Old Father Time Old Father Time becomes a thing of the past. Society enters to the Era of Technology and the new Communications Age. Present day life is marked by such phenomenon as time famine. Tomkins proved it by the following thesis: the demands on our time seem to grow ever heavier (528) Technology has made work portable, allowing it to merge with our personal lives. The nine-to-five job is extinct in the U. S.
people now talk about the 24-7 job, meaning one that requires your commitment 24 hours a day, seven days a week (.).
This statement is based on the opinion that recent technological achievement and humans barest need in information can be merged with private life. Technology prevents people from wasting time and rooting work. But, the actual sum of work increased greatly devouring persons spare time. The great layer of information and varieties of technology became available now. But, there was Old Father Time when: There is no Internet, no Voicemail, no fax machine, no CNN ().
The structure of the sentence (chain repetition with negative particle no) helps to emphasize the fact that there was times when people existed without innovations having enough time for their private needs. For decades people have been hearing about all the leisure time they are going to have in the new Communications Age. The Old Father Time confronts with the Era of High Technological development and Communications Age. The more information is accessible to people the more time they need to master it. Here, the following correspondence takes place: the greater technical development the less independence person has. Tomkins considers that all technological advantages society is craving for are nothing more than ephemerality. The opportunity of high-tech becomes social scourge resulting time famine. People are so greatly used to innovations their life saturated with that feel helpless when faced with a childish problem.
Tomkins uses the phrase the confusion of endless choice to underline destroying impact of much technology and information on society. People spend much time looking for the best and the appropriate contraption which will be useful for them. But very often it is nothing more than waste of vital energy and time. For example, when a person need to buy innovative machinery equipment he collides with countless trade marks, types and models of the same product spending precious time for meaningless searching. It takes time, but gives no essential results. Of course, a person gets result, but they do not cost spending time.
It is too high price for a persons life. The lack of time is the problem and norm of society at the same time. Tomkins pays attention to the groups of unstressed people, because they include the majority of American society. Time famine joining with work overload determines their life. They live in their own reality where time has another value and measured by another, non-common rules. But, why not it will be so, if it leads to the time gains. References 1.
Take Back Your Time / Edited by John de Graaf. – Berrett-Koehler, 1998. – 250p. 2. The time famine: toward a sociology of work time / Edited by L. A. Perlow, 1999.
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