the anticipation / reality quadrant

[kradeelav]

last night, i was gacha rolling and actually getting tired of rolling for the fav (usually the exciting part of the shitty gambling game lol, thank god i don't actually spend anything there), started thinking on how modern day marketing/corporatism has made a fine art of of fucking with the "anticipation" dial of us humans (cranking it up unnaturally high) in order to sell us stuff that provide a frankly, "meh" life experience (or reality). 

which, i would argue, is pretty much the opposite experience for most of human history - low anticipation, satisfying reality. sometimes pleasant surprises with long-lasting satisfaction don't even feel like a thing anymore ngl. and it got me thinking about this system in "quadrants" and what life experiences I would personally categorize.

the quadrant: 

satisfying anticipation / satisfying reality
"satisfying" anticipation / meh reality
meh anticipation / satisfying reality
meh anticipation / meh reality

for example, high-anticipation/meh-reality AKA an experience I'd regret, versus ones with a satisfying reality.

your experience quadrant is likely be very different! but i am also super curious if you'd even agree with this system and what experiences you'd categorize in each :o  at the very least it's led me to a "hmm" moment of thinking about where i spend the most time per day, and whether it even *is* ..... worthwhile ....


satisfying anticipation / satisfying reality

• good deep sleep
• excellent food you've eaten before
• certain other nighttime activities lol :D

... i can't think of anything else and I think it's actually really interesting that all of these are basic, like, animal/mammal needs that don't engage in any higher order brain processes or mindset or technology. bottom-level critical stuff in maslow's triangle of needs. there's also a very tactile element in all of these - whether it be releasing hormones or actually eating sustenance, there's no flimsy flim flam tapping on glass for media here.


"satisfying" anticipation / meh reality

• GACHA (brought to you by extremely shitty rolls yesterday that i'm still salty about lol) joking aside, gambling in general feels like a perfect example of that anticipation dial being broken to get you to loose money to somebody else. there's a very specific kind of feeling vaguely ... dirty? miffed? 'god i wasted that time' at the end of some days if i spend way too much time on it.
• being snookered by an expensive purchase that ends up super flakey (trendy car, piece of furniture that looks butt ugly in reality, etc)
• most of the "something as a service" kinds of businesses to me, personally, patreon absolutely deserves to be in here.
• this was ... absolutely making a webcomic for me; i was doing it for a few reasons but the popularity contest one was a bad one that i'm glad I woke up to :v
• some of my art projects end up here if I do them for other bad reasons (feeling like i'm obligated to for representation reasons, etc)
• everything about social media and i do mean everything.

this quadrant feels pretty emblematic of late stage capitalism cancer-marketing where everything is trying to sell you happiness and/or engagement or good vibes or whatever shit, and the one common denominator is feeling hollow on the inside after you've gotten the thing.


meh anticipation / satisfying reality

imo this one strikes me as the elusive gold standard of the quadrant, even more than "satisfying"/"satisfying" on both. i'd even go as far as to say somebody who actively structures their life around creating these life experiences is going to be far more existentially happy because these aren't just limited to the bottom layer of maslow's triangle of needs; i'm thinking satisfying/satisfying experiences are more a hedonistic lifestyle, wheras this specific quadrant is more ... social/cerebral? self actualization if you wanna get fancy?

• drawing!!!!! oh my god that "in the zone" moment for 6 hours of having a drawing breakthrough like you've been visited by a Muse.  I've been having a devil of a time convincing myself to draw, but once when you're in the zone, it's impossible to stop.
• sitting outside with the parents grilling under the stars and just chatting aimlessly
• getting the system76 computer to work near flawlessly ngl that was pretty magical. I was deeply cynical before of ever finding that digital extension of myself that I could be happy with for the next ten years but. damn. satisfying is right.
• another example of technology being good-satisfying was finishing the zihark fanshrine and/or my site - there's days that i straight up click around on the site randomly because it feels good to this day. :3  like you built something substantial.
• reading a lot of books falls under this bucket as I don't really "look forward" to books anymore for fear of being disappointed but there absolutely have been some "i am so glad i lived my life reading this" 5-star ones.
• every time i'm out with friends i have a fantastic time but my slightly maladaptive misanthropic / introverted ass gives me hell all the way right up before.
• honestly even my job fits in here some days where, sure, it's not how i'd spend my time if I had a PTO day, but there's a distinctive sense of a 'job well done' satisfaction especially when you've made somebody else's entire week, and that kind of 'pay it forward' experience.

meh anticipation / meh reality

• "jobs" that we take that we know will be shitty (eg me back in the packaging days), that we have to have for reasons, and do indeed, turn out to be shitty. particularly soul-sucking, but imo - slightly more ... honest? in the way that high anticipation / meh reality events don't even have the claim to.
• a lot of games/series that i'm extremely skeptical about and toss after giving the pilot episode a go falls here lol
• being dragged to a socially required experience that you feel like you have no business being there for.

interestingly i have an easier time with this quadrant than it'd look at first blush because there's ways to zone out of the experience itself and basically re...focus? your brain on people watching, mentally writing a story or comic to put down on paper later, nudging smalltalk to actually be interesting-talk, hell even "listening" to songs mentally without headphones or anything (handy trick i learned in my elementary school chapels which were 2 hours long and boring as fuck lol). as much as i'm loathe to admit it, you kinda do need a limited amount of this quadrant to make the other quadrants that much more tasty. spice is the variety of life and all.

---

there's a lot more i could muse about as far as "anticipation" being further broken by the fact we're never allowed to be bored anymore; there's always something to watch, play, do, read, etc - and they're all being increasingly digital-only, subscription-only, stuck-in-your-house-only due to covid which is worrisome to me.

technology ain't evil, mind, and it can be absolutely satisfying in a real way - but what i take away from the grid is there really is a delicate system of moderation one has to keep in mind, and that each individual probably has to tailor their own systems accordingly.

 

Comments

[flowersforgraves]

Very interesting and compelling thoughts. I'd certainly agree that it's easier to deal with meh/meh for me as well. For me a lot of (video) games fall into the meh/satisfying -- I tend to go in with low expectations because of the way I know I struggle with certain things (like games that require me to use the mouse with my right / nondominant hand, or shooters, or some RPGs where my people-pleasing/fawning instinct makes me hesitant to choose things that I know will lead to story stuff that I want to access.

[kradeelav]

oh you're absolutely not the only one reluctant to play some games for those reasons; I thought I was the only one with those hesitations there. x.x (never got into overwatch for those shooter reasons despite liking the characters for a brief bit early on.)

[seasaltmemories_14]

Can definitely related to having to force myself through meh/satisfying events (reading/playing video games/ basically doing most hobbies for me) And learning how to entertain myself during meh/meh ones, (spent all my teen years in church writing/plotting my big self-indulgent fantasy novel)

As for other experiences I think we could categorize:

- I think good vacations can count as a satisfying/satisfying, of course you can't be certain about the result until after its done, with all the planning/lead up to it, there's plenty of time to generate anticipation

- could doomscrolling and otherwise being stuck on social media count as a meh/meh, to me, most ppl are aware that it isn't the best use of time, but for me, if anything I tend to fall into it when I can't really handle anticipating anything, it's like eating a microwavable meal, I don't have the spoons for much else