In this video “The Secret Powers of Time,” psychologist
Phillip Zimbardo talks about how time is subjective based on one’s perspective.
According to Zimbardo, people live in one of the “six main time zones:” two on
the past, two on the present, and two on the future. As I watched him explain
each of these types of people, I couldn’t help but associate each category with
people that I know. For example, one living in the past type who lives in their
nostalgic memories is totally my dad in a nutshell since he can’t stop re-telling
stories about the “good old days.” So he would be a “past-positive.” I tend to
fare right in the center since I’m super sentimental, but I also sometimes get
hung up on past regrets. My boyfriend is a present-oriented type, also straddling
that line of distinction between the hedonist that seeks novelty and sensation
and lives for “now,” and its realist type that believes fate has full reign on
his life. As far as those future-oriented, they’re either looking for a pay-off
in their later life on earth, or those of protestant faith are looking to
secure their soul’s salvation in the afterlife.
Bottom line I see in Zimbardo’s talk is that the way we
experience time has much to do with our environment: “shared time perspectives
characterize nations,” he says. In our own American society, it’s hard to debate
this statement. It’s easy to see how despite a few outliers, those in small towns
are associated with slow, easy living while their city counterparts are stereotyped
as “busy-bodies.” How these studies apply to schooling in the digital age is game-changing. With the onset of simulation video games, those students who’ve spent
enough time online find their perception of time digitally rewired. The traditional,
analog classroom is thus finding it more and more impossible to entice the
hedonist addicted little heathens they teach to put off the urges of their
present appetites. This debate dates back to thinkers like Thomas Aquinas, Jean-Jaques
Rousseau, and John Locke in some ways as it pertains to civic education and
childrearing with concern to how to, when to, and if it’s proper to teach
littles to resist hedonism as it is humans’ basic nature. I completely agree
with Zimbardo that “many of life’s puzzles can be solved by simply
understanding our own time perspective and that of others.” This is in line
with some of my most fundamental beliefs that self-reflection either as an
individual, nation, globe, or what have you is a more than necessary first step
for progress. History has proven that everyone and everything is ever-evolving,
but without appropriate awareness of this, our analog school system has little
hope of keeping the attention of students for years to come.
(Image Source: Pixabay Stock Photos)
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