Sometime when I was in high school, around the time when wearing a watch became a sort of status symbol, expensive watches meant higher (purchased) status, I tossed out a quip about watches and time in general when I said, "I don't want to be bound by the artificial constraints of time."
It was just a quip at the time. My way of saying I didn't want to play the status game. But I knew it had deeper meaning to it than even I was able to appreciate. There was a more profound statement in the quip than I initially intended. I've never forgotten it. And until I started keeping a phone nearby as smartphones became ubiquitous I rarely would even know the time, other than morning, afternoon or evening. Even now I consciously avoid reaching for the phone other than when I need it. And incoming calls will go unanswered until I do.
But a little spark of wisdom came to my lips and my mind as a teenager full of quips that as I've aged I'm glad I was tuned into for most of my life. In rejecting a status symbol I embraced living in the moment. And enjoying life that much more. How many other ways across our modern lives are our technological advancements taking away from our appreciation of life?
YES Freedom Fox! I walk at the ocean daily…it’s amazing that people can’t even go outside at a pristine, beautiful ocean without talking on the phone. It’s mind boggling!
I would think you’d want to have a bit of solitude from all the bs!
Before email, waiting until the last minute to plan or begin work on a project was an undesirable trait. Now, with email it is a trait forced upon employees by employers.
A timely posting. This is a central part of my complaint against my med school’s English department and full timers here in Japanese schools in general. They do not have the same understanding of time as part timers do and this causes most of the problems I have and this could not be the case if email did not exist. They in fact have no observable sense of time.
Full timers refuse to consider that part timers have commitments outside of our common employer. In fact, judging from their actions, full timers seem to believe that when we part time teachers are not in the classroom of our shared employer that we are just sitting on our hands at home awaiting communication from them and are willing and able to respond immediately. They are angered when we are not able to accept changes to a syllabus sent just two days before the start of the new school year; “You had two FULL days to review and rewrite your lesson plans!” They act as if they cannot comprehend that we have classes at other schools and that we cannot ignore those commitments in order to meet their late sent demands. Nor do they care that by demanding we rewrite lesson plans they are wasting our time as the work we did in preparation is rendered unusable by the new syllabus. They seem to be completely oblivious to this, in fact. I stated thus with the diplomacy of EriK the Awful (see Ray Stevens, “as subtle as a chainsaw”) in an email I sent yesterday. They replied, but being busy with other commitments I did not read it yesterday. Today being Saturday, I have yet to read it. Might read it Monday. Of course, this will cause more problems, but I am beyond caring.
A common point of contention are the emails they send at all hours, including after midnight and on Saturdays with the expectation that we will have read them, digested their contents and obeyed whatever commend within them by start of business of the next business day. Before email, this was possible, but impracticable. Phone calls cost too much and disrupt the quiet of the office. All communications were conducted before and or after classes on the days we are on campus and unless an emergency, never were we contacted between class days.
But they are full timers with fewer class hours a week than we part timers have in a single day, when times are good, and have 6 days a week of 10 to 14 hours a day to fill looking busy. So they have little to do other than harass part timers with emails and last minute changes; or my personal favorite, with demands that can only be met with a Time Machine. As I said, full timers have no concept of time.
I have little doubt that part time teachers are not the only ones abused by emails from work disrupting all facets of life.
I have long called the internet (and by extension, emails) the “Great Time Waster”. It has more than lived up to this name.
The internet is a "Great Time Waster" period, it will waste time whether desired or not.
In a way, Vernon Coleman doesn't realize they have done him a favor by censoring him from all these sites. Especially "social media," among the others.
The attention we give the machine is coerced, has been coerced, for so long. The maw of it can easily dwarf our own voice and aspirations.
Sometime when I was in high school, around the time when wearing a watch became a sort of status symbol, expensive watches meant higher (purchased) status, I tossed out a quip about watches and time in general when I said, "I don't want to be bound by the artificial constraints of time."
It was just a quip at the time. My way of saying I didn't want to play the status game. But I knew it had deeper meaning to it than even I was able to appreciate. There was a more profound statement in the quip than I initially intended. I've never forgotten it. And until I started keeping a phone nearby as smartphones became ubiquitous I rarely would even know the time, other than morning, afternoon or evening. Even now I consciously avoid reaching for the phone other than when I need it. And incoming calls will go unanswered until I do.
But a little spark of wisdom came to my lips and my mind as a teenager full of quips that as I've aged I'm glad I was tuned into for most of my life. In rejecting a status symbol I embraced living in the moment. And enjoying life that much more. How many other ways across our modern lives are our technological advancements taking away from our appreciation of life?
Excellent comment and observations.
YES Freedom Fox! I walk at the ocean daily…it’s amazing that people can’t even go outside at a pristine, beautiful ocean without talking on the phone. It’s mind boggling!
I would think you’d want to have a bit of solitude from all the bs!
I file this under “technological revenge”.
🤣👍
Before email, waiting until the last minute to plan or begin work on a project was an undesirable trait. Now, with email it is a trait forced upon employees by employers.
A timely posting. This is a central part of my complaint against my med school’s English department and full timers here in Japanese schools in general. They do not have the same understanding of time as part timers do and this causes most of the problems I have and this could not be the case if email did not exist. They in fact have no observable sense of time.
Full timers refuse to consider that part timers have commitments outside of our common employer. In fact, judging from their actions, full timers seem to believe that when we part time teachers are not in the classroom of our shared employer that we are just sitting on our hands at home awaiting communication from them and are willing and able to respond immediately. They are angered when we are not able to accept changes to a syllabus sent just two days before the start of the new school year; “You had two FULL days to review and rewrite your lesson plans!” They act as if they cannot comprehend that we have classes at other schools and that we cannot ignore those commitments in order to meet their late sent demands. Nor do they care that by demanding we rewrite lesson plans they are wasting our time as the work we did in preparation is rendered unusable by the new syllabus. They seem to be completely oblivious to this, in fact. I stated thus with the diplomacy of EriK the Awful (see Ray Stevens, “as subtle as a chainsaw”) in an email I sent yesterday. They replied, but being busy with other commitments I did not read it yesterday. Today being Saturday, I have yet to read it. Might read it Monday. Of course, this will cause more problems, but I am beyond caring.
A common point of contention are the emails they send at all hours, including after midnight and on Saturdays with the expectation that we will have read them, digested their contents and obeyed whatever commend within them by start of business of the next business day. Before email, this was possible, but impracticable. Phone calls cost too much and disrupt the quiet of the office. All communications were conducted before and or after classes on the days we are on campus and unless an emergency, never were we contacted between class days.
But they are full timers with fewer class hours a week than we part timers have in a single day, when times are good, and have 6 days a week of 10 to 14 hours a day to fill looking busy. So they have little to do other than harass part timers with emails and last minute changes; or my personal favorite, with demands that can only be met with a Time Machine. As I said, full timers have no concept of time.
I have little doubt that part time teachers are not the only ones abused by emails from work disrupting all facets of life.
I have long called the internet (and by extension, emails) the “Great Time Waster”. It has more than lived up to this name.
The internet is a "Great Time Waster" period, it will waste time whether desired or not.
In a way, Vernon Coleman doesn't realize they have done him a favor by censoring him from all these sites. Especially "social media," among the others.
That’s the truth!
Thank you, Abigail, for the restack and reading.