Speed dial. Fast forward. Instant replay. These frenetic buzz phrases of the end of the millennium compose what James Gleick, author of Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything, calls the "lose-not-a-minute" age.
In an hour-long discussion and book reading attended by an audience of 100 in the Sanford Institute of Public Policy Tuesday, this journalist, writer and columnist for The New York Times Magazine presented the subject of his latest book, the phenomenon of an American society obsessed with saving time.
While Gleick's mention of American culture's compulsive time "saving" practices struck chords of humor with the audience, his description of the extent to which these practices have rapidly changed the way society functions had a serious underlying message.
"We hardly perceive the changing pace of technology... which reflects and conditions a changing pace in our psyche," Gleick said.
He talked about how the acceleration of technology is reflected in the acceleration of human psyches, using an example that is certainly familiar to anyone who lives in the age of the Internet.
"As we drum our fingers on the desk as a weather map takes a few seconds to download, from data received half an hour ago from a satellite in space, we ask, 'Why is this taking so long?'" he said in response to a question from an audience member. "It's staggering how much things have changed."
He continued the connection between technology and psyche by comparing the syntax of commercial items-like instant coffee and instant microwaveable meals-with terms that have come to represent human emotion, like instant affection and instant attraction.
One of his concerns was that modern culture has been transformed from one in which people strove to fill their time to one in which time is guarded, hoarded and counted by the minute. "We live in the buzz," he said.
Gleick said American society has learned to think to the hundredth of a second. From the accelerated pace of movies to the increased concentration of information in TV commercials, America is a culture "where unoccupied time is disappearing."
His tone was light, however, as he mocked some of America's most ubiquitous time-saving tools. Citing planners, lists, files, agendas and organizers, Gleick pointed out that any guru with a self-help book on the bookstore shelves would admit "in a moment of clarity that these filed documents are among the greatest time wasters of all."
He asked his audience, "How much time can a person devote to time-saving?"
In colorful and graceful prose, Gleick read passages from his book that detail some of the devices of a time-saving culture. Books on tape for listening while ironing and answering machines with fast-forward options are devices that he listed as the more humorous manifestations of a society that suffers from "hurry-sickness."
Although Gleick was reluctant to draw a specific theme from his latest book, he pointed out that he was not trying to teach America a lesson with his description of its obsession with time.
"The last thing I want to do is moralize these observations and tell people, 'You must slow down,'" he said.
After all, his books are available on convenient audio cassettes.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.