The internet is speeding up our lives and making us less patient about the slow nature of the offline world. That’s the finding of research we’ve just commissioned to mark the launch of our high performance TalkTalk Pro package.
Over half of the people we surveyed admitted they reach boiling point quicker than ever before. And we’re so used to the speed and convenience of the internet that 70% of us confess to “losing it” if we have to wait longer than one minute for a web page to load.
We asked people to tell us when they reached breaking point for a number of common activities. From this we worked out the nation’s average “point of impatience.”
Top of the tormentors is being kept on hold, with the average Brit reaching the point of impatience after just five minutes and four seconds, less time than they’re prepared to wait for a kettle to boil at five minutes and six seconds.
Restaurant rage kicks in after only eight minutes and 38 seconds, when the average Brit will start to wonder whether the meal they’ve ordered will ever arrive.
If you’re running late to meet a friend, best not to leave it any longer than 10 minutes and one second if you don’t want to face their wrath. And if you’re a tradesmen arriving to a job more than 10 minutes and 43 seconds late, don’t expect a cup of tea.
Finally, when you receive a text or a voicemail, be warned that the clock is ticking as the average Brit expects you to take no longer than 13 minutes and 16 seconds to respond.
The research also found that those brought up with the internet are significantly less prepared to wait than the elderly. One-third of 18-24 year olds expect to wait a maximum of 10 seconds for an internet page to load compared to only 10% of over 65s, the majority of whom (64%) were happy to wait up to a minute for a page to load.
We spoke to people in Trafalgar Square to find out how impatient they think they’ve become and how they think the speed of the internet has affected them.
We think people are inevitably more demanding than they used to be and they expect the products and services they buy to be faster and more convenient, which is exactly why we now offer a 24 meg package like TalkTalk Pro.
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Nick