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Are You Busy?


By Birgitte Wistoft and Marie Ørstedholm

Tremendous, no doubt! Everything has to move so fast today that stress has been proclaimed a widespread disease of our time. The demand for speed and precision are, however, not new – at least not in the world of communication.


The Stress History of Communication
We have always felt that we are rushing along,
faster today than yesterday.

Communication between people
has during the last 400 years been taking place
with increased precision and speed.
The telegraph was faster than the letter,
the telephone faster than the telegraph.
If the speed can be increased,
then it MUST be increased!

It affects our perception of time and space:
Weeks, days, hours, and seconds
become still more precious.

Technology does not give us more time.

In the Hands of Nature
For centuries the post rider was
the fastest messenger of society.

He struggled his way ahead in a race against time
across bumpy roads and frozen straits.
A lot of things could go wrong:
A certain storm or a lame horse
was enough to delay the message.
Messages could be on their way for weeks.
The unpredictability of nature
put limits to precision.

During the 18th century
measurements and mileage were imposed
on time and space.
The demands to the ways of communication
increased.

Full Speed Ahead!
With steam power and electricity
people and messages were
transported at new rates of speed.
Steamships and Trains
cleaved through sea and land
without being delayed by storm or
bad roads.
The telegraph and the telephone created
fast communication lines
between the provinces and to abroad.
The world became smaller.

The 19th-century human being experienced
new demands to precision:
Now minutes were also counting.

Online
The mobile rings incessantly,
e-mails are ticking in constantly:
"You’ve got new mail.
Do you want to read it now?"

Technology dictates the rate of communication
and we follow as best we can.
We can communicate day and night
between Roedovre and Rio.
Geographic distances and time differences
play a steadily declining part.

And still we are not deciding the speed.


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