But life cannot be lived at twice the speed!

Something has changed.

It is not only technology; our perception of time, our tolerance for waiting, and even the way we experience emotions have changed.

Now almost every platform offers the option to watch or listen to content at 2x speed. Listening to a podcast at normal speed feels too long, we speed up educational videos, and skip slow-moving scenes in series. The minutes we believe we gain for productivity seem to force us constantly to catch up with more and more.

Because all of us are trapped in an endless state of catching up—work, school, career goals, social media trends, the fear of missing out. Stopping amid all this has almost become an act that induces guilt.

Social media is one of the most visible examples of this speed. While scrolling through the screen, we skip a video we do not like in a second. If a piece of content does not capture our attention within the first few seconds, we move on to another video. As consumption accelerates this way, our minds inevitably try to adapt to this rhythm. The time we once devoted to waiting, thinking, and deepening our understanding is steadily shrinking.

^{Temsili Çizim (Fotoğraf: Esra Abdulazizoğlu)}

I believe this situation affects not only our content consumption habits but also our emotional processes. We replace feelings with emojis, send brief greetings, and rush through celebrations with a few words. Of course, it would be wrong to say these are worthless. Thanks to technology, we can reach someone on the other side of the world in seconds, share our beautiful moments, and support each other during difficult times. These are important achievements of our age, yet sometimes I wonder: If we can reach someone on the other side of the world so quickly, are we truly reaching the person beside us? Perhaps speed increases accessibility while reducing patience. As we come to expect everything instantly, might our tolerance for the natural rhythm of real life also be diminishing?

Yet some moments of life cannot be accelerated. Friendship requires time, grief has its duration. A child’s growth, a wound’s healing, the building of trust, or a sunset… none of these have a “2x” option.

Perhaps the greatest luxury we can have today is the conscious ability to slow down. Drinking a cup of coffee without rushing, truly savoring its taste… choosing occasional face-to-face meetings over online conversations… watching a sunset not just to photograph it but to truly experience it… putting the phone aside and simply sitting with silence for a few minutes…

I believe the issue is not about keeping up with the pace of life, but about refusing to let that pace control us. Because what makes life meaningful is not how much we can fit into it, but how truly present we are in the moments we live.

Let’s turn off 2x mode!