over the years it's become obvious to me that computers have stolen my patience ... where once I was content to wait on the phone 5 - 10 - 20 minutes for information or an answer (or much longer if I had to go to the library or another resource), I've been 'programmed' to expect to that same answer to come instantaneously - or nearly that fast, once I hit "send"  ... a delay of 5 or 10 seconds is too long, I get antsy and I'm ready to bail...I'm not alone, a study was done on how long the average person will wait for information to appear on a website before 'losing it' in frustration, or moving to another source ... the result?  9 seconds...same as a goldfish...the nature of the web, with it's lightening fast search engines is training users to expect faster and faster responses ...I question the 'need' for that rate of 'speed' - even though I am one of the addicted ...my first concern is whether, in our quest for speed we are compromising our search for 'truth' - do we do an adequate search, examine and qualify various responses, then decide which is the most accurate, the best result?  or do we scan through, find one that is 'good enough' and use that?  Do we fact-check?  Do we know if the source is reliable? The argument can be made that in today's world - time is money and saving time is valuable - but at what cost?  (and what are we 'saving time' for - once we save it?)  once upon a time, there was a certain sense of adventure in the gathering of information ... poring over newspapers on microfiche, searching through dusty volumes on a library shelf - even talking to someone who actually knew something about what we were investigating, to be sure, even then we couldn't accept the sources at face value, we had to verify the facts, but somehow, we were USED TO taking the time to validate the results of our research ... I confess I kind of miss that ...although I'm not ready to give up the searching the web anytime soon, and I'll admit to being an 'internet junkie', hooked on the vast  amounts of 'stuff' in there - I do miss my lost patience (and my ATTENTION SPAN!) ... and wish I could have some of it back ...I felt much more at peace back then!