Clocks

Here I sit surrounded by redundancy. Take devices that tell time for instance. Here at my desk at work, I can see the time on my computer screen and my desk phone. I also have a wristwatch, a mobile phone and an iPod, each of which also shows the time. There’s a clock on the wall behind me too, but that has long been either stopped, or incorrect.

For the most part, these devices differ from each other by a minute or three. I go by the clock on my desk phone for when it’s time to leave for the bus since it runs anywhere from 2 to 4 minutes ahead of the other clocks. Though once I step outside, my watch becomes the guide to what time I think the busses should actually be leaving their parking lot. Who knows which clock they are looking at.

Some of these clocks are set automatically. From a network, atomically? I’m not sure. Some standard time that is somehow transmitted to us anyway. But no matter how many clocks are around us, we’ve no reason to keep them all, there will still be ones we use more than others.

I was reading an article in The Atlantic about how watches are steadily becoming obsolete. That young children no longer recognize pointing to one’s wrist as the universal gesture of asking for the time. That watches will soon be relegated to the realm of the sundial, and that as it is they are used largely as jewelry.

I, for one, am quite attached to my watch, literally. I have several, and I do tend to match them to my outfits, but I do actually use them to tell time too. When I sit at my desk during lunch, reading on my Kindle, I check my watch to see how much time I have left on my break. I could lean over a few inches and see the reading on the deskphone. Or I could pick up my iPod or mobile phone and press any button. But glancing at my wrist is still the most natural response. My watch is there, buckled on my arm, so I don’t even have to remember where I set it down. Or if it’s turned on.

And I feel naked without it. If I leave the house without a watch on my wrist, I still have other ways to see the time. Usually at least two within arm’s reach. When I get in my car, there’s a third. But still I feel lost. Why is that?

The thing is, a watch, fashion aside, has one purpose. It tells the time. The other options make phone calls, play music, contain applications to create and store information, etc. Which device I reach for usually has to do with the fact that I want to do several things at once.

If I want to play a computer game, I can use my iPod, my iPad, my Playstation 3, my desktop computer using games online or downloaded to my machine.

If I want to travel at the same time, the desktop is ruled out. If I want to listen at the same time, there goes the Playstation. (Actually, I think the Playstation has the ability to play MP3s, or download music or something, but I have no idea how. It has too many other functions.) If I want to tweet, facebook or blog while playing my game, I can only do that on my iPod or iPad, except that actually my TV has apps for that now.

If I want to read a book, and I haven’t got a hardcover or paperback at hand, I can download something new on my Kindle, or my iPad, or my iPod... Or my iMac. Does the Playstation do that too? Not sure, but I do know I can watch movies and live baseball, as well as play games on it. And on my iMac. And my laptop. I forgot about that one.

Do I want to do all these things at the same time? I pretty much grew up watching TV and doing something else at the same time; homework, laundry, cooking, eating, reading, grading papers, whatever. Nowadays I routinely check email, text or look something up online while in front of the TV. There’s never any need to feel lost or out of touch.

Right now I’m writing this, and listening to Podcasts (yep, on the iPod). I have a second iPod that I keep in the car at all times. So it’s basically part of my car stereo. Of course there is also radio and a CD player...my car is two months old and I’ve yet to play a CD in there. Does anyone do that any more? The upgraded stereos can get Satellite radio or even stream internet radio! Music from anywhere in the world, beamed down to you in your car, no matter where you are. That’s a long way from having to carefully place the needle on a vinyl record that may only play one song, or at the most half an album. Side 1 or Side 2, remember that?

I just glanced down at my iPod to select a new Podcast and I saw the picture on my screen (it’s a portable photo album too, so is my iPad, my phone, iPhoto, etc.). The new iPods all have cameras on them too as well as the phones. Hardly anything goes undocumented nowadays. But all that stuff that’s getting documented, how do you know what to focus on? Instead of trying to figure out what is going on in any given scene, you have to wonder, what isn’t going on?

I come back to my original thought, wondering why we have all this redundancy. Do I need to have all these devices? Each one has its strengths, its primary function. If I want to take good photographs, I’d rely on an actual camera rather than a device with a camera in it. If I want to read an electronic book (again, physical copy not available), I’d most likely stick with the Kindle. If I want to read my email, I wait until I get home to my iMac where I can see it in full screen html. If I want to listen to the radio, hey I’ll just turn on a radio. Like the one on my nightstand...that also charges and plays my iPod, and wakes me in the morning and oh yeah, tells time. Sigh.