A Geography of Time

the temportal misadventures of a social psychologist
by Robert Levine

A more flexible and rewarding life is the reward for learning to understand and accept three different perceptions of time:

• clock time
• nature time
• event time

Tempo...

• The healthier a place's economy, the faster its tempo.
• The more developed the country, the less free time per day.
• Bigger cities have faster tempos
• Hotter places are slower.
• Individualistic cultures more faster than those that emphasize collectivism.

Duration: the psychological clock

"When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, it seems like two minutes; when you sit on a hot stove for two minutes, it seems like two hours. That's relativity." -- Albert Einstein

"Man measures time, and time measures man." Old Italian Proverb

"A mind that is fast is sick. A mind that is slow is sound. A mind that is still is divine." --Meher Baba

Factors that influence the experience of duration. Time passes more quickly

• when experiences are pleasant, carry little sense of urgency,
• when they experience variety (a Western luxury)
• during activities that engage hright-hemisphere modes of thinking ("The left hemispere analyzes over time; wheras the right hemisphere synthesizes over space." --Jerre Levy)

To most Westerners, a lack of overt actiivty signals that nothing is happening. Many people in the world, however, recognize that just because life is quiet on the surface does not mean that change is absent.

Measuring each country's walking speed, postal speed, and clock accuracy, the author comes up with an index for "the overall pace of life:" in 31 countries. Switzerland is on top, Mexico at bottom. A Spanish proverb says, "Those who rush arrive first at the grave."

Turning to 36 U.S. cities, the measures are walking speed, bank speed, talking speed, and watches worn. The pace is fast in Boston, New York, and Columbus, and slow in LA, Sacramento, and Shreveport.

"Jouce Carol Oates writes, "Time is the element in which we exist... We are either borne along by it or drowned in it."