Our relationship with Time in the Post-Digital World

In this new world of the "New Normal", perhaps better described by the term Post-Digital, where communication among people is undergoing a process of mutation in its form, tending to divide more and more into asynchronous and synchronous communications, each of which finding a niche in which it allows a greater degree of interaction and collaboration among people, which despite being a sign of the times, we need to avoid it being at the expense of face-to-face connections that we miss so much due to the abrupt change in pattern due to the pandemic, which even makes us question our relationship with time.

The "old" world for which we feel a certain nostalgia, with pre-scheduled times for physical meetings, still exists in its digital form of "lives", but more and more the use of asynchronous communication is finding its space, as in the groups of some messaging software, which allows the entire history of the conversation to be “available” for later consultation.

The fact that we are connected almost all the time, makes us more responsive on several occasions, but as a side effect it makes the process of "disconnect" more difficult, which makes it necessary a greater process of self-awareness so that we can know how to harmonize our lives.

Phenomena such as the habit of checking notifications from various apps and looking at the various feeds and timelines of various social networks looking for something we don't quite know, is an addictive phenomenon of checking notifications every few minutes that was also called FOMO (Fear of Missing Out).

On the other hand, JOMO (Joy of Missing Out) is a natural response to FOMO, and involves knowing how to perform a "digital detox", to be able to feel good about yourself without the overload of information from the various sources of interruption of attention to which we are bombarded constantly.

The link I want to try to establish is that there is a connection between the way we communicate in society, the use of media in its digital form and how we perceive the passage of time and the change in habits that result from this.

Different types of spaces in society with their respective times

The anthropologist Roberto DaMatta, in his book "A Casa & a Rua" describes the existence of 3 types of spaces that relate to 3 times, the "Casa" (Home), the "Rua" (Street) and the "other world", which I will call Transcendent.

The Home in his view, it is cyclic and involves seasonal rites such as parties on commemorative dates.

The Street in his view, it is linear and involves the vision of the succession of facts according to causal and entropic relationships in nature.

And the Transcendent in his view, refers to what is considered the sacred, which can be observed in different civilizations in different ways.

In my view, each person would have a unique combination of perceptions of these three types of spaces and respective times in their journey through life.

My perception is that sudden movements that massively break the routine, such as the pandemic, cause such profound changes in the collective perception of the facts that they affect how we process and record time at least temporarily, and this ends up taking shape in new habits that may or may not be maintained after a transitional phase, but that somehow mark the collective memory.

I understand that our brain organizes memories in such a way as to give us the sensation of temporal linearity, and the more diverse the different types of events experienced, the greater the sensation of temporal dilation, due to the greater sample of facts to be ordered.

And in my understanding, the opposite also applies, for a sensation of temporal contraction, which can occur if there is little variety in the sampling diversity of events.

The pandemic only accelerated something that was already happening, an ongoing civilizational revolution, whose introduction of the new Digital media makes us change even our perception of time and space, with the dilution of physical borders in the sense of connecting the distant, but sometimes distances those who are close.

And it also promotes the perception of a faster time for those who need to use the Internet with great intensity, as keeping up with the pace of change demands more attention from us, a situation that is made difficult by the various screens that compete for our looks in almost all the places.

This acceleration of the Digital media revolution can be seen in the pandemic, for example, with the intensification of the use of remote work, the widespread use of telemedicine and teleservice, and with greater flexibility in working hours.

Digital media and a new form of administrative model

Bringing to the study of Communication that studies the media and its effects on different societies in the historical cycle, according to Marshall McLuhan, there is still the specificity of each society in each region, in which more collectivist societies have a longer-term view of time, such as in ancient cultures in Asia. In this case, being classified as acoustic and non-linear.

And according to Marshall McLuhan, Western societies are more individualistic and tend to have a very short-term vision, being classified as visual and linear.

With the worldwide reach of the Internet, and with the tendency to use a "universal" digital language for communication, I understand that a process that has been called the "global brain" is also taking place, which would be a process of convergence of effects of the new Digital media on a global scale. 

According to Prof. Carlos Nepomuceno, society is increasingly introducing a new form of administrative model, the Curatorship, with more decentralized and distributed organizational models, which will require greater cognitive flexibility from professionals, which is described as the ability to relearn how to learn, to unlearn the old and adapt to the new competitive scenario.

Time's arrow to the future and learning to change

Existing then, the arrow of time given by entropy that advances forward to the future, in an eternal present.

And it demands from us a look to the future, without loose the focus, so that we can let ourselves experience and be enchanted with the new, in a sequence of learning that allows us to advance in the face of challenges and glimpse new possibilities.

Thus, situations that put us to the test are important sources of learning, as often only experience is able to bring the necessary visibility for us to be able to identify our opportunities for improvement and produce the momentum, so that we can prioritize efforts in order to act on them.

Therefore, we can understand that just as every crisis also means an opportunity for change, and the act of making us aware about the need for change, makes us leave the simple mental exercise of visualizing possible scenarios, to actually make change a reality, which allows us to move forward over time.

That is why each moment is unique, and if we are aware of it, we will learn to appreciate its flow, allowing us to identify opportunities to make a difference wherever we go, by being aware of the situations that unfold around us.

And there are things that we need a willingness to act at the right time, to let the situation unfold to the point where it matures for the opportunity to arise, for these cases, we must have the wisdom to know how to distinguish when they occur.

In the end, time is perceived differently by each individual, and this leads us to understand how valuable it is, precisely because it is something so finite, for us who are so brief.

References:

Início | BIMODAIS - FUTURISMO COMPETITIVO

Cérebro global – Wikipédia, a enciclopédia livre (wikipedia.org)

JOMO: o prazer de dizer n?o - A mente é maravilhosa (amenteemaravilhosa.com.br)

O incrível poder do nosso cérebro de esticar (ou encolher) o tempo - 15/12/2019 - UOL TILT

O tempo só escraviza quem n?o sonha, diz filósofo italiano | VEJA (abril.com.br)

Lead Your Business Through the Coronavirus Crisis (hbr.org)

Digital Business & Insights Consultant, Thinker and Curator about the VUCA World, with a natural curiosity about the World and its complexity, multidisciplinary knowledge and the ability to produce actionable recommendations and insights about the competitive landscape.

Also a Mentor, Content producer (content writer), Instructor and Speaker on topics related to The Digital Era, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Technology, Future of Work, Artificial Intelligence Applications for Business and Consumer Behavior on digital channels.