In all cultures familiar to me, robbery has been a crime. Accordingly, all such societies have imposed
penalties upon robbers. That of course
presumes that the robbery was reported and the perpetrator was convicted. On
the other hand, failure to report or failure to apprehend robbers renders robbery both a lucrative and comfortable profession that requires no formal
education or training.
History documents that the targets and frequencies of robberies has
varied from age to age. Since ancient
Romans allegedly were paid in salt, salt presumably was stolen then. When coal
was the home heating fuel of choice in the early 20th century, it too was
stolen.
In the 21st century, our precious time is stolen. Contemporary time bandits, many of whom are multi-millionaires and billionaires are organized into a
variety of cartels. A few of these
thieving conglomerates are tech hardware manufacturers, internet providers, and
entertainment producers. A mafia of
others - marketers and similar influence purveyors - assist those who traffic
in time theft.
Today we primarily will address a favorite instrument of time crooks:
personal electronic devices, such as cellphones and computer tablets. These so-called mobile devices have an
addictive allure and permit unprecedented intrusive manipulation by persons
seeking to exploit us. Virtually all
tech hardware manufacturers, internet providers, and entertainment producers
create and disseminate methods and memes to keep us perennially focused on
whatever they are selling. The more they
can do so, the more they earn. Compulsively
attached to their items and agendas, we have little time for personal activities that
occupied us in the 20th century. To cite
one well-publicized and obvious example: We rarely talk at length on the
telephone anymore, and we tend to keep our face-to-face meetings to a minimum. When we must be in the presence of
another flesh and blood person, we often interpose an electronic device between
them and us at every opportunity. Our
electronic hardware, software, and internet are specifically structured to
continually present a never-ending array of enticing stimuli to capture and monopolize our
attention.
If you believe that the time robbers are satisfied with their success,
think again. Consider the research of
Nicholas H. Lurie and his colleagues (2016).
Their paper, Everywhere and at All Times: Mobility, Consumer Decision
Making, and Choice explicitly targets electronic mobile devices and consumer
decision making. They seek to advise on ways to advance strategies to steal our time through mobile electronics
by better understanding mobile ecosystems, their contexts, and the interactions
between the ecosystems, contexts, and the minds of the consumers. To directly quote three of the many questions
that they seek to answer and exploit:
"How does mobility affect cognitive capacity and the influence of
incidental information?"
"Are mobile decision-makers more myopic?"
"How do mobile ecosystem capabilities and pervasivity affect
socially undesirable and personal
choices?"
If Lurie and his group succeed in their quest, electronic hardware,
software, and the internet will be all the more effective in monopolizing your
time. Please note that I am not
condemning all electronic devices and the persons who make, distribute, or use
them. The devices of course can and do
save us time, if used with discretion. My
point is that the "system" promulgates indiscriminate,
continuous, compulsive use.
Every minute of indiscriminate, continuous, compulsive electronic
device use is a minute not spent on anything else. Only you can determine the physical- and
mental-health consequences of your personal, unique electronic device
usage. Do your devices keep you in your
chair rather than moving about? Do the
devices interpose a barrier between you and authentic, in vivo human experiences? On the other hand, do you use devices sparingly
and prudently - think FitBit - in ways that can enhance your health? The choice is yours to make.
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