I never watched a Seinfeld episode until I took a Pop Culture & Philosophy course where I had to watch it for the semester. By the time I was watching it, it was a little dated, but oh my goodness had I been missing out on a great show!
The Contest is one of my favorite episodes. In this one, Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer hold a contest to see how long they can all go without masturbating. Because NBC did not want the show using the word “masturbation”, the catchphrase “master of my domain” was used. In the end, the episode was very successful and reviewers said that they were able to cover a controversial subject in an inoffensive manner.
The deeper meaning behind this episode is the idea of not just giving into self or instant gratification. And it can be applied in every area of our lives, not just masturbation.
In our society, we have immediate access to everything. We can get food delivered to our door with the tap of a button. We can get virtually anything we want delivered by the Amazon elves overnight.
The other night around midnight, I realized that we had run out of Zevia cola before I went to bed. I went onto Amazon, ordered it and the Amazon elves brought it to our house by 8am the next morning. How crazy is that, when you really think about it? When I was a kid, one, there wasn’t Zevia, and two, if you wanted to make a purchase like that, you had to physically go to a store and get it off the shelf. You actually had to plan ahead.
We are living in interesting times. I love the convenience, but the options we have today exacerbates our desire for instant gratification. And on a large scale, it changes our brain chemistry.
In a TEDx Talks, John Davidson from GameStop talks about how instant gratification is harming society. It’s interesting!
