An interesting perspective from Richard R. Gaillardetz*:

“Hans Bernard Meyer claims that the clock may be the most important machine of modern technology.  The influence of the clock in Western civilization is, ironically, closely tied to the monastery and the calling of monks to work and prayers.  Until the late thirteenth century, the principal clocks in the monastery were either sundials or water clocks, both of which kept time by careful alignment with the rhythms of the natural order.  With the advent of the mechanical clock in the fourteenth century time became separated from both the internal and external rhythms to which those in premodern times had to align themselves.

Add to the mechanical clock the advent of satellites, the telephone, and supersonic travel and we can see how dramatically modern technology has transformed our experience of time.  Once time can be measured in independent units apart from the consideration of internal or external rhythms, it appears to be ‘under our control.’  We are encouraged to ‘make the most of our time,’ or to ‘use time wisely’ as if it were one more commodity.  As a commodity, time becomes something that must be managed and not wasted . . . we no longer know how to luxuriate in the present because we are obsessed with technologically ‘banking’ our time for some never quite realized future ‘time of enjoyment’ . . . computer technology has given us the notion of ‘multitasking’ . . . what it does not do is force us to consider the real relationships that obtain among the various tasks being undertaken.  In multitasking we become better ‘jugglers,’ but we do not thereby achieve the wisdom that comes from a grasp of the whole.” (28-30)

More thoughts on time in the future.

*Gaillardetz, Richard R. Transforming Our Days: Spirituality, Community and Liturgy in a Technological Culture.  New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 2000.