Time In The United States: A Conceptual Analysis

Time, what is time, and why is it important? Well time is a concept that humans’ brains can perceive, in fact their brains basically construct the past, the present, and the future. Basically, time is a measurement system, and without it the human race wouldn’t have ever existed. Humans have a very simple understanding of time, and they still do not understand its full potential. Humans only understand the measurement of time, and the manipulation and capturing of time overwhelms them. To this day the only way humans have captured time is their memory, and even then they still get it wrong sometimes.

"Social Time: The Heartbeat of Culture", is an article for Robert Levine and Ellen Wolff, it extend readers with the authors’ viewpoints and research about ‘time-sense’ in different cultures. Robbert and Wolff emphasize that there is difference of ‘time-sense’ in two levels, which are inter cultural and cross cultural. When we move into a new culture, understanding the differences of ‘time sense’ might help us to set ourselves to new people and also new places. The author also describe how ‘time sense’ vary in different cultures is more explained by the author’s experience and research. Having lived in Brazil meaning "tomorrow" referring to that Brazilians usually defer whatever they need to do. To find out if "the ‘manha’ pattern

Thompson starts out describing how people measured time before clocks and the Industrial Revolution. People measured time in units of domestic activities or natural phenomena, which can be described as task-orientation. Thompson considers this type of time-measuring to be “natural” and believes that a task-oriented society results in little distinction between work and life. However, to people used to timed labor, such an attitude to labor appeared to be wasteful.

Macbeth’s downfall is began with his inability understand how time can control every aspect in your life. Time controls every aspect of life for humans. Time determines when we wake up to go to school to how long you are able to live. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth the protagonist Macbeth deals with the constraints of time and how time persuade him into making critical decisions. During his life William Shakespeare wrote sonnet 73 a well acclaimed sonnet, dealing with death, and how time affects everyone. About the constraints of time article called “What’s Your Time Perspective?” written by Jane Collingwood discusses how time can impact decisions we make constantly and how we feel about things in our daily lives. Peter Dizikes’ article “Does Time Pass?” talks about the different ways people can perceive time and how you relate to it in your life. Dizikes is a staff writer for the well renowned MIT news and reports mainly on science, technology, and intellectual life. The relationship of humans to time is humans rely on time to plan their lives around and constantly make choices based on time.

Time, from one person’s experience to another, from day to day, from emotion to emotion, varies more than the individuals who experience it. Yet time still can be measured. People, almost from the earth’s inception, have had a desire to regulate time. This is still seen today, with all the watches, phone clocks, wall clocks, analog clocks, digital clocks, grandfather clocks, atomic clocks, timers, and stopwatches. Unfortunately, while it is possible to measure the actual emissions from an atom’s atomic transition, it is impossible to measure time perception in different circumstances. Both the poem “Time Is”, and the statue “Father Time”, portray the integral role of time in humanity.

The 1960s in the United States of America were a time of great change for politics and society. From the presidential elections of Democratic Party leaders, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, to the African American and black empowerment movements, to the feminist and hippie subcultures, America began to actively seek out change in both the society and government. Many of the civil rights movements saw their strongest accomplishments forward during this era. However, despite Americans becoming more open to the idea of change and equality, many groups of the time had clashing ideals set for the new society.

Time, as viewed in this framework, is not only defined as the time on a clock, but the way culture perceives time. Time can be viewed by the calendar; furthermore, some cultures use different calendars or have varying number of days in their week. Some cultures also see clock time as less strict. There are certain cultures where it is normal to be late and others where the time decided is the time one is expected to be there.

America is a land of freedom and bravery. During the time period that some of the works were written, The United States did not offer freedom. This country had slavery, poverty, and a social hierarchy that made many life choices for Americans. Slaves had to buy their freedom, men had to work for their possessions, and women had to raise their families with all the techniques they were taught from their mothers. There are many attributes to being an American, but race is not one of them. The theme in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is freedom, which is the idea for which America was founded.

Nowadays, as modern societies provide an almost fixed time-table for humans to operate in various fields, we have far less freedom regarding our natural and momentary impulses than in the past. In other words, "we are increasingly detaching ourselves from organic and functional periodicity which is dictated by nature, and replacing it by mechanical periodicity which is dictated by the schedule, the calender, and the clock"(Jackson, 1994). The influence of this modern style of living on our sense of time can be seen on our relationship to every object we interact including buildings and architectural works.

The United States is a clock timed culture. Consequently, clock timed cultures consider time “as a dotted line with regular spacings. Events are organized by the number of intervals before or after their occurrence” [2] as stated by Dr. Livermore. For example, the United States custom is to form organized lines in public places such as marketplaces. As an Illustration,

I have lived in Ethiopia and in the United States. When I came to the United States before 5 years ago I was having a hard time to get used to with the time flow. It was a summer time and at 8:00 pm it looks like a day I was surprised I have never seen something like that in my life before. I will never forget what happened once I registered for class at 1:30 pm and I was so confused with the time since we don’t use AM and PM time division in Ethiopia. I thought that my class was a morning class and when I came to the school 30 minutes early nobody was there. I asked the security guy and he told me that my class is in the afternoon. Ethiopia and the United States have differences in traditions, language, and economy.

Time remains an important key element of life. It helps us understand the way the world functions. For instance we go through life we begin to realize that time is an element which will not ever come back once it is gone. Time is a valuable gift that people take for granted until they realize that they do not have any time left. Although time is physically the same for everyone, we all experience time in a different manner. Several factors impact our encounter with time. One of those factors is fear. Fear changes the way we perceive time, because when we become overwhelmed by this emotion time appears to slow down. An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge demonstrates the way that fear makes us appreciate time and not take it for granted.

Time is changing our way of living. We all think, Time is the key to success. Everything is based and control by time. In order words, time controls this world. “Time and the Machine” by Aldous Huxley and “A Blizzard under Blue Sky” by Pam Houston, both of these authors tell how time is changing our lives.

The standard way of thinking about time has it that one should always use their time wisely. Therefore, they’ve been a few stories that depict and describe how to and which way to manage time. From The Tyranny of the Clock by George Woodcock, to The “Busy” Trap by Tim Kreider, and How to Live on 24 Hour a Day by Arnold Bennett, all in a way or ways describe how one can use his or her time properly. However, if one were to contrast these three stories, they would find that George Woodcock and Tim Kreider have more in common, then Arnold Bennett.

The structure is a catalyst for understanding how the perception of time is