RSA Animate – “The Secret Powers of Time” by The RSA on Monday, May 24th, 2010 (via comment.rsablogs.org.uk)

Professor Philip Zimbardo conveys how our individual perspectives of time affect our work, health and well-being. Time influences who we are as a person, how we view relationships and how we act in the world. View the full video of Professor Philip Zimbardo’s talk at the RSA.

This video came my way through @cassondra in this Tweet:

RSA Animate –Zimbardo’s talk on The Secret Powers of Time this is the talk I mentioned @Kenekaplan. Enjoy!

I really like the past, present future perspective. I’m not sure we’re all one or the other. I’m a present and future person. My wife seems more a past and future person. The anecdote about Italy cutting itself in half — north and south — is very true, a living example of opposite perspectives/lifestyles create tension in close proximity — but can work together (hopefully)! And the fact that their is no future tense verb in Sicilian dialect is amazing — even the language focuses on past and present.

This got me thinking about other stories and themes of how technology is impacting human behavior for better or worse.

My team at Intel have been talking about the Hourglass Syndrome and how many of us want better performing computers because we hate to wait.   A survey commissioned by our team revealed that many people lose 3 days a year “waiting” on their technology.  Here are two tongue-in-cheek videos about Hourglass Syndrome:

Here are a few other related stories I’ve read recently that show that many people are more concerned about the impact of technology on our lives, and behaviors:

An Ugly Toll of Technology:  Impatience and Forgetfulness in The New York Times (June 6, 2010)

Our Clutterned Minds, a New York Time Book Review on “The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains” by Nicholas Carr (May 27, 2010)

Your Brain on Computers — Hooked on Gadgets, and Paying a Mental Price in The New York Times(June 6, 2010)

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