A Geography of Time Free Essays

In a world with no clocks and no definite appointments people are living by event time. Therefore, the fourth chapter â€Å"Living on Time Events† is devoted to analyzing what it means to live beyond time or by time event. It is known that earlier time was measured by slow sweep of stars in the sky or by important events or changes. We will write a custom essay sample on A Geography of Time or any similar topic only for you Order Now Heartbeats also measured time, as well as recurrence of hunger and duration of loneliness. The author assumes that in certain situations the clock or calendar can be defined as nothing more than simply ornament or decoration. Living by event can’t provide define appointments of lifestyle, whereas modern industrialized countries are motivated by punctuality. Historical perspective suggests that living by clock â€Å"is clearly out of line with virtually all of recorded history†. (p.82) The author asserts that the key difference in pace life is that people tend to use clock as the guidance in their lives, especially when they are planning the beginning and the end of particular events. People’s schedules aren’t allowed to include spontaneous activities. Therefore, there are two types of living: living by event time and living by clock time. The key difference between these types is speed difference and people who live by clock tie are faster than those who live by event time. The author specifies that under clock time timepiece is that director of the beginning and end of the events and particular activities. Under event time it is schedule that determines particular activities. Nevertheless, event time isn’t precise time as it is difficult to identify when people will be busy with necessary activities. Interestingly, adults are more susceptible to clock time. Industrial society is characterized by enmeshed style of life and clock time is the main driver of events and activities. However, in less civilized countries people are less concerned with control of clock. They feel life by mechanic clock is abnormal and confusing as it set rigid frameworks and it is hardly possible to life full life when you are obliged to follow set schedule. The fifth chapter â€Å"Time and Power: The Rules of the Waiting Games† provides relevant and valuable rules about waiting peculiarities. The author says that waiting is always unpleasant thing. For example, when we are waiting for a bus or a person, we feel anxiety and even irritability. However, half of our life is simply waiting – waiting for tickets, appointments, particular events, buses, etc. Psychologists find it rather difficult to evaluate the pain from waiting, but they say that effect maybe both negative and positive. For business waiting is very expensive as time for them is directly associated with money. When people become more important, the demand for time becomes greater. With increased importance value of time increases as well as time is limited. Therefore, time of important people should be protected and carefully managed. The author stresses that â€Å"important people are usually seen by appointment only; and while those of higher status are allowed to make people below them to wait, the reverse is strictly prohibited†. (p. 109) Thus, one of the most important rules is that status dictates who will wait and it is position in the hierarchy that determines people’s importance. Further, the longer people are waiting the greater the status is. For example, the value of attorneys and bookkeepers is defined by the fact whether they are booked in advance. One of the rules suggests that time can be provided as a real gift meaning that waiting can be seen as an act of generosity. Offering is thus viewed as â€Å"a special instance of using time to demonstrate respect†. (p.123) Offering of time is important because it stretches far beyond explanations of gain or profit. The sole purpose of offering time is sending social message. Finally, breaking into line should be rare occasions. Those people who break into line must re-assure that they don’t cause any troubles for others who are waiting. Rules of waiting are different in different countries and it is not recommended to play waiting games till you know all the rules. Mainly, waiting rules implicit and the chance to misinterpret the message are very high. How to cite A Geography of Time, Papers A Geography of Time Free Essays In the preface â€Å"Time Talks, With an Accent† the author describes his reasons of writing the book, as well as he shares his plans about future careers, his interest, and ideas about time geography. In the first chapter â€Å"Tempo: Speed of Life† special attention is paid to what tempo is, its core elements, economic well-being and what may happen beyond the tempo. In the second chapter â€Å"Duration: Psychological Clock† the author provides innovative and interesting suggestions and draws relevant conclusions bumps in time, how to change the life tempo and psychological experiences of time duration. We will write a custom essay sample on A Geography of Time or any similar topic only for you Order Now Actually, I think that material presented in the preface and the first chapters are very exciting and informative as the author sets further background for research in this sphere. In the preface the author writes that every culture is represented by its own concepts and fingertips about time and time geography. Actually, it is necessary to lean about time values as it gives an excellent opportunity to know the person better. Time gives idea of what person is, about his ideals and beliefs. The author admits that he has always been interested in time. As other Americans, the writer was taught that time is measured by the clock and nothing more. Time is seconds, minutes and hours. However, when the author grew up he realized that the concept of time is not as simple as it might seem at the first glance. When planning personal career, the author claims he has ignored the concept of money being offered by the particular job. Instead, he decided to learn temporal lifestyle as that area interested him the most. Firstly the author’s researches focused primarily on social psychology and attribution theory. Special attention was paid to gender differences in ideas about success and failure, self-confidence and attribution styles. Nevertheless, in several years the author became very interested in studying the value of time and the life pace in general. Therefore, the author devotes the whole book to the pace of own lives, how people use and have to use time, what time is doing in our cities, etc. The first chapter addresses the question of time tempo stressing that tempo of life strongly depends on the factors of personal taste and skills, as well as on individual instruments and room involved. The pace of time is defined by the author as tome flow or movement being experienced by people. Pace of time is characterized by rhythms, sequences and synchronies. However, life pace is a matter of tempo. ‘Tempo’ is borrowed from music theory and it is associated with rate and speed of piece performance. The author is interested in characteristics of cultures and places distinguishing five factors which determine cultural tempos: economic well-being, degree of industrialization, population amount, climatic conditions, and orientation at individualism. Also, there are ‘fast’ and ‘slow’ people and the author warns us not to overgeneralize about them. Actually, life pace depends on time, place and human doings. Ten areas are presented to think of yourself: speech patterns, concern with clock time, walking speed, eating habits, driving, schedules, list making, nervous energy, waiting and alerts. The second chapter addresses the issues of psychological clock and duration of time. The author writes that there were several studies devoted to time perceptions and the interest in estimation of time appeared on the scale. Duration is defined as the time that is going from the lat event. Actually, duration is the speed of the clock being ambiguous and precise. However, it is more difficult to define duration of time in the realm of psychological experience. There are differences in time duration among Westerners and Easterners. For example, in Western culture listening is not opposition of talking as it is waiting. Modern researchers are focus on identifying differences in types of information and in the ways the information is processed. Interestingly, Maslow defined creative people as people being fascinated and absorbed in the current situation and here-now. The author concludes that time is proceeding as a clock arrow does. However, speed of time passing depends fully on individual preferences. How to cite A Geography of Time, Papers