Finding Time and Peace in an Acceleration Society

Long gone is the fantasy that technology will bring about an increase in leisure time. As anyone who walks down the street while texting or checks email while watching a movie can attest, we have more tools for efficiency and communication due to technology, but we still do not have enough time for fun. It’s amazing that babies still get made in this go-go-go era where life and time are running at full speed. All we talk about is the lack of time for everything in our lives and even with our go-go gadgets we still can’t seem to get enough done. We envy those who can excel in life with only 4 hours of sleep a night or those who have hired help to do all the things we’d rather skip, like washing dishes, doing laundry, cooking, or heck, sometimes even playing with our kids!

Although the paper is a few years old already, Judith Wajcman’s exploration of time scarcity in, “Life in the Fast lane. Towards a Sociology of Technology and Time” reveals many of the reasons for the time shortage we all seem to face.  In the article she makes the case for how capitalism, and the increase in households where both parents have to work, has brought about the time deficit in postmodern western societies. Interestingly, she points out how although men and women both have the same amount of leisure time, women’s leisure time is far more likely to be interrupted by their children’s needs or by unpaid work, which results in less of the restorative benefits from their free time.

Now, let’s flash forward to 2012, where most of us now have a smart phone or are getting one as soon as our dumb phones break or cause us embarrassment and social isolation. Assuming that our gadgets and gizmos are now interrupting our free time and our conversations more than ever, is anyone really getting any restorative benefit from their free time? Since our bosses now know that we can check email from anywhere at any time, if we don’t respond at 9 PM do we look like we are ignoring him or her, or that we are   lacking in commitment?

How can we now draw the lines between “my time”, “gadget time” and “work time” when we live via smart phone? And now, with the acceleration of communication times and our constant reachability, relationships can meet strife when one person doesn’t get a text reply back in less than 24 hours. This begs the question: Is anyone really relaxing anymore? We try to squeeze in yoga classes and downtime, but is it really helping us when we are rushing to get there and fighting on the phone as we speed home to make dinner, clean the litter box, and say good night to our spouse, who is checking email in bed with eyes half open?

Given our addictions to our gadgets and our shortage of time, what can we do to keep our zen/sanity other than moving to the third world or constantly lying to friends about our phone battery being dead? I wish I had the answer. For now, I guess we can all start by taking baby steps such as turning off our phones for an hour or two a day, taking a walk outside, and creating away messages on our emails, social media pages, and voicemails, saying something along the lines of “Hi You have reached Jessica’s voicemail.  She is currently engaging in uninterrupted real life experience in order to restore her sanity. If you wish to leave a message, please do so or join her for a cell phone-free walk on Saturday mornings at Will Rogers Beach.”