How Technology Affects Our Experience of Time Present, Past, and Future (Part 1)
Partly influenced by McCarthy and Wright’s work on spatio-temporality in the Three Threads of Experience (and some of John Dewey’s work on Model of Human Action), I started thinking about how technology affects the human experience of time across different factors like cognition and emotion; and if more technology can be created specifically with the goal of purposefully affecting this temporal experience of life. To think through this, I divided time into 3 basic categories: past, present, and future. Then I made the following conclusion: we can analyze and categorize existing technology based on it’s temporal affects and relationship to human behavior, emotion, and cognition. We can also develop new technology in the same sense, to purposefully enhance (or diminish) our temporal experience of life.
I haven’t fully explored or written all my thoughts on this yet, but I wanted to throw the first raw thoughts out there. It would probably take a research paper to fully explain this, and perhaps I will do that one day (if someone hasn’t done this yet). For now I will introduce the 3 categories of time and explain what I mean. I will focus mainly on the “present” category.
The Present
Technologies in this category affect our experience of life in the present. They are concerned with what we are doing at the moment, who is around us, where we are, and what we desire in that moment. A majority of technology falls within this category since humans fundamentally exist, experience, and have the most direct influence in matters that fall within the present moment.
I believe more technology can be intentionally created to enhance our experience of time — time past, time present, and time future.
Technology that affects our experience of the present can also affect our perception of the past and the future. Sometimes our experience of the past and perception of the future can also come into play in experiencing the present. We might reflect upon the past, use a knowledge from the past, actively reference a moment from the past. We might also predict the future, plan for the future, or perceive (and even emote, or have a feeling) on the future. In other words, experiences in the present are not exclusive from past or future experiences — past and future can influence the experience of the present, and the present can influence our perception of the past and future. This interweaving of these 3 temporal categories in human experience of time is woven into our technologies; and I am not certain it is always intentional or purposeful. But I believe more technology can be intentionally created to purposefully enhance our experience of time — time present, time past, and time future.
Example #1: Rena booking a hotel room for her next week’s visit to Atlanta for a conference.
Rena is using an online booking system to book a hotel room for a future reservation is an experience that contains the 3 interwoven categories of time. In the present: she is trying to book a hotel room right now without breaking the bank. In the past: she relies on others’ past experiences of hotels and her own past experience of certain hotel brands. In the future: she needs this hotel room next week and needs to assess how her night will be like, and how far she might have to travel to and from the conference and restaurants nearby. So by the time she books the ★★★-star hotel room with pretty decent reviews, she has perceived her future to be comfortable. And based on her past experience staying at this specific hotel brand, she feels comfortable with the current decision and future experience.
Example #2: GPS Navigation
GPS navigation with traffic information uses present knowledge of the road conditions to inform the driver of a possible future experience to avoid.
The Past
These technologies help us reflect upon the past. They bring the past to the present. They sometimes enable us to relive the past, to strength our present by reminding us of past experiences, or to consider the future by reminding of a past experience. Since humans mainly live in the present, technology can be used to help highlight important experiences of the past to inform a present or future experience.
In a future post, I will address this some more and share examples.
The Future
It can be difficult to envision something that has not happened but we can use previous experiences and common knowledge and laws to construct an image of the future. Businesses that focus on insuring our future can capitalize on this (e.g. insurance companies).
In a future post, I will address this some more.
Conclusion
Consider the following few examples of technologies and their relationship to time, keeping in mind that the full list includes every technology (I believe that every technology has some affect to the human experience of time).
Task management apps, calendar and event apps, “write to future me” apps, Memoir app, cameras, Instagram, Snapchat, CRM applications, business insights applications, predictive analytics, weight loss applications, and many more.
The conclusion I would like to make, for right now, is that technology developers and researchers can more intentionally develop new technology to purposefully enhance (or diminish) our temporal experience of life.
These are pretty raw and unedited thoughts that I am doing an exercise of literally thinking out loud with. To read more on a related topic, see McCarthy and Wright’s work on spatio-temporality in the Three Threads of Experience. I hope to write some more on this, or at least explore research or work that has tried to more intentionally connect how people experience time through technology.
