview, I had mostly talked about how real-time web is changing the nature of content creation and content consumption, but “nowism” is an interesting idea indeed.

Here is the full text of the DNA story –

I want tomorrow yesterday

Malvika Tegta

Wednesday, December 30, 2009 23:06 IST

Nowism is not the 21st century equivalent of the Vedic ideal ‘live in the moment’. It is, in fact, a mindset of importing the future into today; to want and to have it all now — information, experience and self-actualisation. Simply put, it is a demand on life for instant gratification.

Though an ancient human drive, the intensity of the instant is current. And, in the age of the Internet, this need to have everything ‘now’, or real-time, is finally being satisfied. We have the money, the reach and the capability to legitimately stake a claim on what can easily be ours, only by stretching a hand.

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