Monday 23 April 2007

Is the world going faster?

Gee! Can you believe it? It’s going to be Monday tomorrow! (or already Monday depending on when you read this) Like a flash, the weekend is over. And for those of us who are in the slavery working world, we know what that means… Sunday night depression with imminent Monday blues. But hey… look at the calendar, besides being Monday tomorrow, it also shows that we are already in mid of April. Soon, half of the year will be gone and some of us will actually have to sit down and reflect on what we have achieved in the first half of the year.

Are you one of many who thinks time seems to pass quickly as we journey longer and longer in life? Did the last few years sort of run past you without you knowing it? Do you still remember your younger days? When a day seems to have lots to offer, a week is rather eventful, a month is a long journey and a year… seems like eternity… well… almost eternity.

But things have changed isn’t it? Living in this modern era, 24 hours is certainly not enough to make up a day. Ahjohn left a comment in one of my entry saying how he fails to find the 25th hour in a day. But honestly, when we have that 25th hour, will it be enough? We always seem to run out of time now, always fail to find time to do anything. Weekdays are too short t complete our assignments and weekends are too short to take a breather. Time… seems to just keep accelerating.

How so? Have you ever sat down and think why time seems to be going faster and faster? Quite some time ago, someone told me that time to a child seems slower. This is because they have no deadlines to meet, lesser things to accomplish. We, as adults or coming into adulthood, have so much in our hands, that we always need time to accomplish them. So it’s a case of having too much to do… is it true?

I spoke to a few children to find out more, and I found out that the child-finds-time-slower notion is nothing but a myth. A few of those who are under the age of 10 told me that they don’t have enough time to finish off their homework. After homework, there’re piano classes and tuition classes. Having done all that, children nowadays needs more time to complete a particular computer games. Some of them wish for more time so that they can complete more ‘levels’ in a game. They may not have deadlines, but they certainly have a lot to accomplish. Time to them is still short, just in a different perspective.

I recalled someone telling me about this book called “McWorld”. No idea who wrote it but it’s about how we are trying to beat time in almost everything. It talks about how we are trying to make the world goes faster by applying the “fast food” methodology of McD in our lives… turning our globe into McWorld. To a certain extend, it’s true. Don’t you agree?

Day after day, we are striving to make cars go faster, planes fly faster, computers function faster, banking transactions faster, internet connection faster, make our first million faster, retire faster, be a ‘tai-tai’ faster (for girls), etc. With the exception of orgasm for the male species, we want everything to happen fast, don’t we? We just want to get things done fast so that we can move on to the next agenda. Having moved to the next agenda, we rush ourselves to the next and the vicious cycle continues.

Having said that, I do believe that in the midst of this fast moving world, there are some occasions when we do find time crawling. It’s something that’s very rare nowadays. Do you know what it is? Such phenomena can happen anytime, anywhere. It is called… “WAITING”. When one is waiting for something, time seems to take forever, no?

Having said that, when was the last time we have to “wait” for the day to be over? I can’t recall really, we have so much to do… TV, internet, sms-es, shopping malls, blogs, our jobs and many other things. If all things fail… there’s sleep! Almost every single human being lacks sleep nowadays and therefore, sleeping seems to make time accelerates. As soon as you shut your eyes last night, you’re already at your snooze-until-the-cow-comes-home act right?

Anyway, back to waiting… when was the last time you have to wait for your day to be over? First, we don’t want our days to be over, because we want to do so many things. And if we really have to wait… we can always find something to fill our time. The ever convenient sms is a very good way to kill time. Watch a dvd perhaps? Or maybe, drop by As Zewt As It Gets. If you have to wait for your bus or LRT, there are MP3 players and of course, sms again. All these things take away the agony of waiting, and thus takes away the opportunity for us to taste time.

You may say you always have to wait for your next salary. But if the month is shorter, do you think you have enough time to finish off our work? How many late nights do you have to put up?

As the chance of us waiting for stuff slowly depreciating, so goes our opportunity to appreciate the motion of time. Of course, nobody wants to wait for things to happen. Patience is virtue that not many people possess. But ya’ know, the waiting game is the only door out of this fast moving world, so to speak. It is the only opportunity for us to feel the presence of a minute, an hour, a day, a week, a month, a year… time basically. Don’t let it slip away from our grasp because time… is in a way… our life! If time keeps going faster, life as they say… will indeed be short.

Is the world going faster? Well, I think it is, simply because we made it faster.

(I posted this to TheStar blog and it was published on 28 July 2006. But they shorten it a lot, and I thought I should share the full version here, and took the liberty to enhance it)

54 comments:

NURAINA A SAMAD said...

zewt,

there just doesnt seem to be enough hours in a day.
i can see my day -- each day -- zooms past me, it is amazing.

how life used to be -- well, slow, slow-er.

thanks zewt. a good reminder. can't reclaim lost time.

rainbow angeles said...

My mom said that when you think time passes by very fast, it means you are o-l-d...

*shrug*

Pssstt! Whilst waiting, come journey into the MacWorld...? Haha...

Haha... did not join My List? Hey, didn't you notice that I've not been Nuffnang-ed nor Advertlet-ed too? :P

Have a good week ahead!

rainbow angeles said...

Oops... I meant to say **getting o-l-d...**

Anonymous said...

Time has always been constant as it has been many many years ago
It's us that is making time move faster or slower

Anonymous said...

LoL, great post as usual. Time does feel shoter these days with the amount of activities(both productive and unproductive) we get outselves into.

Btw, I did remember seeing some Discovery Channel documentry a few years back about time being shorter becuase of something to do with moon's orbit getting farther and a few other things I can't remember.

J.T. said...

Hi Zewt, my days are going by so fast even though I am supposed to be a lady of leisure (I swear I am not). I did, however, find movement of time a tad slow, and you are right about this, when I was a child. The days before computers and electronics took over our lives.
The other time when time seemed to linger was when I flew back for my mum's funeral. It was the longest 12 hours of my life (as if 12 hours is not long enough sitting in a plane at any given time).
When I try to "taste life" every now and then, something jolts me back to reality - I have things to do. After all, what I do or don't, affect others too.

Anonymous said...

I have another theory for the fact that we find time FLYING so fast!

Actually, it's not mine :) but I've heard it before, can't recall the exact saying, but Muslims are meant to believe that the fact that time goes by so fast, indicates the end coming soon... well, that's just one of the so many other signs :).

but yea, time isn't enough these days :( even if there are constant improvements done to make us save time, we still find ourselves left with not enough time!

Anonymous said...

As Emily Dickinson said, "To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else."

Thanks for returning my visit, Zewt.

**************Jz***************** said...

I wished that there will be 48 hrs a day....lol day 1-26....for salary....*yawn* hey think of the bright side.....maybe for instance....you are retiring real soon.....i mean real soon....muahahahaha if the world is going faster......

"Joe" who is constantly craving said...

there many sides to many things..i am sure a part of us wants time to pass by quicker..a part wants it slower..

just look at the movie click..for those who want a career..they just want to fast forward all the hard shit..but enjoying life is not the same..oh well..anywayz it really goes to shows u hav to put abit of thought into what you are doing once in a while, to see if thats wat u wan to achieve..

Shanghai Fish said...

Hi zewt,
I always thought time flies when you're having fun...it's like when you are with a 'hot' chick everything happens so fast and you're back home wondering hey..! is the date over ?? and if you accidently put your finger on a 'hot'stove woooeeewwee...that finger will hurt you like forever.
Yes times flies for us free man who cannot organise ourselves BUT try telling a man in prison...when he has say 25 years to serve a jail sentence or even to a man bed-ridden...how his days crawl by ....he'd wish for a 2 hour day...to be set free or to be put out of his misery ! In the meantime count your blessings and live life for each minute and "one day at a time" !
Cheers !!!

Anonymous said...

At 8:07 AM, zewt said…

i find that andrew guy... a lil... young in his thinking. sarcasm is one thing, but i think he takes it too far most of the time. just look at the way he always describe himself as hot and smart and whatever not...

oh andrew... are you reading this? haha!



I read it..... I respect the zewtpinions but I will still write like Stephen Colbert.

Huei said...

time..u just gotta manage it properly! then there'll be enough i guess! =D

i'm really really REALLY waiting for my pay!!! >.< hehe

me said...

was going to post something along this line.....but a little too tired to let my thoughts run its course.

Anonymous said...

I had a similar discussion during our camping trip last weekend. I firmly believe that technological advancements has sped up time.

SuLee said...

talking about waiting, the one i hate the most is waiting in line! not those when ur actually sitting n wait for ur number to be called, but literally standing in line, and u know whats worst? ( it actually happened to me today) I was in line at the drug store and the old lady infront of me farted!!! first fart , i took a step back, second one, i took two steps back n start covering my nose!!!!! WTH!

ya ya haha funny~

TingTitLei said...

and now i have to finish up my IT coursework in one week when the lecturer gave me 2 months. I think this is one of the need-more-time situations haha

and the parents who send their kids to all kinda tuitions.. i find it really unnecessary. When I was a kid, I didnt go for any tuition or any music classes but im still smarter/at the same level as some of them who do.

zewt said...

Nuraina - we just have too many things to do nowadays. i think technology made time disappear. by the way, LaSH commented that Muslims believe acceleration of times means kiamat is near... is it true?

angel - hahaha... i thought ppl getting old will nto find time fast... cos everything is so slow already... like their very own movement... hmmm... true, looks like you're not allowing yourself to be dragged into the bandwagon eh?

zeroimpact - precisely... the motion of time has always been the same... it's all in our head.

sinergy.starfall - you mean the change in orbit actually affects the speed of our very own clocks? i find that a lil hard to believe, dont u think?

J.T. - oh... i know how it feels. it's those times that we finally dont feel like doing anything else but just pause and wait, when our minds are just so pack with just 1 thing... that's when time seems to pause with us, right?

LaSH - hmmm... your theory regarding muslims belief is quite interesting. will certainly try to check it out with some of my muslim friends. it could be true... sign of times.

Jemima - that's quite... profound... you're welcome. as long as there's something interesting, i will be reading it.

Love is in the air bakes said...

yes time is passing by too quickly... please vote for CHARMAYNE at http://www.cedricang.com :)

opps i'm being cheeky here!

zewt said...

jaezrel - 48 hours in a day... 26 days to salary means "52" current days ler... do you know how to count ah?

someone who is constantly craving - the movie click, as ridiculous as it may be, did carry a lesson that we should all learn. i wonder how many of us managed to catch it. sometimes, we do want to fast forward our lives into a particular time... but we forget we will miss all the things in between.

shanghaistephen - hey there. a man in prison is a man who has nothing to do but wait... which is why time sort of stopped for him, which reiterate my point... when we have to wait... time stops, dont u thnk so?

andrew ho - good to know you have an open mind. keep going... if it makes you happy my friend.

huei - on an unrelated note... everytime your pay comes... your 'aunty' also come and visit eh? bliss and suffering... hehe...

me - so you're saying i beat you to it?

gallivanter - wow, you guys talk about such thing during the camp? very interesting indeed, i should have been there. but you're right... technology fills up all our time... till we have no more time for ourselves.

SuLee - how come you didnt make a scene out of it... like tell the whole world she farted? hahahahaha!!!

TTL - that's becos you lazy and procrastinate mah... hahaha.. i was also like that during my college days. oooohhh... smart eh? doesnt need tuition. that's good really... you have more time to blog :P eh... better get your IT coursework going now...

charmayne - very determined to win eh?

SuLee said...

duwan lah, she's gonna pin me down n fart all over my face if i do that!

plus i think she's mentally challenged.

P/S: Andrew read your comment, oh oh!

Weig said...

Cirnelle closes eyes tightly and clenches fists... time stopped. Stopped at 11.20am. Hasn't ticked on since, not until the clock battery is changed.

**************Jz***************** said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

LOL, it appears I have quite a warped memory.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar#Difference_between_Gregorian_and_Julian_calendar_dates

It's kinda hard to explain here though, happy reading :)

ahjohn said...

2 things to share. the world moves fast or slow depends on how we deal with it, or rather how we look at it.

we tend to have shorter time than people in the third world country. i have travelled almost 50000 miles in the past 3 years to countries that rich people have not found the money to go to (or reluctant to go). wonder what do people in these part of the world do in their free time and not-so-free time? they would line up for 5kms to buy a sim card (because they have nothing else to do), they would strike for 3 days and line up for almost 30,000 km, they would sit down on the dirty streets for 24 hours chat etc.. why do they have such luxury of time while we dont? because we choose to.

point 2, i was sitting down that day in one of my quiet time, and realize that if i were to come home by LRT than to drive and leave the office at 6pm, i should be able to find time for cleaning up the room for 1 hour, i can feed the fishes before 10, i can do the gardening daily and free my saturdays.. suddenly accumulating those hours and put into a mathematical equation, i buy myself time.

anyway for those who works in the city, spend time for everything. for love ones, for friends, for family, for rest, for food, for movies, for laughter and above all for God.

i copied this from the web:

Let's look at the quotes from Ecclesiastes 3: 1- 8,

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.”

Obviously, apart from working, God set apart for us a time for resting. King Solomon queries us:

“What does the worker gain from his toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on men. He has made everything beautiful in his time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”

The true wisdom of life is to understand this wisdom that mankind is limited and restricted by what we can do, and rather fix our eyes on what is eternal...

Ecclesiastes 12: 1
“Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come…”

Ecclesiastes 3: 12
“I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil - this is the gift of God.”

Life itself is beautiful. But it is not only about work but a journey in which we can walk and co-work with God. It is He who makes all things beautiful in His time, just as the butterfly transforms and emerges from its larvae to an elegant creature flying in the air.

London’s busy bees are buzzing around you restlessly, but don’t forget to give yourself a breath of fresh air from the pulse of the city’s crazy struggles...

Anonymous said...

'With the exception of orgasm for the male species, we want everything to happen fast, don’t we?'

lol i like that..not enough time? make time then. it's a matter of choice, why some people can have more time, some don't? if you choose to be busy and no time, then be it :P

p/s: zewt, it's b o n g k e r s z .. not bongkerz or bongerz.. haha! Bila nak makan kfc? :D

**************Jz***************** said...

eh am insulted ma* i know im not a *** manager like you....but dont insult me eh :S.....im not anaccountant i cant count like one....=p that is why i did ***

p.s. cant see ur birds flying around in the office nowonder.....

Love is in the air bakes said...

determined to win yes! however more excited going back to london... :)

J.T. said...

Zewt, you are right. Time pauses. You just don't want to do anything.
However, after a while, you are jolted back to reality that things need to be done. Still, in the midst of taking care of arrangements, time seems to drag.

conan_cat said...

sure is something to think about, zewt :D

the time being fast or slow is relative... to what we think, what we do, and what we want it to be. it's so true that time is something we wanted to extend or stop, but to some others at another part of the world, time is just a commodity for them to enjoy.

a few years back i went to my friend's place in Tanjung Malim... and I find that their pace of life there is much, much slower than what I'm having in KL. we need hours to travel from one place to another, while they just need to ride a bike to the next street. they can have nap every afternoon while we'll be busy working on our work.

something to ponder about... does time make ourselves busy, or is it ourselves?

Arena Green said...

Yeah, this full version post aptly describes the subject you're tackling here. No wonder the STAR shortened it! LOL

Just don't blacklist me for saying this, Zewt! :-D

TCA Student Council said...

yeah, i was complaining some time in my other blog that i seemed to have lesser & lesser time... but anyway, I think even if we were given 48hrs, we would still think it's insufficient.

Dangerous Variable said...

I feel like shit ler today..!

Melyong said...

I think we make ourselves chase our lives. That way time is moving fast. We have so many to do therefore, little time. Parents rushes their child to all sorts of class trying to make them jack of all trades and a master to all of them. This is due to? The world today. the competition. I am glad i had time to monkey around. btw, I linked YOU! hope you don't mind.

Kenny Mah said...

It's the end of Monday as I read this and I am still in the office. Only one left. What does that say about me, I wonder?

Slavery is more common than we think. :P

But I'm not complaining. Had a great weekend spent in the company of my best friends. A guy can't ask for more, really. :)

Anonymous said...

I used to think time is never enough when i work..but now being a house wife at home, the time passes really slow! I'm waiting for my favourite show everyday at 19:00!!

But i think it will be busier later if i have a baby..

Have a good week, everyone :)

~aSstHa~ said...

LOL...

was reading dis on a mon evening and still am stuck in the office... den i saw kenny mah's comment... at least i'm not alone.

great write-up.. i agree time is really short the older you get. work takes up the bulk of it, next comes family or bf/gf den comes frens and sometimes u cram up so much during the weekends u feel like u need a weekend AWAY from ur weekend... i dunno but i feel that way all the time.

ppl always comment i am always rushing from one place to another, even my mom has to inform me TWO WEEKS in advance for any family function so i can clear my schedule AND have to make way for my mth end closing.

frens also complain we always seem to hv something to do..

our relationship is based on juggling the time in between all these in case frens/family sez we put dem in priority. so to avoid it we squeeze in watever time we hv which jz add up to us being super-tired and frazzled out...

interestingly carrie underwood's, don't forget to remember me started with the words,
"18 years have come and gone
For momma they flew by
But for me they drug on and on"


but i'm afraid kids nowadays don't enjoy that kind of luxury as we do before it was such a MUST to be good in everything, say since 1990?

i dunno. my two cents worth anyway..

me said...

YES! not that it's going to stop me from posting mine :-p

Seaqueen said...

We're getting older...more responsibilities, more things to worry, that's where all our 24 hours goes to..
Tell me, out of 24 hours, how many hours do you spend with God, doing things that make you happy??
Maybe by doing that we'll find that we have somehow enough hours to use.

CharlemÂgne® said...

Hi Zewt,

Oh yea, time flies. I am 23 and i already feel time is flying wayyyyyy too fast for me. When i laid out a plan for my life, it seems like 30 feels just like 2-3 years away.=(((

It's scary to think about it sometimes because time really waits for no man. And sometimes people are so into the rush of daily life, work etc that they 'forgot'/neglect to make it a point to spend quality time with themselves.
(This is part of the lesson which i had learnt in my Effective Time Management Class which i told you preiously).

I dont know if you like to read books but when i sprained my ankle earlier (which left me temporarily disabled other than hopping around the house), i had been keeping myself company with this book by Thomas L Friedman: The World is Flat. It's a very insightful book...and i think everyone in this globalized world should read it to know how time flies and people are evolving each day, continuing to improve themselves in every single aspect possible; be it in education, work, processes, technology etc but of course most importantly is the shift of paradigm to succeed.

Geez, sometimes i wonder how far i need to go to value add myself in order to compete with the others in this scarily competitive world.

I am sorry if my comments here run a bit off tangent from this entry. Just wanna share a bit of my thoughts about the book and life with you.

And Monday blues...tell me about it.I was waiting for today to end!! Seems to take eternal!

Btw, just to share some crap:I learnt a new acronym for O.S.I.M today. Nope, its not that chair which promotes better blood circulation bla bla bla.
O.S.I.M - Oh Shit, It's Monday!

Come Friday, i will be saying TGIF.=)

may said...

we make fast cars and planes so we can get where we want to faster, so we can make time go "slower" (i.e. longer) when we get there... hmmm?

*I just want Saturdays to last longer*

Wickedsa said...

in spite of this, I am growing up to the adulthood very very soon...
gonna step into the society.
time passes pretty fast tho

Jazzi said...

great article! Try keeping it and showing it to your kids in 20 years time. I wonder whether it would be relevant then...could they have discovered a way to time travel by then? :P

zewt said...

SuLee - oh... i think he hates me more... :P

cirnelle - you made the batter died?

sinergy.fall - it's also hard to understand! i think i need to read it again.

ahjohn - see my bro, this is the reason why i said you MUST blog! am in awe reading your comment, and my reply here is like a comment on your comment.

particularly like the part when you find out about how you can actually save an hour a day if you choose to take LRT. but then again, how many of us will do it. we would all rather sit on our ass and brace the jam than to save 1 hour... i guess we all made our choices...

bongkersz - oh oh oh ... so so so sorry my man... i buy you KFC in return ok!

jaezrel - yeah ler, only at home you can see those flying creatures. i am a manager but also a slave ler.

charmayne - well.. all the best to you... in london! hah!

zewt said...

J.T. - well, i think we should all be glad if time chooses to drag us along... give us a taste of life... no?

conan_cat - yeah.. you certainly got the notion there. i think technology has filled out time with so many things... we just dont feel time anymore. oh oh... love your last sentence... something to think about certainly...

anak merdeka - hahaha... why should it?

big rice - the thing is... it will never be enough... we all know it, dont we?

dangerous variable - why la? cos chelsea failed to close the gap?

bubbly soda - yup! rushing is certainly killing us when it comes to time. rushing is also the reason why we refuse to wait... thus, unable to taste time. thanks for the link... appreciate it :)

Kenny Mah - hahahaha... looks like those chick flicks with some chicks really make your weekends eh? we should come up for lunch or coffee some day my friend.

zewt said...

seok thong - hmmm... i reckon you're married to a german guy eh? the bliss of a housewife life... i am sure many envy you. well, if your baby keeps your busy later... let's just say it's a good kinda busy-ness... :)

aSstHa - oh... i was also in the office at 7 cos my big boss was waiting for someone overseas to confirm some facts before i can give my comments and then everyone can hit home. the confirmation never came, and i waited in vain... sigh....

thanks for your long reply, i really appreciate it. it's also very refreshing reading it... like what i told ahjohn... replying here is like commenting on your comment. yeah, kids nowadays are really... well, dunno to say whether they are pampered or pressured... oh well, to each its own.

thanks for dropping by... hope to see ya around...

me - i await it.

Jessica - and ironny... we actually spend the most hours doing things that we hate... right?

jermayne - wow... another long comment... love it! have to say i am not much of a book reader. so it's a surprise how come i got hook at reading blogs. but i think i have heard about that book you mentioned before. i guess the title speaks for itself... with the power of globalisation... everyone is just so mobile. oh... OSIM... hahaha... thanks... we shall be saying this in a weeks time sigh...

may - and friday evenings too...

baby sa - take it slowly... enjoy your pre-adulthood as long as you can. having said that... adulthood is not achieved with age... it's in the maturity of the mind.

jazzi - hahahaha.... if you suddenly come across a man who tells you he is your great great great grandson... then yeah... they invented time machine already.

AL said...

Hey brother i totally hear you on this that we do make time faster. Its so sad aint it!!! Just wait till we're 80 and we'll still say the same things...

Idham said...

:) zewt...i know exactly ...i was loeft waiting at the cairo airport for a good two hooooooouuuursss.....too long, that represents close to 20% of my productive time in a day.

arif.

Kenny Mah said...

Lunch or coffee one day sounds good, bro. Tell ya what, I'll email you my HP no. But please, no more chick flicks! Hahaha...

Love is in the air bakes said...

thank you thank you! anything you need from there? :)

zewt said...

AL - that is if we reach 80...

Arif aka Idham - wow... you sound like someone who is always on the move. i must say that 2 hours did you some good...

Kenny Mah - sure bro.

Charmayne - yeah... bring me the english premier league medal.

Love is in the air bakes said...

i think that would be a problem :P how about some pork pies? ;)

Anonymous said...

zewt, good lah you off day today..

those of us who are working today, does it mean we are less loyal citizens or that we get discount and pay less bracket income tax?

Oz puzzled..

zewt said...

charmayne - pork pies? wow... sounds yummy. thanks... anything will do actually.

anonymous - well... your employer should have shown some respect to the king... then you will get a day off... isnt that nice? :)