Blog 10

A symbol I experience daily would be a watch or time and the idea of how I manage my time. I tried to think of something out of the ordinary and time was the best idea I could relate to myself. I believe time would still be considered  a symbol. Personally I value my time and I am very time constricted. I have to know what I am doing at a certain time and if my time is disorganized I get very frustrated. Like many other United states citizens we value our time or are a time oriented country. We must have deadlines and expectations around time or numbers. In a sense we as citizens keep our time sacred because we are very keen on making sure we are abiding by a timeline. Time is a symbol because we use it everyday, it has meaning and many people value their work on it. This is a shared idea because as you see in other cultures they do not have strict time procedures. For example, my teacher who is Native American warned us in the beginning of the year that in his culture being on time is not the life or death of me. He said, "relax and just live life on your time" I thought this was an interesting concept coming from an outside perspective. His words were strong and it opened my eyes a little more on how strict we are on time. Especially in institutions are we fixed on time. An example would be in class when it is time to leave students will pack up their belongings and will not give respect to the professor even if he is still teaching. This in other cultures is seen as very rude. I agree and I am one of these victims that are packing their bags but it is just how our culture is. Peter Berger states, "It is important to keep in mind that the objectivity of the institutional world, however massive it may appear to the individual, is a humanly produced constructed objectivity." This is true when it comes to time and relation to United States culture. We put a great emphasis on time and was constructed by us to be time constraint. So it is important to consider other cultures when dealing with time because other cultures may not have the same views as we do.