IT progress making users 'impatient'

20:30 29th December 2008

The accelerated pace of technological progress has made individuals more impatient, says an IT industry insider.

Tom Stewart, joint managing director of System Concepts, has said that the instant nature of internet exchange and IT software has led consumers to demand an immediate response to their communications.

Snail mail meant it was once quite usual to lavish time writing a letter and patiently await a response for a week or perhaps more.

Now, however, the instantaneous nature of online dialogue has raised expectations and if an internet connection is slow or an email takes longer than a few seconds to download, users become quickly frustrated.

Mr Stewart commented: "If you send an email and it takes ten seconds to download, you get impatient. It has dramatically changed expectations, which is misleading because you can never know if that person is actually there [to reply to your email]. It's making us much faster in ways that aren't really necessary."

A report published by the Office for National Statistics in August 2008 entitled 'Internet Access' showed that 56 per cent of all UK households now have a broadband connection.