Smartphone Clock app
Watch this iPhone Clock app tutorial to see what features it supports.
We often use the “clock” app on our smartphones without thinking too much about how technology changes the way we experience time. As you watch the video or look at the clock app on your own smartphone, consider the following questions:
What are the benefits of the clock app?
What are drawbacks of the clock app?
How does the clock app affect the flow of my life?
You can consider these same questions as we investigate other and older technologies of time.
Source 1: Timeline
2022, Ryan Smits (Civics of Technology contributor)
Technologies of Time
Time is important in our lives. At school, time seems to control everything. A school year in Texas starts exactly at 8:00am on August 21st and ends on May 27th at exactly 3:00pm. When the bell rings, students are expected to be in their seats and ready to go. Humans invented calendars and units of time like hours, minutes, and seconds to plan our days, but we have ended up regulating our lives to the minute.
As time was standardized across the globe, we created time zones to ensure the time where they lived matched with when the sun was up. Yet, places like China which have one time zone for its entire country even though it is about the same size as the mainland United States which has four time zones. This means that people who live in East China see the sun rise at 5:45am and people who live in West China see the sun rise at 8:30am. Much of our sense of time comes from our relationship to the sun, moon, and the circadian rhythm in our bodies (natural rhythms of feeling awake or sleepy). What happens when the time on the clock is so far off from the rhythm of nature and where the sun is in the sky? Humans have made a lot of decisions about how we should understand time, but we don't really consider: Do we control clocks or do clocks control us?
All the ways we talk about time was made up by people at different points in history. The Ancient Greeks actually had two different words for time. One of those words is Chronos and it is about time that is measured and can be represented by a number like 12:30pm. The other word is Kairos and it is about the right "moment" for something to happen according to how people feel or what is going on. Saying it is bedtime because you are tired would be kairos, and saying it is bedtime because it is 10:00pm would be chronos. In school, kairos is when you're hungry and want to eat lunch; chronos is the hour that lunch is served in the cafeteria. They don't always match up. Time can seem to go slower and take longer in a class that a student is not enjoying but speed up and fly by in one they find enjoyable. Chronos does not change but kairos does.
Of course, kairos and chronos are ideas that humans made up. Humans evolved so that we stay awake during the day and sleep at night. This circadian rhythm takes place over about 24 hours, but it needs the sun to stay on the right track. If a human were to live in a cave without any sunlight or a clock they lose track of time and have a lot of physical and mental problems start happening. If the light of the sun and moon helps humans tell time, why did they invent clocks and other ways to track time?
Some of the earliest efforts at keeping track of time included sundials, water clocks, candles, and incense sticks. These early efforts were used to divide the day into different sections, limit how long speeches could last in courts and government, and set lengths for religious practices, along with many more uses. However, monks in the 12th and 13th centuries wanted more exact reminders for their daily prayers, so they invented the mechanical clock. After that, more and more people started to use mechanical clocks. Clocks started to show up everywhere and the time we measured (chronos) started to become much more important than the time we feel (kairos). Evern though we have the same amount of time people have always had, it's common to feel like we do not have enough time. Each of us might return to the question, do I control time or does time control me?
To continue to investigate the technologies of time, review the sources below and complete one or more of the suggested activities.
This timeline is not comprehensive but includes major developments in timekeeping and how people tell time.
Source 2: How Humans Tell Time Video,
2019, Explore Mode YouTube Channel
Source 3: National Watch and Clock Museum Exhibit
No date, National Watch and Clock Museum Exhibit as curated by National Google Arts & Culture
National Watch and Clock Museum Exhibit
Source 4: Geologist Loses Sense of Time in Cave Article
2017, Larry Getlen in the New York Post
Michel Siffre in 1999 before starting his two-month sojourn in a cave without a phone or a watch
Source 5: Critical Excerpt on Clocks
1992, Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology book by Neil Postman (media theorist)
“Technology shapes the way we look at the world and how we interact. For example, “to a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail.. . . Who would have imagined, for example, whose interests and what world-view would be ultimately advanced by the invention of the mechanical clock? . . . The bells of the monastery were to be rung to signal the canonical [according to the bible] hours; the mechanical clock [see image to the right] was the technology that could provide precision to these rituals of devotion. And indeed it did. But what the monks did not foresee [predict] was that the clock is a means not merely of keeping track of the hours but also of synchronizing and controlling the actions of men. . . By the middle of the fourteenth century, the clock had moved outside the walls of the monastery, and brought a new and precise regularity to the life of the workman and the merchant. "The mechanical clock," as Lewis Mumford wrote, "made possible the idea of regular production, regular working hours and a standardized product." In short, without the clock, capitalism would have been quite impossible. The paradox, the surprise, and the wonder are that the clock was invented by men who wanted to devote themselves more rigorously to God; it ended as the technology of greatest use to men who wished to devote themselves to the accumulation of money.” (Postman, 1992, pp. 14-15)
Activities
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Experience Technologies of Time
Students will create a sun dial or water clock, use an hour glass, or use an analogue clock and compare those to digital smartphone clocks. -
Keep Time Diary
Students can either keep a diary for one day of how they use their time or make estimates about how long they do activities at school and compare that to the clock time.
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Participate in Time Fast
The school, grade level, or class will “fast” from using clocks throughout a day and document their experiences. They will rely on kairos, not chronos. They will consider the benefits and drawbacks of each approach. If students cannot do this activtity at school then they can do so at home.
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Ask Critical Questions
Students will critically inquire into their relationship with time by asking the five critical questions about modern clocks:
1. What does we give up for the benefits of clocks?
2. Who is harmed and who benefits from clocks?
3. What do clocks need?
4. What are the unintended or unexpected changes caused by clocks?
5. Why is it difficult to imagine our world without clocks?