31 Hours a Day

There was some research released recently based on a study in the United Kingdom and in the United States that found that typical urban middle class people now have so many timesaving devices that they can squeeze into 24 hours the same quantity of tasks that used to take 31 hours only ten years ago. Multitasking has dramatically increased our productivity, and the result is that we are squeezing more and more into our 24.

And this multitasking doesn't end with our work day. We are multitasking at home, sometimes carrying on as many as three tasks at once (watching TV, talking on the phone, and internet social networking). For the first time in history, eating has taken second place to internet activities in the evening at home.

When I first read this study (admittedly while surfing the internet), I immediately wondered about the social consequences of our evolution. It only makes sense that the more we compress into our day, the more something else is going to be forced out. I have a feeling that it is our relationships that are being strangled. Clearly, Americans are spending less time face to face with our friends and family in meaningful connectedness. Social networking and mobile communications give the impression that we are connected, but they are a poor substitute for the flesh and blood intimacy that our humanity requires -- and the relationships that we were created to have.

Thirty-one hours a day sounds like a formula for disaster. And while employers are rewarding our abilities to multitask, the cost to families, friendships, and wholeness of life maybe taking its toll.

I enjoy the simplicity of life spent with people. To love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves seems to be at the center of the message of Jesus. Love is pretty shallow when it's reduced only to words or an idea, but it takes on a greater depth in the time spent with the people we care about. If we're going to sacrifice anything to "get ahead", it seems to me that we ought to be sacrificing some of those things consuming the quantity of our existence in order to ensure some quality to our life.

"Men for the sake of getting a living forget to live" (Margaret Fuller).

"We've learned how to make a living, but not a life; we've added years to life, not life to years" (George Carlin).

"Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life" (Proverbs 4:23).