Day 318 of the Calendar Year

Internet Time has emerged as the gold standard for compressing time. When we say something is on Internet Time, we mean that it will be done in a much shorter cycle or period than we would normally expect. Thus, a year of regular time will be 9 months or perhaps 6 months on Internet Time. Things do not last as long on the Internet, things happen faster on the Internet, fame and fortune pass more quickly on the Internet, life is faster on the Internet. Life before the Internet was mostly 9-5; life is now 24-7. On the Internet, you can send and receive mail within minutes seven days a week, 24 hours a day. You can get legal, medical, financial or personal advice any time of the day and any day of the week. The Internet is never out or on sick leave, vacation or busy. You can buy and sell within minutes on Craig’s List and you can achieve instant fame on YouTube or MySpace.

We once thought that a New York minute was quick but it has been replaced as a quick standard by the Internet. The Swatch Company has even tried to define a system of Internet time. In the Swatch system, the current Internet Time is the same all over the World (no time zones or daylight saving time adjustments). There are some real pluses and minuses to this system. The biggest plus being that no time conversions are necessary since it is the same time everywhere. This might seem peculiar but it makes sense when we are all on the Internet because day and night no longer matter. We do our transactions on cyber time. Day and night time do not matter on cyber time.

Are you Internet savvy? Have you taken advantage of the Internet as a way to increase your productivity and personal effectiveness? Alternatively, are you sick of emails, spasm, hackers, viruses and expectations for service and replies almost instantaneously? Ironic that a system with so much potential could also become such a nightmare for many of us! How has the Internet changed your life? Has the Internet affected your perception of time? Has it been for the better or for the worse?