How do you think the creation of standardized time zones affected the way people saw the world?
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Brandon Davis
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How do you think the creation of standardized time zones affected the way people saw the world?
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congo96, 
nytsuen, 
eddietastic, and 26 others are discussing.
roypat 3:37 am on February 20, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
It’s interesting to think that the spread of railroads necessitated the creation of standardized time zones. In a certain sense, it was the start of globalization both in the sense of increased (and faster) international trade by way of coal/steam trains, but also in the sense of uniformity and internationally understood time zones. This may have affected the way that people saw the world by inspiring a bit more cooperation and empathy between nations & people.
jonl 11:13 am on February 20, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
What’s most interesting to me is that the more we (humanity) progress, the faster time seems to go by. If we’re inventing all these things to make our lives easier, why do we still find ourselves overworked? Busier than ever. I think the time zones made people acknowledge that our world is bigger and it probably clicked on them that time (based on the sun) isn’t constant through out. I imagine people would always refer to what time it was in their hometown when referring to time (eg. “It’s 5 o’clock in London now”) Standardizing things definitely helped people get around and stay oriented with the day.
hannahepperson 12:02 pm on February 28, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
the paradoxes of time! it is funny, isn’t it, that with all the advancements we’ve made to ‘make life easier,’ as you say, we have become increasingly overwhelmed, overstimulated, bogged down. I think this has to do with our libertarian ideals as they pertain to the market economy … we’re so exhausted by choice these days, that our consumer freedoms seem much more a drain and a burden then they do an enviable liberty…
hannahepperson 12:32 pm on February 28, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Also, you might like Ivan Illich, who writes a lot about ‘speed’ ‘acceleration’ etc, and how it relates to society in general. I recall him having written that “High speed is the critical factor which makes transportation socially destructive.” Anyway, you might find it relevant, and he’s also an incredibly engaging writer 🙂
sharonshi 4:07 pm on February 20, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I think the creation of standardized time zones affected the way people saw the world in that it allowed them to keep track and like roypat said from above, encourage the cooperation of people living in different time zones. I agree with his point in that having standardized time zones allows people to recognize the time difference within different regions and give them the ability to fully manage their time and effectively organize their day. It gave people more structure of their life, and in that the control they needed to make the most of it.
alyumam 5:27 pm on March 4, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I see and understand that the standardization of time, has effectively helped people to manage and organize themselves for common goals, as it also has helped to coordinate people and places from different areas, something that, as you recognize, creates a full management of time. I just wonder how this is coordinated with other cycles, such as the one the earth has.
I found this article looks very interesting:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15546124
msmith92 6:10 pm on February 20, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I had never thought about the origins of standard time zones before but it makes sense that they came with industrialization. As different places started to become more interconnected via railroad, trade, etc., there needed to be a common time scheme to hold people accountable for getting things done by a certain time. This change probably actually resulted in people being more impatient as standard time left no excuses for lateness. Similarly, it probably also played a huge role in ingraining the idea of efficiency as a priority, something that is so commonplace in modern society.
katehaxt 1:26 pm on February 22, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I think the transition to standardized time probably started to give people a new feeling of control over the environment. Working to the sun and working to the clock are different experiences and I guess the rise of standard time might have widened the gap between people and nature and changed the power dynamic.
jenniefrench 5:44 pm on February 26, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I find two ideas particularly interesting about the creation of standardized time zones. First, that it was about control and productivity. It was a logical thing to do and it encouraged more people to work in a similar way for similar “benefits.” I agree with katehaxt it was a way for humans to control the environment and nature. The second thing I find interesting is that it also encourages us to look at the earth as a whole. While we may live in different time zones, the planet and us are all revolving around the same clock. Universal time standards linked the whole world into one being. That being said, we still have so much trouble understanding how what we do over ‘here’ effects other people over ‘there.’
youngblutt 10:21 pm on February 26, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Standardized time allowed time to become a commodity with measurable value. It could then be used to propel an individual up the socio-economic ladder by effectively exploiting units of production versus units of labor time. Capitalists atop the ladder became “outside of time”, while labourers became more restricted by the structures that standard time made necessary. For industrialists and workers alike, time became a casual condition of production which became a casual condition of money; and money of capital which became social power.
For only a short while after standardized time people could still understand the relationship between time and nature. Constructed structures of time were developed and used by the capitalist elites to control workers and other means of production by controlling when these commodities were expected to do certain things.
paige 12:11 am on February 28, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I think this is so interesting! It had never crossed my mind that time had to be created, but so obvious now that I’m aware of it. I think that standardized time zones must have standardized the world as well. Everywhere was working in relation to everywhere else. In some ways it takes the authenticity out of individual areas. No longer were they completely independent, they were all coming together. This does create a sense of a smaller world because it homogenizes the geographical areas in this one way.
hannahepperson 1:14 pm on February 28, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
The standard timetable literally turns time into a gridwork … instead of moving fluidly, time is measurable in right angles, columns, pixels, and becomes disjointed from the natural cycles and flows of time. In some ways, marriage to this kind of regimented time alienates people from both their own instinctual cycles, and also the much slower, unrelenting cycles that occur in the natural world. Imposing on Nature a standardized temporal grid with the expectation of Nature’s compliance sets us up for a lot of conflict and difficult. Doing so has certainly spurred on a whole lot of technologic innovations, many of which have not brought us nearer to our humanity, our world or ourselves, but rather distanced us from those things. Kate said it pretty succinctly, I think.
Anyway, I was just reading Rilke’s ‘spanish trilogy,’ where he contrasts the cacophony and “chaos” of the City with the Shepherd who is “unhurried” in his step. Rilke offers a poetic reflection which resonates with a lot of the material in this course, and even more particularly with this conversation about time and its complex relation to space … It’s worth a read.
erikaw 5:03 pm on February 28, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Before timezones were implemented individuals would probably not often think of others on the planet and most often be focussed on their own communities (because there was no means of communication that would connect them with those across the globe). When timezones were regulated it would bring a sense of the world to every individual and how time and the earth’s rotation affects every community on the planet slightly differently.
Joyce Lin 8:53 pm on February 28, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
The creation of time zones gave people a global sense and connection to the world beyond the local. Standardized time zones allow us to have a sense of our own lives in relation to the lives in another part of the world. This is interesting especially when we consider the power relationship that is embedded within this standardized system (ex. even the Prime Meridian at Greenwich for example, is not by random). Megacities were developed with influence of standardized time zones; the location of Tokyo, New York and London ensures that there is one market that is opened at any one time when another city may be resting. Standardized time zones also added to the growing sense that humans have control over nature and have power directly over it. As a consequence, we can further control and adapt other functions that are related to the initial variable that is controlled.
emilym 11:48 am on February 29, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I think the creation of standardized time zone changed human perception about the world we live in quite a bit. It opened up human horizons to view the world as smaller and more accessible. Now we all look at a clock many times a day and regulate our lives around standardized legislated time, but in creating an artificial way to measure our conception of time and how is moves, we’ve stopped thinking about time in it’s connection with nature. Before clocks, people made sun dials and counted time locally through sunrises and sunsets. We have completely overridden that concept of time and it’s connection to nature and instead have become obsessed with increasing productivity in every hour of every day, completely disregarding the cycle of the sun.
natashap 11:49 am on February 29, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I think the creation of time zones made the world seem both smaller and larger. Larger in the sense that people could relate to others in different areas of the world more easily since time zones were brought on by train travel and the need to standardize times. It made the world seem smaller since now it was easier to get places that were further away, so you were less limited by where you lived. So the creation of time zones and the technology that led to them needing to be developed played a large role in the globalization of the world.
Keaton Briscoe 10:03 pm on February 29, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I think time zones forced people to understand that the world is a much larger place than anticipated. Time zones enabled people to obtain a greater concept with the rest of the world. However, the creation of standardized time eliminated peoples connection with nature (the day was powered by the sun) and focus more on productivity and how much time was left to produce. The sense that people now had a control over nature was introduced, instead of nature (the sun) having control over how people ran their day to day lives.
bgibson 3:53 pm on March 1, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I think the creation of standardized time zones would have spurred a lot of discussion about globalization and trade. While local time had been the norm, and certainly everyone had a good grasp of time and clocks and how the time can be a commodity, standardized time may have helped people understand how much closer the world had become. Britain only experiences a one hour difference between Western Europe and two hours from Eastern Europe.
brenden 4:15 pm on March 1, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I believe that the creation of standardized time zones was a fundamental development of civilization. Before it was implemented, time was something determined rurally, a symbol of rural production and economy and it demonstrates the disconnect between different communities and countries during that time. The industrial revolution and the spread of globalization made it necessary for the world to operate on standardized time. The result was increased productivity and a feeling of connectedness between the cities and countries of the world. Standardized time zones have effectively made the world a smaller place by connecting cities and countries and allowing the spread of globalization.
sampethick 6:26 pm on March 1, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Standardized time zones probably created the feeling of a sort of unity with a larger group of people. What I mean by this is that there might have been a sort of feeling of connectedness because everyone in your time zone is now running on the same schedule as you. It’s interesting to imagine not having this; it was probably a lot more relaxing! I think that in creating this form of unity through standardized time zones a sense of modernity was also created. Today, standardized time zones can be critically helpful. They’re helpful because we are now so connected to the world around us; shipping goods around the world, travelling, world politics, that is important to know what time it is in other places. The standardization of time zones opened up a lot of doors economically I would imagine, and now that I’m thinking about it the standardized time zones are a big part of the industrialization of the world.
jaydee 6:37 pm on March 1, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I think the underlying idea behind the development and use of standardized time zones is that humans felt they could exert and use time itself. Time, once fit into little boxes to be used, become another commodity, in the same way land has. In fact, the idea that time became a ordered “gridwork” as, hannahhepperson puts it, quickly elicits the memory of my reaction to the picture of the farm field from the Wall 4.3. And this idea that time is made up of small chunks to be bartered with is so true. I always look and plan out my day by hourly sections. I say to myself, “If I work for 4 hours from 2 to 6, I can have one or two hours for myself”, as if everything requires a strict schedule.
tsung 7:46 pm on March 1, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
The creation of the standardized time zones is inevitable with the onset of Capitalism. Time essentially became a commodity “time = money.” In terms of commerce, we see that shipping, or travelling is essentially made easier. The time zones allow us to track things, know where they are, what is happening and above all, connects us together which is the essence of today’s globalized world. In general, the standardized time zone crafted efficiency that goes with the world bureaucratic structure. Although some of us may view this creation as enrichment, some will disagree. Agrarian farmers for instance would disapprove of this modern establishment. They wanted to preserve the agriculture life and go by “gods time” or the sun that was a part of traditional life.
lcoulthard 9:26 pm on March 1, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
The standardized time zones were necessary for the development of capitalism, and their creation helped to make the world much “smaller”. This is because one of the crucial aspects of capitalism is the need to shorten production times. The development of time zones and hourly wages helped to organize and reduce production time. The railways that developed alongside time zones also helped to shorten production times by facilitating faster transport of materials or finished goods. With all this in mind, peoples view of the world was shrinking – not only because they could get on a train and cover more ground than before, but because it allowed for exotic goods and materials to be brought in from greater distances.
midara 12:36 am on March 2, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I think the creation of standardized time zones somewhat marks how science and technology have come to change people’s live gradually and completely. Before the invention of clocks there were and are tons of way to tell what time of a day is, such as observing the sun and shadows, hourglass and so on; but clocks and creation of standardized time zone represent that people have a more accurate way to calculate the time of the day, and they have the knowledge to do so. That is why they are aware of the difference of timezones in different areas of a country (or even in different countries) (which, I guess if they cannot measure the time accurately in the past, travelling in ships and trains will mess their sense of timing up). Also, the creation of standardized time zones also changes people’s life by joining them globally as a whole. In my point of view, the feeling of people living in different time zones in the same planet is pretty amazing and that draws my attention to how this creation will bring people’s thought together as a whole.
kimzzzy 6:56 am on March 4, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Creating a standardized time zone will allow trade to be more efficient. People can coordinate better about travelling to places and working schedules. Also, people may work a more during a standardize time zone because the people in places with longer nights and shorter days may be required to work more now when they can compare their working hours with the people in the opposite daylight situations.
Also standardization allows people in different parts of the world tofeel more connected with on another. They have a better prediction of what the people in different parts of the world are doing at a particular time. This again gets work done in a more efficient way when it comes to having to work / trade with people from other parts of the world
alyumam 5:43 pm on March 4, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I find the creation of a standardized time zones as a two faced characteristic of the industrial revolution. Yes, it has helped people to organize themselves for different common goals, local and global, creating positive developments and technological advances; but it also has affected negatively the way people see the world, creating an alienation from local environments and therefore affecting them. I found the next article from the BBC very interesting, it talks about a shift in this standardization of time. is interesting: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15546124
yitailiu 8:27 pm on March 4, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I think that the creation of standardized time zones was a step towards globalization and made it easier for international communication and cooperation. Before the standardization of time zones, people usually see their lives at a local scale. Now people would be more aware of the diversity of the different countries around the world, and yet see a shortened distance between the continents.
Danni 12:42 am on March 5, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
It is easier for people from the different zones of latitudes, but from the same zones of longitude, to keep track of the time changes according to the exposures of sun light at the same angle. It helps people predict the change of time during their travelling. I think it is essential to have this standardization especially in regard to economy (i.e. stock market, and banking). The trading time in some specific location is highly essential to be kept track accurately. For example, Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) Index, the starting time and closing time are strictly according to EST. In addition, the standardization of time zones also help people getting use to the daily life. If, for example, people travelled from Vancouver, Canada to London, England, but we have 9 a.m. in the morning in Vancouver, instead of 4 p.m. in the morning. In this way, there will be lots of confusion disturb our daily life.
phoebe 12:46 am on March 5, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Standarized time zones allowed people across greater distances to better coordinate together in cooperation. For example, when the railroad annouced that it would be departing at 8:30 am and arriving the next day at 3:00 pm, it would be neccessary for both places to have the same time in order for everything to run smoothly. Trains also often use the same tracks going in different directions at different times. If time was not coordinated carefully, train crashes would be commonplace. While the creation of a standarized time was certainly more efficient for manufacturers and businessmen, it also placed a lot of stress on workers that were now paid by the hour or needed to finish work by a certain time.
eddietastic 4:38 pm on March 5, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Standardized time zones are very important with the rise of globalization because business for one is not taking place only in one time zone. With the increase of globalization and people becoming closer and closer there is a need for time to also be changed.
nytsuen 3:08 pm on March 8, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Before, they lived based on their own time determined by sunlight.I believe that standardized time zones helped people realize how big the world really is and how people are spread over vast areas of land. In a sense, it was nationalizing. At the same time, time zones helped make the world smaller. People from opposite ends of time can now communicate, travel and work with each other which helped with the process of globalization.
congo96 11:56 am on April 9, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
In standardizing time and connecting places trough railroads the world could be seen as one continual space.. You could now plan to meet someone the same day at a set time.. I think it connected people in a way knowing that they were living at the same time that you were if in the same time zone.