If the internet has done anything for us, it has increased the pace of life. These days, we obsess about faster internet connections, instant messaging, up-to-the-minute news and response times so fast they’d give you a nose bleed. No longer will we put up with webpages that take so long to load we can brew a coffee while we wait. No longer are we satisfied with content that isn’t constantly updated. No longer will we read a thousand words when ten will do.

Kevin Rudd’s announcement yesterday of the government’s $43 billion plans to run the National Broadband Network in-house and provide fibre connections to the home was further confirmation that things just keep getting faster. We’ve lagged behind many comparable nations (and even many uncomparable ones too) in broadband speeds for too long. Only the fastest wins the race and if we want to become a leader in an information technology future, speed becomes essential.

Yet, the faster everything gets, the faster we also become in our interactions. Who wants to sit through a three hour movie any more? My daughter’s attention span wouldn’t last the opening titles! Information and entertainment is now increasingly served in bite-sized, easily digestible chunks – a short YouTube video, a couple of paragraphs on a webpage, a Tweet.

Yes, Twitter is a perfect example of our growing obsession with brevity and speed. Confining everything within 140 characters forces economy onto all users and this has been hugely successful. Thousands of tiny nuggets of wisdom (and thousands of nuggets of fluff as well), beamed straight to your PC or mobile device for your now-now-now attuned brain to snack upon.

So what’s next? How much faster and shorter can we expect information to become as the world speeds up around us? Welcome to Flutter – a beautifully funny viral video from Slate V!