TIME: A Cultural Matter

Why is it that every culture has it’s own sense of time? Many sociologist have studied this phenomenom and there isn’t any answer. The theories are related to lots of factors like history, economic situation and education. But the fact that the concept of time have changed in different parts of the world is undeniable and is not nescesary to be a sociologist to notice it. If you compare two countries like The United States of America (the most powerful country at the present time) with Argentina (my country), you will notice big differences at the use of time. The different concepts of time these countries have, has affected the way each population lives, even though both are Western Societies. The fact that US is a first world country is one of the most important reasons why Americans have this feeling towards time. Most Americans are thought time is a resource which you can make profit of. If you spend your time correctly you will probably succeed in life. For Americans success has to do with personal belognings like money, cars and luxury devices. So they spend all their time trying to get those kind of things, and find happiness. In a way Americans seem too materialistic and this has to do with their economic system: Capitalism. The famous slogan ‘time is money’ is the result of these two factors, and lots of Americans are convinced of this. If you waste time, you waste money. As Americans think that time is constantly running , they try to save it whenever it is possible by organizing their daily activities by making plans or schedules. In this way, they know what to do at every moment, by following their agendas. Most of them do not have spare time because they have appointments and meetings all the time. If you go to the US you may be surprised because everybody is trying to be on time. This leads us to the next point: punctuality. So far we have seen how important time is for Americans, they don’t like to waste it and neither that someone do it as well (what I am trying to say is that you can’t make somebody waste his/her time because your fault), and that is why punctuality is so important for them. To be a respectuful person you have to be punctual, otherwise you are being rude to the other person. At making them wait for you, you are wasting their time. Here we have another slogan Americans say a lot: ‘Don’t make me waste my time’. One of the biggest problems that foreign bussinesmen have in US is to get accustomed to Americans’ punctuality. Another way Americans have, to save time, is using communications media that provide the inmediate response they are looking for. That is one reason why internet is so important in US because it gives rapid answers. For example instead of going to the store to buy a phone, they buy it by internet, and they don’t have to waste time going to the store. All these attitudes Americans have, in order to save time, leads them to be stressed, anxious, dependent on clocks, plans and schedules. On the other hand, Americans are very organized and have been one of the most powerful countries in the world from the last 100 years aproximatly. My culture is very different. I would first say that in my country there are many poor people and I don’t think they have much time to think about what time is, because most of them are more worried about getting food for the following day. Most people in my country do not think as time as a resource. They think that time is the ‘thing’ that makes the needles move in the clock. This gives you an idea of how Argentinians do not care much about time. This happens more in teenagers who are not very concerned about their future, and live day by day. When you grow up things change a little bit, but not much. If you ask an Argentinian what he is going to do the next ten years, the answer will probably be ‘how am I suposed to know?’. an Argentinian will say this because they believe no matter what your plans are fate or God (whatever you want to call it) may change your life. The fact that Argentinians do not pay attention to time, makes them more relaxed but sometimes even lazy or inconsiderate with other persons that may be are in a hurry. For example when you go to a bank to pay a bill and the cashman takes an eternity with every person in the line. In consequence you spend an hour just paying a simple bill. Everyday things like these happen all the time in Argentina and no one seems to worry much, because it is adapted to our culture.But the most surprising way of how Argentinians use time is the following fact. It is all related to priorities. Depending on what your priority of the day is, will modify your plans in order to accomplish your priority. For example I have been told to write an essay for homework two weeks before the deadline. The most intelligent thing to do is to spend a little part of every day for the following weeks in order to hand it in on time. But as I am a typical Argentinian, I will wait until the last moment to do it, like the day before deadline. So that day, no matter what plans I have, they are going to be cancelled to do the homework,because that’s the main priority of the moment. The funny thing is we do it unconsciously because we postponed work for other priorities. It will seem that Argentinians live by ‘whatever I have to do today, I will leave it for tomorrow’. But in defense of Argentinians I will say, going back to the priority point, that sometimes Argentinians value personal relations much more than Americans, because if it is possible to change their plans in order to have a drink with a friend they will do it without thinking. The value of personal relationships is also related with time and success. Many peolpe in my country think that if you are succsessful but you don’t have friends or family to share it with or free time to enjoy, you are not successful at all.
I would say that it is possible that if you want to be a powerful, well-oreganized country you should follow the USA’s sense of time, but if you prefer to be with friends and enjoy little things of life you should be more flexible with time, as Argentinians are. Although Argentina sounds better, it has many problems to solve and, a little of America’s sense of time, could change this situation. The best thing to do is to make a balance between these two cultures, to not be lazy but neihter be your clock’s slave.

Fernando López Rubio