I am sitting in a still room, borrowing a moment to inhale the serenity that seems to float in the air like a cloud of fog, and listening to the silence. Listening closely, I notice that the silence, an absence of apparent sound, is its own symphony; it is an orchestration that is being kept alive by a carefully beating drum. I concentrate on the drum’s beats, observing that its rhythm is steadily and confidently throbbing. When glancing, I make a discovery and erupt with laughter. At this moment, precisely 1:43 PM, I realize that the incessant pulsation is not the tempo of tranquility, but rather the ticking of my watch. A small, thin, golden band strapped to my wrist, the watch is a living creature; it has a face, hands, a heartbeat. It has its own mechanized mind, a willpower to keep ticking at the same pace despite the circumstances; some of the more durable watches even tick under water. Within each brisk movement of the second-hand, a human has laughed, some have shed tears, one is gripped by death, and yet another is being given the gift of life.
Just like the individuals who comprise the human race, these curious creatures come in all shapes and sizes, each with its own beauty. My watch, an example of those delicate timepieces fastened with a band of gold or silver, resembles a bracelet. Yet, there are watches with thicker straps; some with leather, plastic, and even bands of bulky cloth; watches with bold heavy-set numerals; timepieces with only dots or diamond-shaped accents to represent the twelve hours; as well as the contemporary digital watch. Despite the endless assortment of watches, each serves the very same purpose: creating a framework in which those who ride the roller coaster of modernized life must run th...
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...e not only created a world where our slavery to time is inevitable, but are now pushing the envelope to race against the clock. No longer are we satisfied to wait three days to receive information in the mail; we simply send a fax or an email with the punch of a button or the click of a mouse. In a civilization that craves instant-gratification, whether in terms of financial transactions or communication, speed has become the most valuable commodity. Our newly conceived definitions of the words “fast” and “slow” are resetting the biological clocks of younger generations.
My watch tells me that several hours have passed while I have been explaining every nuance of time, but I have numerous tasks to accomplish before the curtain comes down on February the fifth, two-thousand three. I better attend to these duties before I realize that I have wasted too much time.
In Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now, Douglass Rushkoff discusses his interpretation of the relationship of society and rapidly evolving technology. He believes that as technology progresses, society becomes increasingly dependent on it and eventually loses touch with the traditional sense of time and reality. Through the book Rushkoff makes several insightful observations about the development of society and how technologies were often the driving force behind these “Present Shocks.”
Time allocation, or time management, is a trait that everyone is capable of. However, there are people who tend to manage their time better than others. People often find themselves wasting time on unimportant activities. The time wasted can depend on the type of person they are, though. Say there is a successful businessman. That man is less likely to waste his time doing something unimportant than a teenager who doesn’t have their priorities straight. In the story, ‘Contents of the Dead Man’s Pocket”, Tom Benecke struggles with balancing the time spent on his work and time spent with his wife. In our generation, technology is all around us. Whether it be phones, computers, or video games, people are wasting away their lives doing activities
While I understand that the mechanical clock brought into our world a separate reality. It also made us into a more systematized society as a whole. It brought people together, making it easier to work towards a common goal. Without the clock we wouldn’t have reached the things we have today. Comparatively, the same goes for the internet. Carr sounds like he is petrified of change. The points he makes about the internet having “far-reaching effects on cognition” are completely valid, and these effects are something to be happy about. His fears towards the unknown argue against logic. The thought of our minds working like machines is something constructive, it keeps us moving forward. This kind of futuristic thinking is the way the greatest minds of America preform today. In the past people were limited as to how much they could accomplish because they didn’t have certain technology to reach what we know today. Because of this many people had to come together over many periods of life-times to create one discovery. Now-a-days, everyone is connected able to share their discoveries and participate in helping each other reach a mutual goal almost instantaneously. Imagine is Albert Einstein had the use of technology. The fact that he would be skimming through paragraphs wouldn’t affect the genius discoveries that he made, in fact, it would propel him into so much more
In fact, the advent of the internet is one of the greatest inventions of the twenty-first century. Ellen Goodman’s “In praise of Snail’s Pace” is a well-written rhetoric that exposes the decadence of over indulgence in technology. Goodman is not totally against technology, instead she makes the claim that the world just need to slow down from hurrying; there are some things that are just natural and trying to use speed to accomplish such things only destroys the purpose which they are meant for. Goodman states, “There are rituals you cannot speed up without destroying them” (52). In all, the article is convincing and well composed, although it could have been better if she had added more statistics to represent her logical standpoint. Goodman’s choice of words- “fast in contrast to slow”, organization structure and simplicity of ideas, prove to be excellent. Also, her effective use of imagery, figurative expression, and logic give the argument the propensity to be accepted by
All that could be heard was the distant wail of an ambulance siren, which rent the bitter evening air like a butcher’s knife through a carcass. It would’ve been hard to believe that only minutes ago the place had been alive with crowds and commotion and excitement; for now it stood empty. It seemed that time itself had stopped: that every clock, timepiece, wristwatch in the world had ceased to tick.
The discipline of public relations is a modern profession which has been in existence for only close to a century; however, it has already taken an important role in the fields of business, government, entertainment and non-profit organizations including educational institutions and healthcare organizations. Public relations professionals are required to have excellent organizational, interpersonal and communication skills and have the ability to persuade the public. It is imperative for PR professionals to effectively communicate with its public in order to establish and maintain a positive relationship. Furthermore, public relations professionals must have the ability to work under pressure and effectively manage crisis which may have detrimental effect on the company and the public it serves. State purpose of paper and an overview of what will be covered in the introduction
In the western society, our linear time structure has caused us to habitually separate time into intervals that consistently continue. The pressure these milestones place on people is enormous -- we are demanded to live life a certain way as there is always a time limit, even on the length of time we have in this world. Although these constraints tend to create the worry that life may not have meaning and bring with them the mystery of death, one must learn to emotionally separate oneself from this structure. Time as we have defined it is merely a human invention; aging and curiousness about the future are natural human instincts but when a man-made structure begins to cast a shadow of doubt on life’s meaning one must take a step back a realize that there is more to life than the ticking of a clock.
Around the world, values are expressed differently. Some people think that life is about the little things that make them happy. Others feel the opposite way and that expenses are the way to live. In Guy de Maupassant’s short story, “The Necklace”, he develops a character, Madame Loisel, who illustrates her different style of assessments. Madame Loisel, a beautiful woman, lives in a wonderful home with all the necessary supplies needed to live. However, she is very unhappy with her life. She feels she deserves a much more expensive and materialistic life than what she has. After pitying herself for not being the richest of her friends, she goes out and borrows a beautiful necklace from an ally. But as she misplaces the closest thing she has to the life she dreams of and not telling her friend about the mishap, she could have set herself aside from ten years of work. Through many literary devices, de Maupassant sends a message to value less substance articles so life can be spent wisely.
Naomi Klein’s article “After the Spill” in the January 2011 edition of Nation magazine discusses a scientific excursion by boat in the northern section of the Gulf of Mexico. According to David Hollander, the marine geochemist from the University of South Florida, the trip’s purpose was to go “fishing for oil” and, if oil was present, to assess its effect on the water and marine life in the Gulf of Mexico (Klein 12).
define our relationship with ?time? to understand post-contemporary society. He places our culture's infatuation with speed into
There are 365 days in a year, 24 hours in a day, 60 minutes in an hour, and 60 seconds in each minute. This vital element to life is often looked over and is thought of to just pass as we go along our days. It’s not something that we usually stop for to think about and examine. To humans, time is seen as useless and easily brushed off, but many don’t realize that it is a crucial and necessary concept that affects our everyday life and could easily live without us.
Seitel, Fraser P. (2007). The Practice of Public Relations (10 Ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Today we live in a world where everything is practically automatic. We can refer to today’s society as the “technologically civilized” society. There’s been a drastic change from the older days till now. As an example, in the past people had to wash and dry dirty dishes by hand, or write a letter to get in contact with someone. Nowadays, we can push a simple button to start the dishwasher, or give that certain someone a phone call or send an email. Technology can provide the benefit of giving us a simpler, stress-free life or it can become a misfortune we face everyday. Unfortunately, today technology has overcome our lives and we have become too dependent on it.
Today, public relations is a complex profession by thousands of thousands of people all the world to practice. Almost all large and small organizations have their own public relations department or they need to outsource their public relations to a company. Public relations practitioners work for schools and universities, companies, governments, professional and trade associations, hospitals, hotels, non-profit charities, and other else more (Grunig, 2001). Therefore, PR is an important department for organizations.
Public relations is everywhere today. It is a practice that has become an important aspect of any business venture. Whether an organization is not for profit, for profit, or governmental, they still need and desire to communicate their purpose within the community and public relations allows this to happen. There are several publics in which the PR practitioner must correspond with and each requires a different means of communication. Internal publics are inside the organizations such as clerks, managers, and stockholders. "External publics are those not directly connected to the organization: the press, government, educators, customers, suppliers, and the community" (Seitel, 2004). Each public plays a key role in the PR of the organization. The many functions of PR can also be categorized based on what purpose they serve the organization.