Where does the time go?

 We were discussing modern times and why people don't seem to volunteer anymore.

There are many reasons and while all can be overcome, it is how we respond to the changing world that will decide if we succeed.

What has changed in the last 40 years, since Den Mothers and Little league coaches had a surplus rather than a shortage?  Having lived through this time, let me throw out some reasons.

1. The 24 hour 7 day a week life.  No longer does the world shut down for Sunday, nor do the TV stations close up shop at 11pm.  With the Internet going full blast, and other forms of electronic communication set for warp speed, there is no structured down time.  Your boss email you at 3 in the morning?  Just because they can't sleep, shouldn't you?  Want to catch that concert you missed?  Before when it was missed - it was done. Now you miss nothing due to delayed streaming and YouTube.  

2.  The self service culture.  Yes online ordering is convenient, but it also takes more time.  Funny about that; we know what we want, but instead of just getting it, we spend hours comparing prices, shopping venders, reading all the reviews, and in the end, after chasing down the delivery , we decide to return it!  Then we go to the store, where we repeat almost the same procedure, except there, much of the time we are the price checker, checkout person (self service), bagger and delivery person - all in the name of convenience.  Shopping has become a end in itself rather than a quick necessity to fill our needs.  And medical forms - now we are working for the health care providers in maintaining our own health records*

3. Self publishers. This blog is an example. I end up writing something once a week, and I have multiple blogs.  But you don't have a blog you say.  What about those 20 posts to Facebook, the 35 responses to others cute cat (or kids) video?  If your phone "screen time" is 2 hours a day , that is 14 hours a week, 728 hours per year!  Now some time is spend answering emails (what did you do before you had a "smart" phone - if it is so smart - why does it not answer your emails for you), but we live in a world of PUSH technology - you open up your Facebook page and there are 30 post waiting for you to read.  Before you would just look at only things you wanted to look for - PULL technology.  

Aside - STOP SENDING ME SURVEYS!  I go to the doctor - get a survey.  I buy something at the store - get a survey.  I look at website - get a survey.  I even got a survey of how I liked a survey!!!!  

Now there are other things that tire us out, distract us from what we should be doing, and in general suck up the time we used to have for free.  What do we do?  How do we claim our lives back?  More to come.....

*Being aware of your health is not a bad thing - filling out the same information over and over because they cannot agree on a common system is another time waster.